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JoannAnd once again, Jeff Lichtman nails it. Perfect solution - entire auction closes at once, but the 30 minute rule only goes an hour followed by decreasing inactivity periods - five minutes sounds great.
It allows people to reallocate if they are outbid on something - all they have to do is hit a bid on their next most imporant lot within the 5 minutes. How hard is that? Keep two browsers open so you can flip from lot to lot on your bid list and know that if your #2 is also beyond your max, you just flip to #3 and #4 and so on. I think this could definitely be done in 5 minutes.
But this idea also gives the sense of urgency that Barry so correctly points out is needed. Come to think of it, why DOES it take 30 minutes for someone to figure they are outbid and move on to something else? Taking their time looking through their second choices? It would require that people have a priority ahead of time, with the max for each one in mind.
To me this sounds like everyone wins. The consigners get to keep more money in the auction by allowing people to shift to a new lot. It retains Rob's point above (and a very good one, by the way) that a lot will generally be won by the person willing to pay the most. It's fair to everyone, and it allows a reasonable time for the same conclusion.
What am I missing here? I just can't poke any holes in this idea. (Well - maybe just one: Rob, you'd have to make sure your servers are blistering fast!! lol)
Joann