Works the same...except that some people who only purchase onsie-twosies tend to get excited, and worried they won't get their one or two, and bid them way up, and pay a super high premium. The end result is higher minimums from the hay suppliers (ie they raise the lowest dollar amount they will accept on their hay) and often most of it will sit unpurchased because those of us who purchase 30 rounds at a time won't pay a 50.00 minimum on one round bale, when in actuality we should be getting a DISCOUNT on such a high volume purchase. The after effect of hay sitting unsold is less sellers, because their hay remains unsold...so it becomes a vicious cycle. If hay sellers won't bring hay, the auction will not survive.
Personally, I'd rather see MORE hay sold at say 25-30 per round bale, rather than only 2 sold at 75.00 each, which dictated (to the seller) that a minimum bid can be placed @ 50.00 per bale because someone has already paid 75.00 each. This convinces buyers like me not to buy it (and recently not to even go to the auction anymore because of high minimums), and to drive the extra hour and purchase from someone who will reward me for buying in large quantities. If sellers placed a 20 or 25 per bale minimum bid, then MORE people would buy MORE hay at say 25-30 per bale and more transactions would occur, and be good for everyone involved.
I would much rather only go as far as Cheltenham for a large load - and allow Cheltenham to make the profit on more bales sold, since they are completely non profit, rather than drive the extra 30 or 60 minutes to elsewhere. It saves me time and money, neither of which i like to waste. This same principle also applies to the small squares.
Make sense?
So very right! I went last time and left with none because the prices where being driven up to high.
I know there were SEVERAL auctions last year towards the end of the season, i bought nothing because the sellers had far too high a minimum price set, which goes for both rounds and squares. 
)
. 