false advertising

A home came up for sale by auction without reserve that had the right location.  Much was wrong with the house but that can be changed with money; location is unmovable (ha).  I am thinking heck without reserve maybe I get a chance to buy this home (originally listed for 7m) for like 2m.  That would leave some money left over to totally gut the inside and maybe still leave beer money.  Dreams run through mind of ridiculously low purchase price while I am jogging-slogging up Sinclair road.  All is good.  

I will give more details for the truly curious below, but bottom line is the auction was yesterday and the auction didn't happen.  I guess without reserve doesn't mean the auction will happen regardless of interest.  Only if there is high enough bids prior to the auction will the auction go live.  Who thinks that is BS---or at least kinda misleading advertising for a property being marketed as a without reserve auction?

More details:

Concierge Auctions was running the auction.  If I remember the bidding requirements right you had to post 250k to concierge prior to the auction (but that might have been 100k) for a bidder's paddle.  Also the winning bid has to pay concierge 10% of the purchase price as a bidder's premium (this is not a sales commission and you could still be on the hook for sales commissions too).  That premium is payable immediately and almost impossible to get back if something goes wrong.  Now here is the kicker, the opening buyer's incentive.  If you submit an opening bid prior to the deadline which is an hour or so before auction begins and it is the highest pre auction opening bid and you wind up being the highest bidder at the end of the auction you get a 10% discount on the price (basically covers the vig to concierge).   Also Concierge may, in its discretion, accept opening, pre-auction bids after the deadline described above. Concierge may also, in its discretion, offer additional incentives to pre-auction bidders.

So the scam is (wait not scam that is not a nice word, the compelling marketing of the home is) to advertise the home as going to auction without reserve, and then if the pre auction opening bids are not high enough and numerous enough and they can't offer enough last minute select incentives or manage to increase the bids after the deadline to indicate that the auction will go pretty well they cancel the auction.

If you wonder where all the used car salesmen have gone it seems like they might be operating home auction sites like this.  Dodgy?  You make the call.

I am off to hike Buttermilk with my daughter's 5th grade class in the rain and cold.  Look for a report tomorrow.