Deposits taken from attendees?

I went to an auction yesterday, got there in the nick of time...there was a line of people collecting money from the manager. Those of us who rolled up late asked what was going on. They said when they got there the facility manager collected a $50 deposit from them, when the auctioneer got there he made her give the deposits back. Ive been doing this for 3 years now, have never seen that happen before. Deposits for showing up?

We have one here that does that. They require $50.00 to get a bid number. You get to keep your number for 6 months than you have to pay again. You also have to give your drivers license to them for the auction.
These guys have many facilities over in the valley which is at least a two hour drive for me and I never go. They only have one facility here on the coast so my $50.00 is only good for one auction at a time. Not really fond of their auction style either as they pull everything out of the unit and auction it by the piece. It takes all day to sell 10 units. I don't go very often to this one.

Went to one in Northern Cal a couple years back that was an old moving and storage company that went out of business and the auction was for 200 storage crates that were unclaimed over the past 30-40 years. They required 100.00 deposit to get a number. The deposit was returned when you turned in your number. Didn't seem to hold anyone back. Crowd was huge...but then it was 200 units so there was pretty much something for everyone.

They said when they got there the facility manager collected a $50 deposit from them

I wish they would do that around here, it sure would cut down at the lookie loos big time.

ive got a few places around here that do that stop and stor is $100 deposit to get in
one of my uhauls is $200

definitley cuts down on the yahoos that show up with 3 friends or the wife and 4 kids