Auction costs time. It's better to sell 5 devices per day with profit margin 500% than one device per day with profit margin 1000%.
I think its really the best way, revenue-like, that Asicminer will go the auction route.
I agree.
Thinking about how Avalon has done it, it really makes sense to set up an auction, to see what the price should be. They owe this to their shareholders, I think.
Think about Avalon. They sold their devices at some arbitrary price, resulting in a lot of them ending up on eBay at 5 times that price. Now that's a lot of lost revenue. Instead of that revenue going to Avalon, it goes to some random dude who's selling his device on eBay, when Avalon could be making that extra money - well deserved.
Gauge what the market price for these devices should be, and start with that price, and keep doing this to satisfy demand.