A final suggestion would be to have some kind of auto-bid or proxy-bid, where John K, for example, could hold hidden bids for someone with specific rules for bidding. Let's say user BIDDER wants to bid up to ฿70, start bidding when minimum price exceeds ฿20, and bid ฿1 over current low bid. When first bid exceeds ฿20, John could announce "Bid by proxy for BIDDER: 1@฿21". Later, when ฿21 falls off the list, and let's say the new lowest bid is ฿25, John could again announce "Bid by prody for BIDDER: 1@฿26"
This would put a burden on John, though, so it would require a tip or service fee, but could also ease the frentic last-minute buying and could give people a fair shot up to the level they are comfortable bidding.
.b
I hope I'm not the only one to say "fuck that idea", pardon my language.
I think having the auctioneer manage your bidding for you is a ROTTEN idea. If you want to pay someone to bid according to your instructions, fine. But the auctioneer is the absolute worst person to do this.
