[Jeff D]

I wonder if the unknown closing time of the auction hurts final prices.
It's obvious that, like sniping, some people want to wait until the "end" to place their bids, to avoid getting bid-up, among other reasons.

If you never know when the end is, you don't really know when to strike. And the fact that people were still bidding every minute or two up until the auction closed means that there were still people holding out on their top bids.

Why not pick a time in the auction, late in the evening, to switch over to a lot-by-lot ending? That way you can still maximize bidding on particular lots, without having a random end time when you're shut out of ALL lots.

Whatever the advantages there are to ending all at once, seem to me to be lost with a random closing time. Knowing that there is always going to be at least 1 bid on at least one lot every 15 minutes, until forever frankly, you might as well just pick 3:30 am and end the auction then. That's essentially what's going on, but at least people would have a final shot to place their "snipe" bids.

There's no REAL 15 minute end, so why pretend there is?