I could not agree with you more, and I've actually surprised myself in saying this. I thoroughly enjoyed watching bid/price drop because of the banter, the sometimes ridiculous products, and even looking out for all the frankly ridiculous and misleading statements they made (not exactly difficult to spot eh?). Though I'd have to say that I didn't like the way they preyed upon the vulnerable and whilst measures were put in due to the numerous complaints they received - It was sadly too little too late and as we know the rest is history.
When I started seeing the bid presenters emerging on Ideal World, I was quite pleased (although Gollum and Pervy Pete would have been my last choices), then Sally, Peter Sherlock etc - but a few months down the line I can see that "fun and banter" hasn't transposed onto IW at all, but the all the bad stuff, the lies, the exaggeration, the misleading sales pitches have come flooding through.A channel that could at worst have been called dull, is not only still dull, but is up to the old tricks that got the sit up's closed down. IW - You are now Bid tv without the charm! I really think they need to take a few steps back and see what they can do to salvage this channel before it's too late - like you say, introducing some credible presenters would be a good start!