If these auctions were common, it seems like it would be a ripe opportunity for arbitrage.
In a case like this if you thought the market value was $100k, someone with no interest in the license should go ahead and bid something like $60k anyways. If everybody else placed silly bids like $4 "just in case nobody else bids for real", you'll win and resell it and walk away with $40k profit.
Of course this assumes there is an actual market for the thing -- that a telecoms company really will take it off your hands for $100k.
Although if there really is only one person in the world who wants something and they would pay $100k for it... and literally nobody else has any interest in it at all... then there's a good argument to be made that it really is worth $0. Like a remote island that is utter perfection for one hermit, but of zero interest to anyone else.
In a case like this if you thought the market value was $100k, someone with no interest in the license should go ahead and bid something like $60k anyways. If everybody else placed silly bids like $4 "just in case nobody else bids for real", you'll win and resell it and walk away with $40k profit.
Of course this assumes there is an actual market for the thing -- that a telecoms company really will take it off your hands for $100k.
Although if there really is only one person in the world who wants something and they would pay $100k for it... and literally nobody else has any interest in it at all... then there's a good argument to be made that it really is worth $0. Like a remote island that is utter perfection for one hermit, but of zero interest to anyone else.