Certainly a surprise how much things made. I dropped in to the online bidding a few times and didn’t even get as far as placing a bid so high were the prices.
Usually bike stuff doesn’t make loads at general auctions as the people there aren’t interested in it. It was specialist and lots of if so probably attracted a different crowd.
With the current availability of new stock of some of the stuff in the sale - tyres/tubes/chains/spares etc it would make sense if another independent bike shop had bought much of it. While the prices seemed high once you drill down in to the retail of some of the job lot new items could still be decent profit if you’re in that business.
It’s not unheard of for relatives to buy stuff at auction for sentimentality which they didn’t have access to for whatever reason from the estate of the person who has passed. Could apply to the bike stand but maybe not the bog roll!
My local auction sometimes sells much worse than bog roll from deceased estate sales - I’ve seen boxes of vintage “reading material”, mixed lots of used “massage devices” as well as part packs of incontinence pads, half bottles of spirits etc. How they are allowed to I’ve no idea, but there’s always someone who sticks their hand up when it’s down to a quid.