I've never understood why this is so complicated. Just do a week-long auction, hide bids on the last day (blind auction) to prevent bid sniping, and charge around the 80th percentile of bids to prevent winner's curse and ensure resale value. No bots, no problems, pretty much completely transparent.
The offline equivalent with e.g. Black Friday is similar, except you pay with time by waiting in line instead of with money.
Hypebeasts trying desperately to get the hot new whatever and coming up empty handed, thereby increasing anticipation for the next drop, is a feature not a bug.
The offline equivalent with e.g. Black Friday is similar, except you pay with time by waiting in line instead of with money.