The 'price limit' phrase reminded me of the traditional fish selling method called 'lota' in my corner of Europe. It goes like this: the fishing boats come in,

The 'price limit' phrase reminded me of the traditional fish selling method called 'lota' in my corner of Europe. It goes like this: the fishing boats come in, crates of fresh fish are brought to a market area where buyers await. For each crate, the announcer starts with a high price (say 100) and counts rapidly down ("99, 98, 97 ...") until one of the buyers shouts out "Soo" to buy the crate at that price. Not as amusing as bidding up an auction, but this seems a time-efficient method for finding the buyer's price limit - after all, the fish is not getting any fresher sitting there ...