A few Trade forum suggestions.

[Duck4Cover]

These are fantastic ideas. Basically in reiteration of what you posted above I think the following are NECESSARY for safe and fair transactions:

1.) Auction must have an exact start time, end time, and date!
2.) The start price, time, and date needs to be in a post that is NOT edited.
3.) If a seller has a reserve in mind the auction NEEDS to start at that price. Otherwise potential buyers are wasting their time and that's not cool. Not to mention a imaginary reserve can be changed in the sellers head at any time and that's not cool either.
4.) There should be reprecautions for failing to do these things. There should ALSO be reprecautions for buyers who win and do not pay. Auctions should be a legally binding contract between buyer and seller and there shouldn't be any games involved.

Sellers need to realize that auctioning is a risk. If they aren't willing to take that risk then they shouldn't be auctioning. Buyers need to understand that they should not be bidding if they don't have the funds.

My 2 cents

I agree with this.
I've auctioned off a few things, for most I got what I was hoping for, but for a few I didn't.
As @(you need an account to see links) stated, that's just part of the risk though.
And while I haven't had it happen yet, I'd be SRSLY pissed if someone bid, then didn't pay.