The part that makes the auction drag on is that there is so much uninteresting stuff. "OK, who will bid on one of these three copies of this book, Perl For Whatever?" Blah blah blah. That's the kind of stuff a silent auction is ideal for. Top three bids on the sheet of paper win the copy of the book. I think the more appropriate analogy than a telethon is watching QVC. You know what makes cool live auction items? Larry Wall action figures. Copy #0 of "Perl Best Practices" signed by Damian. The right to change the color on London.pm's home page. Things that are unique and that there is high demand for. For that matter, there was a TPF auction at OSCON one year where the lack of interest in a copy of a Sybex book on Perl I edited turned into a bidding war to get me to eat the book. I think that's an appropriate way to look at things.