Update, I just bought a 1-cone off scout 18yo striker in the market (I got lucky with a last split-second bid in the 6th round vs a Vietnamese bidder - I was about to give up). He looks like someone's 1* academy product (he hadn't played any games for his previous team, a Bulgarian side in Level 11)

So I have a theory on the "new new" market - broadly that there's no 5* Nordgens showing up, so the only 5* players come from higher level players selling off players. And those 5*s are only visible in the last few minutes before the auction ends (this guy had 6 minutes left when I saw him). If you're up near the top of your server then there's not likely to be many people above you selling 5*s (especially if they're having trouble buying players in), so the 5* market will be virtually dead. Which means up there your only option is to look for fast-training high 4*s, and top up with a few scouts if you have the tokens for it. Lower levels won't be so bad as there'll be more people selling.

I don't know why Nordeus have done this, sure they're forcing people to refresh the auction page regularly - but that won't be driving ad revenue that much. And while they might get a few crazy auctions ringing the token register, you're more likely to have people not bothering.