Auction Etiquette - bidding on an item, when you have no idea what it is?

[Granny Takes a Trip]

Or it just could have been enthusiasm and excitement over his new acquisitions. The auction winner doesn't sound like the most mature or socially adept person one could hope to meet, but I think it's taking it too far to ascribe a definite motive to him, especially such a negative one. And either way, it's certainly not worth committing assault and going to jail over!

I'm not sure-I think that the motive I've ascribed is a very possible one. Even if he was not consciously thinking it,(and it's more than possible that he was) that's still how it would come across to me. I would not have given him the benefit of the doubt, and I would have been seriously annoyed (though I would have stopped short of actual violence-I didn't realise that anyone would take that literally)

[BettyDraper]

As the OP, I didn't actually witness it, so can't say exactly what happened. But Fred reckoned that after receiving each Doodad, the guy would turn to the people standing near him (including Fred and the rest of the serious collectors) and do his "So what IS this thing? Does anyone know how it works?" spiel. Fred and the other collectors had been bidding right alongside him, so the guy could not have failed to notice that they were unsuccessful bidders. 

Yes but making a tiresome joke is not rude. 

I've been to many estate auctions and generally one is free to move about -- the crowd generally mills even as the bidding is ongoing and if I don't like what I'm overhearing from bystanders I just mosey along and find another place to stand.