Tried to post this earlier. Auction ends at a specific time is how ebay does it. They probably know what they are doing.
Bids going up 1 point at a time sounds bad. The problem with tightening the time to bid to 12 hours is that we could be spread out in so many time zones it might not be easy for some people to post in time.
There is no easy way around it.*
Either people have limited time to bid, or the auction takes for ever.*
Thats why I was thinking, go up by a minimum of 1 for the first 12 hours, even five after 12, even 10 after 20 or 23 hours.*
So you can re-open the bidding late, but not with some penny ante bull shit.*
That might not be the best solution, it might not help at all but its a stabe at it.*
You could also limit the total number of bids.* 2 free bids per atribute.* After that you have 16 total bids to spend between all auctions.* That might seriously limit bidding though and the rivialries start with bidding wars.*
Only allow 3 bids total for everyone for each 10 point increment?* So bids could be 20, 25 and 26, but the next bid must be 30 or better.* Then 2 more bids max till 40 etc.
Or you know what, I might be making a bid deal over nothing.* Has anyone done an online auction before.