It should show how much time is left when it reaches short. I think that the very short isn't helping people. I guess it helps the people whos selling it because everyone doesn't know when it ends and goes crazy. But many players (including me) have lost at their auctions because they don't know when it ends.
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Auction_House#Placing_a_bid
Short = Less then an hour
Very short = less then 5 minutes
Its done to actually allow a bid war to work. Otherwise, no one would bid, and camp it until the last 2 seconds to place bids as a very low price. Because of the way the refresh works, only 1 bid will make it, with the rest locked out due to bids being too small.