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gixen is what i've used for years...I have debated on adding their mirror service for $6 because then you can do group sniping and that is useful when you want to bid on multiple items from the same seller..so if you lose one you don't go after the others

I JUST started using that on gixen. You don't need the Mirror service. I'm not sure what Mirror provides but you can still do groups. Grouping would've helped in the situation Jwest described. Look into that dude!

and this is from gixen's site, good summary of the pros on sniping:

Why snipe?

As eBay is using proxy bidding, legitimate question is - why snipe at all? If you submit your bid at eBay early, and if your maximum bid is higher than that of a sniping user, you will win regardless. While this fact is true, user experience and even some scientific research conducted says that sniping does pay. Here are some reasons why.

Your early bid is an important information for other bidders. This specially applies to rare items, value of which is directly determined by interest. Other bidders may realize true value of an item only after you submit your bid. By bidding early, you are helping them, and that's against your own interest.
Bidders tend to be overly optimistic, and therefore enter value lower than what they are really ready to pay. Leave them time to bid again after being outbid, and you will end up paying more, or lose the item you are bidding on.
Bidders get excited during auctions, and are often ready to bid way more than what is rational.
Ever been victim of shill bidding? It's a fraudulent practice used by some sellers to inflate the price of an item by using another eBay ID to bid on their own item (and retracting bid if they go too far. Be especially careful if bidders' IDs are kept private). If you use sniping, fraudulent sellers have no time to conduct shill bidding.