mecum. holy crap.

Agreed. It's up to the individual Seller or Consignor as to what they will allow, but because they want to sell the car, not take it back home, it's in their best interest to be accommodating to would-be purchasers. I've been to two televised auctions, but I've never run into a "Do Not Touch" issue with a Seller once I've gotten a report going with them.
Don't forget that both the seller and buyer have to pay 10% buyer / seller fee, plus you have to pay a set amount to be able to bid, I forgot what that was as it's been about 3 years since I was going to go to the Kansas city auction