Good points in this thread, thanks all for the feedback.. 


Let me clarify why I don't want to use ebay - or any remote-
host auction. It isn't just about the fees, but that I want a 
little more control in who I will allow to bid; no fake bidders, 
deadbeats, and so forth. The advantage to having my own 
auction is that requiring people to send their contact 
information ahead of time lowers the chance that they're not 
serious about it, will back out, and so forth.  

Also, per 
your "one-time-offer" confusion - this means only one straight 
bid allowed in the time allotted. I did this with my previous 
*silent*  auction on the premise that people would be less 
stressed about fighting over something (you bid what you are 
willing to pay, period). It's not quite an auction since no one 
knows who else is bidding nor what they're bidding (tho I can 
see where this would be stressful for some people, which is why 
I've been considering doing the other multibid way...). 


As for ending time, anyone who dealt with me previously 
(especially the silent auction) knows I'm a hard-ass about 
these kinds of things. :P If I chose to do either one-bid or multi-
bid auction, there would still be a hard deadline, and a 
deadline for when I reply.  

I had considered using free 
auction software, but most of them don't work quite the way I 
want them to, or have a substantial learning curve I don't want 
to deal with (imagine crashing and buggy scripts! yuck). :/
 

Any other comments are appreciated, thanks for your time. 
;)