I'm surprised no one has yet addressed your basic assumption fallacy!
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Hey... I've been on AS for a while now.. learning the ropes and all the nuances
Still some learning to do!
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.... I was wondering if there's a way to put an unlimited bid on a snipe... ie... if I wanted it as such that when the snipe went in, it would be for the NEXT bid increment
Hmmm...even if you could do this, it would NOT guarantee the following...
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and thus produce a win every time?
WRONGGGGG!!! The NEXT thing you need to read up on is PROXY BIDDING.
Your proposal seems to be you want AS to look at an auction say 5-7 seconds before the end, add 1 bid increment to the current winning bid, and place a bid in your behalf for that amount. Your (incorrect) assumption is that you will consequently WIN the auction with that strategy. You are not taking into account ebay proxy bidding. The winning bid displayed on any auction at anytime is NOT necessarily the MAXIMUM amount that bidder has bid, it only represents the minimum part of the winning bidder's bid to beat the NEXT highest bidder in the auction.
Maybe an example would help? 3 bidders interested in an auction set with minimum opening bid of $1. For the sake of simplicity in this example, we'll say the minimum valid bid increment at this level is $1. Bidder #1 places an opening bid of $10. The auction would display Bidder#1 having the winning bid of $1. Bidder#2 places bid for $2. Then the auction would display Bidder#1 having the winning bid of $3. Bidder#3 is using your proposed strategy -- he sees the auction's winning bid of $3, and at 5 seconds before the end of the auction places a bid for 1 bid increment more than the current winning bid, or $4. The auction would then end with Bidder#1 listed with the winning bid at $5 (which you hopefully note is STILL not the maximum amount the winning bidder bid!). In other words, this is a LOSING strategy, even if some software service were to do it for you.
What most of the other replies addressed was another strategy that your question seemed to allude to -- nuclear bidding. The crux of this strategy is to bid a hugondously large amount -- well OVER the actual value of the item -- and allow the next highest bidder to determine our winning bid. Bad assumptions in THIS strategy is that the losing bidders will bid no more than reasonable approximations of the actual real value of the item (just like you did?!?) or that you WON'T run up against someone else using the same strategy (and if this is a GOOD bid strategy, why wouldn't you???).
The strategy most of us here subscribe to is what was expressed by Chatter -- set a snipe for the maximum you're willing to pay (because you very well MAY end up paying it!), forget it, and let AS do its thing. If you win, it won't be for more than you're willing/able to pay. If you lose, you'll be scratching your head wondering why ANYONE would pay so much for the item!
With the recommendation to do further reading on proxy bidding (maybe someone will post appropriate links?), I hope this longwinded post helps!
Can't say that I recall the last time I was seranaded on this forum! 