John, agreed!
Like you said, the reason you didn't see too many "nice" cars may because it was a no reserve auction. But the nice cars that did go through (maybe the owners had to sell) were pounded pretty bad. There appeared to be some excellent Hemis and Shelbys there, and they were way down. Noticeable absence of GM A-body muscle, with the exception of the 71 GS Stage 1 Convertible 4-speed, and I think that went low for what was into it. They said it had over 1000 hrs of labor, and I'm guesstimating at $80K-$90K in labor, plus parts, the car itself, I would bet they were hoping for $175K just to break even, $200K in a good market, but it sold for under $150K. That appeared to be one of the nicest cars there.