Amen to that, @chines1 - it is the shills that make BaT a form I'm becoming much less interested in. It still draws some interesting cars, but even that's nothing like what it could/should be - there are precious few Cummins diesel-powered mid-60s Cadillacs, etc. I'm uninterested in another online Sotheby's for "precious motorcars".
In general, I dislike auctions, "YTM sales", OBO, and all other price obfuscation nonsense. It is incumbent on the seller to establish the price he'd like to have. If there's no "which shell hides the pea" hidden price, I can tell you within 5 minutes if I'm interested. Throw out some vague description ("the seller reports that he knows nothing about this car") and expect me to tell you what I'll give, and I've got considerably less interest. The other thing I hate about auctions are hidden reserves - we go through a 7 day auction, with all the hype and energy, then get to the time when everybody is done bidding... and it's not enough.
How far did we fall short? $100? $1000? $10,000? I know that reserve is there to protect the seller, but it's the buyer taking ALL the risk - the unknown aspect of the car, the unknown price, and then the 5% buyer's fee, which is paid whether the item is as represented or not.
What the world needs is a site that has the kind of reach and exposure that BaT has, with a fixed pricing structure, or with auctions where the bid starts at the reserve.