(Beside having better stuff to bid on and getting 
it with fewer nasty surprises like unreported 
damage and/or being packed in amateurish fashion.)

When bidders know that they can't "surprise" 
their competitors with a last-second bid, they 
are more likely to see something they want and 
bid what they think it's worth on the spot.  That 
means that if I bid early (which I often do, on 
the hopes that I might actually get it for the 
opening bid), and someone knows its worth more, I 
generally know that long before the closing.  

I like this honesty, and it also gives me a much 
more realistic idea of what certain cels are 
really worth in the eyes of the cel-collecting 
community.  With eBay, it's hard to tell, even 
looking at completed auctions.  Some winning bids 
are so out of line that it's possible that both 
the winner and loser both submitted outrageous 
bids to be sure of getting the cel.  (I've seen 
cels go on eBay for better than ten times what I 
paid from a dealer, but never on YJ.) 

Then I can decide if I really want to get into a 
bidding war, or else take the money over to 
another contested auction, which might be closing 
a day before the one I'm now conceding to 
the person who outbid me.

What that means is that on YJ I can "lose" an 
auction on Wednesday and take that same money 
and "win" an auction on the Tuesday before.  
That's impossible in a live-action auction and 
almost impossible on eBay, where you rarely know 
what the opposition is bidding until 20 seconds 
before the end.