There is a corollary there. The earlier the opening bids that are published, the more opportunity for people to research, scope the home, etc… Still even the opening bids that are published day of the auction get researched some. Most of the bigger players at the auctions have a decent network. They have a guy placing the bid at the courthouse, he is usually talking realtime to someone at a central office who can also do the title checks. There is usually a another scout driving around to eyeball the property to at least check out the external condition. So the more professional organizations are well prepared to deal with the late opening bids. However alot of the scrappers are not gonna bid because they didnt prepare sufficiently.
As far as postponement, I have never looked statistically at how many opening bids ended up getting postponed. Your theory may carry water but I know for a fact that those with opening bids have gotten postponed before. We have literally been on our way to the auction and have seen postponements of opening bid established homes. In general it “APPEARS” to me that when there is no opening bid, that usually signifies a bk, however what do I know?
Keep doing your research and you will learn valuable experience. I would advise that you try to log your data so you can look back on it because the fidelity window is only 7 days in reverse.