A provincial auction house may have no real idea what many items are worth, especially if they're a bit obscure, like these are. They may copy what's on the box, let people come and find it.
I find Saleroom useful to locate stuff, but can then see if the auction room takes bids in-house as it were thus avoiding the usual 3% Saleroom fees.
Some auction houses only operate through Saleroom though. So yes, you have to keep your eye on the price as it can soon leap up...!