The open outcry auction is just made to turn the brain into mush. You get social proof- the other guy's bidding, you get reciprocation tendency, you get deprival super reaction syndrome - the thing is going away. I mean it's just absolutely designed to manipulate people into idiotic behavior. Then there's the Warren Buffett rule for open outcry auctions - don't go! We don't go to the closed bid auctions too because that's a counter-productive way to do things, ordinarily, for a different reason, which Zeckhauser would understand. - Charles Munger