I bought an Esprit V8 GT. Upon first impressions, it was better than I was expecting as the engine ran and the clutch and gearbox both worked. If any of these were bad then it would have been bad news. I've never bought a car unseen before and don't know why I did to be honest. Within the first few hours, more and more stuff was wrong with the car. I've corrected, adjusted, replaced about 40 items on the car so far and it needs about 10 more things to complete it. So while the seller may have thought he was letting the car go cheap, it wasn't drivable or usable. I've put in a lot of hours, which I've really enjoyed.
So overall, given that I was expecting to put a lot of little jobs right, I think the condition was better than I was expecting.
A word of caution though, I suspect that most cars that go to auction (even those ones going to specialist auctions) are being off-loaded because of some fault. If these cars were all in tip top condition then why wouldn't a seller advertised them on a classified site? There are plenty of free ones. I know some sellers can't be bothered with the hassle and tyre kickers too but I reckon the majority of cars are hiding something. You do on ocassion get a genuine car that goes for more than expected but these are not as common as people would like to think.