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)
