Quote:
Originally Posted by glchen
Is shilling legal, btw? I saw this quote from a major auction house in a thread once. (I have replaced the name of the auction house w/ the generic auction house.) I guess owners bidding on their own lots in this case isn't strictly shill bidding?
(1) {Auction House} and {auction house} employees do not shill bid.
(2) {Auction House} does not bid on their own items other than by placing reserves. I will note that owners placing bids on their own items at auction is quite legal; we will identify this when we determine that it is happening on an auction floor.
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My understanding is that shill bidding issues are state law. That being said I think a lot of what an auction house can and can't do is by the wording in their own rules, almost as much as law. They can't legally say they don't do something when they do. On the converse many times they can do things, by putting them in their rules, that we would call unethical or illegal. A few auction houses have in their own rules that they will bid on items under any number of circumstances. In my small auction company we have written rules against it. If you want to know what an auction can and can't do many times reading their rules will tell you. That all goes by the wayside if they are doing illegal stuff. I am confident that the authorities are still keeping an eagle eye on parts of the hobby especially the auction houses.