Well, I haven't attended a "real" auction for quite some time, but I'd like to point out that I wrote that reserve bids are *usually* the starting bid. I said it this way because I knew that big-ticket items can be handled as you say, but they are far fewer in number than the routine items that come on the block.
Yeah, now that you've mentioned it I've seen an auctioneer diddle around with a lot that's not drawing bids, often by adding something to it as an incentive.