[nolemmings]

I like auctions where an individual lot closes if no bids are received within 15/30 minutes. I can then put that card in the bank (or not) and move on. I then have been able to apply much of my "left over" bid money to other lots. Sure I can lose out more quickly too, but I'm not scrambling on a whole bunch at once in the end.

I don't like auctions that don't allow you to bid extended without a prior bid where the item got no action. Goodwin had nearly two hundred Famous & Barr cards in an auction last year listed separately with $100 openers. This was right on the cusp of what I thought the cards would sell for after BP, so I was reluctant to put placeholders on dozens and dozens of cards when I would have really only been able to afford about 10-15. Sure enough, even though these were basically fungible commons several that I wanted went completely untouched and thus frozen while others I wanted went higher than I was willing to pay. In such a scenario I would have gladly entered late bids and won many at the minimum, and assume the consignor/seller would have been OK with that. Instead, these cards just went unsold and I won fewer than I wanted for less (total) than I was willing to spend. Had I put placeholder bids on all cards I wanted and hit most or all of them, I would have come out of pocket way too much for the balance sheet.

Bottom line, zero bid items should automatically be allowed to go to extended bidding--what's the downside?