The first three warehouses up for auction were not those pre-selected by Leonard Ethan, hence he only started bidding at 50~100 dollars. Based on their previous assessment, they should not lose money even if they won a bid at this price.
More importantly, bidding on every warehouse would slow down his competitors by confusing them about Leonard's intended target and potentially taxing their funds. This was one of the tricks in blind bid auctions.
Compared to the auction Leonard attended in Germany, this one was considerably faster and quiet due to the blind bidding process.
All that was needed was to take a quick look inside the warehouse after the auctioneer opened the door, make some internal judgments or discuss with partners, then drop the bid into the box.
However, when it was time for the fourth warehouse, Leonard tightened the grip on his paper and pen. This warehouse was amongst the ones he was keen on.