Quoted from Skyemont:DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME!!!! I have saved you my son. With high buyer fees and shell bidding, you will never get a great deal. Those days are long gone!
+1 for this sentiment. Unless you happen to be REALLY close and just have some time to kill, it's very unlikely to be worth the time or effort. Which means that the only recourse would be an online bid if something was reasonable.... In which case, the buyers premium increases another 5%. Now you are talking an 18% premium + the 6‰ sales tax, all while realistically bidding "blind". No thanks.
If the auction is really not out of my way, I've stopped in to check out a machine or two during the preview and then just submitted absentee bids while there for what I'd (non-emotionally) been willing to pay in the event a deal falls my way so I don't waste my time sitting through the auction or being driven to pay more than I really wanted to. But honestly, that strategy has yet to produce anything. Just too many pickers out there in this neck of the woods.