I had heard of the auctions, so as I was nearing retirement, I thought I would observe. There is a facility close to where I worked at the time that had a 3:30PM start time, the end of a multi-city caravan. I sneaked out of work early a couple times. From what I could see, the units went for more than I would have felt comfortable bidding. This was before the TV shows premiered.

By the time I retired, the TV shows had been on a while and I definitely could see the increase in attendance and prices.

I'm currently working on getting rid of the lifetime of accumulation I have in the pole barn and basement. Basically selling the stuff I already own. Maybe by then, the auctions will be more reasonable and I'll have a near empty pole barn to store and work out of.