Sara's point was that if you had not bid first the other fellow wouldn't have known that you were interested and therefore wouldn't have started probing for your max bid. By the time your snipe was placed there would not be enough time for him to counter-bid.
The only time I bid "in the open" is to kill a "Buy It Now" situation so that the item will be around for a possible snipe at the end of the normal auction period. I refuse to bid more than once on a "Buy It Now" item with a reserve on it. If my bid isn't enough to meet the reserve I'll let others find out what the reserve is and decide to bid or not accordingly.