I think that by staggering the end times, people could plan better how they wished to allocate their money and this would result in higher final bids overall.
I don't know about other people, but I had a set budget and the boards would have gotten the same amount whether or not I won any auctions. People with more discretionary funds, though, might spend more.
What I meant was this: Suppose I had $X to spend and there were two auctions I were interested in. If both ended at the same time, I would only bid, on average $X/2 per auction. If, however, the end times were staggered, I might be willing to go higher than $X/2 for the first auction. If I won that auction, I would then have a lower maximum bid for the second auction. If, however, I lost the first auction, then I could wager up to $X on the second auction.
Joy,
Lynn
