Steve, if they own all of the material, they just made sales. If the items were consignments, why waste the time?
T is correct with his last comment also " if they run an auction, they need to start much lower, if only to make us think that we're getting it for cheap."
that is the nature of an auction. Letting people set the price (within parameters - I no longer believe in $1 auctions for instance) by allowing them to get it at a reasonable bargain if there is no competition. It's a situation where the seller & the buyer both give something up (so to speak) "I'm willing to sell it to you at a low price, if you'll actually pay me, but if there are other bidders - I hope you will compete so that I can achieve a benefit by having allowed you to potentially get a bargain on my item."