My answer was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but the reality is that it depends on what you mean by "market value."
For the market of the auction, the selling price is the actual market value. Likewise, it's typically not too far off the value of the item in the wider market, assuming you are comparing it to a similar item in similar condition. The problem is that for most items purchased at auction, there's no similar item, readily available, to compare it to.
I've won multiple items at machine-shop auctions for a small fraction of their "new" price. The problem with the comparison is that e.g., the Starrett dial test indicator that I got for $10, and the new one that retails for around $200 are hard to compare because there's no liquid market for 30-year-old measuring equipment. While it's adequate for my hobby machinist use, it wouldn't be acceptable in a precision shop since it has no calibration history.
If you find an item where you can reasonably compare apples to apples, e.g., a car, you see that the final price of a car at auction is usually pretty close to the price of the same make/model being sold on the open used market. The slightly lower price of the auction car reflects the risk of the repairs that might be needed.
It's exactly in this "now vs later" that resellers and other brokers sit. If they know that X will sell for $Y "eventually" and how long that eventually is, they can work out how much they can pay for it now and still come out ahead.
Cars are very liquid and move quickly, so the now vs later price is close; weird things that nobody has heard of (but when they need it, they need it NOW) will have a much wider variance.
Depends on the terms of the auction. If we take the California legal definition of Fair Market Value for real estate:
> The fair market value of the property taken is the highest price on the date of valuation that would be agreed to by a seller, being willing to sell but under no particular or urgent necessity for so doing, nor obliged to sell, and a buyer, being ready, willing, and able to buy but under no particular necessity for so doing, each dealing with the other with full knowledge of all the uses and purposes for which the property is reasonably adaptable and available.
A 7 day auction on a complex product like this may be a little short to qualify with the necessity clauses, IMHO; there's a bit too much time pressure, and not enough time for a buyer to inspect and research.
I think Auctions exist explicitly to potentially buy or sell an Item with a delta on it's Market Value? I.e. Buyers want the chance to buy below and sellers to sell above. Neither really wants to engage in the transaction at all in the reverse situation or even in the "Market Value" case. You would just make a direct sale and avoid the hassle of an auction.
