If you know your stuff, I think there can be some good finds. I sure as heck don’t know my stuff, so I probably won’t be buying anything from auction. 

I worked at a towing service's auctions for several years. Most of the buyers were salvage yards and car flippers. These guys, for the most part, were sharp and made a lot of money doing this. Occasionally someone would flip a vehicle and make over 20K on it in a week. You should be able to obtain the vin numbers ahead of time and Carfax them if you are interested, then personally examine the car before the auction starts. The pros know which cars to bid high on, so you probably won't get a good deal on them. That leaves you hoping to get lucky on one that is iffy. It does happen, a lot of times these cars had issues that turned out to be inexpensive fixes.

For what its worth, there are 2 auction vehicles in my family. I have a 2004 Expedition 4WD that I bought in 2009 for $11,000. It had 66,000 miles on it and the original sticker was $42,000. I bought it at a used car lot, they bought it at auction. I have had very few problems, all minor, with it. My daughter bought a 2012 Camry from a used car dealer, they had bought at auction. It was a one owner Florida car with regular service records and no accidents. It was a dealer trade-in. Most dealerships won't keep an older trade-in on their used car lots, they send them off to auction. These cars can be perfectly fine. 

Just some food for thought.

I would avoid them. Think about it. Why would someone abandon their car? Because it has issues they can't afford to fix.

Don't buy someone else's problems. 

Don't do it, the odds are against you. It is just way too easy to end up with a lemon.

I wouldn’t even bother.  Who knows what kind of neglect that car has seen, which in turn could lead to issues.  Not worth the headache.