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Silent auctions are where there are items set around on tables, each with a sheet in front of it. Instead of shouting at a fast talking auctioneer, bidders walk around with a pen and write in their name and how much they are willing to pay for the item. There is a specific start and end time for the auction. Apparently one of the auction monitors did not close down bidding on the item that the irate gentleman really wanted.
I take part in one of these every couple of years, for the Baltimore Fire Widow and Orphans fund. Last year I got two lovely medicine bags (native american beadwork pouches used to hold sacred and magickal stones and plant bits) and I split a collection of NYPD memorabilia with my friends (nice coffee mug, a hat, and a patch, real deal, not the commercial stuff you can get at souvenir stands in NYC). In order to win these items (keep someone from swooping your final bid in the last seconds), my friends and I positioned ourselves around the room next to the items we really wanted, and "guarded" them in the last five minutes, which may just mean adding a bid in the last seconds, or body checking someone out of the way to keep them from bidding during the final 10 second countdown.
The angry guy sheldon is talking about had someone, a cripple, no less, swoop his bid after the clock ran out. Quite possibly the cripple took advantage of his disability. angry guy should have just followed him out into the parking lot and beat the shit out of him rather than venting to a fine charitable organization.
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