I don't know much about auctions. I sometimes go to previews and see art sardined into ugly rooms. I've gawked at the gaudy prices and gaped at well-clad crowds of happy white people conspicuously spending hundreds of millions of dollars.
Luckily I don't have to buy shoes anymore because I design them! I'm off tour so I can dive in and create the shoes that I want for my line. But okay I did buy a pair of vintage combat boots because they were so beaten up - I had to have them.