I tried a few mock auction drafts, and I'm firmly on the auction draft bandwagon. Holy shit, snake seems so basic in comparison. It definitely takes more time and practice to get down though. I started with having a bench full of people I've barely heard of, since I blew too much, and ended with a few decent strategies regarding budgeting.
Saw some EXTREMELY crazy strategies tho. One guy blew $172 on McCoy/Forte/Peterson (I barely beat him out for Charles). Dude had $28 to spend on 13 damn positions. He had a surprisingly good team, though... His WR situation was DIRE (Bowe was his WR1), but had Romo/Cutler as QB's for a combined $2, Cameron for like $6, and the Chiefs D and Prater for $2. Doubt that would hold up in our (or any) league with people that stay thru the whole draft tho, but still.
Still, I don't think it's fair to change it this close to the draft to auction. A little over a week to learn a completely different draft type isn't fair. I'm definitely down for trying it next year though, since we're trying new things