With broadband adoption and the state of web applications these days, I don't know why they just don't have a live chat interface and conduct a real auction, live online through the browser. Of course that could be simulated with the current system using a suggestion someone else made in this thread that the auction goes until there are no more bids, just like a real auction. If there's no bid for a day (or whatever time period), the auction is declared over. I like that.
