I have no idea whether this would be easy to code or not but I think bidding is unnecessarily long. Perhaps cutting out some of the steps. Instead of 72-60-48-36-24, why not 72-36-24. Also, rather than resetting to 60, 48, 36 and 24, why not reset to the closest highest number of hours. For example, if the first counter bid is inside of 24 hours of close, reset it to 24 rather than 60. If it's between 24 and 36, reset to 36. This would eliminate the frustration of waiting 71 hours before someone adds $1 and then you have another 60 hours to wait.

That would cut out some of the frustration.