I tend to agree with the sentiment that you should just post a starting price that represents the least you are willing to accept for an item.

That being said, I have been an active seller on ebay and I have noted that a few times, the use of a reserve price does seem to play onto the psychology of bidding. In fact, a few items that did not sell, despite re-posting several times at a fixed price, have sold for more than I was originally asking when i entered them as a auction with reserve. Sometimes you will see a buyer enter 20-50 individual bids, each one increasing the bid price by the minimum available increment until they are above the reserve. I have to assume that they allowed their curiosity as to what the reserve price overwhelm the limit they were willing to spend at the outset of the bidding adventure.

Keep in mind, eBay loves to offer incentives on these sort of auctions by offering discounts on posting costs and end value costs when listing an item with a $0.00 starting amount. With an item of higher value it is often worth it to save a few points on eBay's vig.

Bottom line, I will bid what I value the item as and move on if the reserve is above that.