You're definitely true that it's not that easy and I get it that you don't want to throw more wealth into the bottomless well to find the perfect 'rules'.
Maybe when the bullrun (for hive) is in full force, it would work better ;)
Anyways, I liked to follow it and will keep an eye on it ^^
The original idea is based on 10 second auctions with 10 second extensions when someone bids. I tried to make it more viable for blockchain and Hive in general giving it more time. I had 1 hour extensions but as more bids get in, it would reduce to 30 minutes, 15 minutes, and 7 minutes, but enough bids never got in. If we didn't throw a couple bids in there, it would been over with a 90% loss.
I am tempted to try again starting with 30 minute extensions, to see if that is better, but I don't think the result would be much better. It just isn't the same thing when the auction takes so long to complete, it really needs to be 5-10 minute extensions at most, but it would probably run out with 80-90% loss which just isn't sustainable.