my LFS always gives me a special price on orders as they don't have the risk of it not selling or taking a long time to sell & they have the $ up front.
a $1 auction is a call to buy not branding. if they weren't worried about them sitting there then i don't think they would be having a $1 auction on TM, the price will most likely be less, possibly a considerable amount than the retail price they could receive through the shop & on top of that they will pay trademe fees which on a value of that is what, $75 or so?
i agree that it is good they stocked them, but if i was the buyer i think i would have had 3 in each store as there was always the chance to order more. maybe they will enlighten us with their input.