I'm absolutely not saying there are no or few shady people in the business. Anytime there's enough money shady stuff will happen. Even some of the biggest names in antique auctions and stamp auctions have been found out.
Christies and Sothebys for price fixing, and a bunch of stamp guys for collusion over several years. I think for them the fine was something like 3 Million, a couple guys did a bit of time and one major company was cut loose by the parent company and closed.
If I've bid 3500 and win it over a shill with the next legit bidder at 1000 and cant find a buyer later at anything over 1000 I've bid 2400 more than I should have. A mistake and a painful one and compounded by the shilling, but still my mistake for them to take advantage of. Without the large overbid, there would be no room for a shill. If the shill was the auction house or the auction was feeding someone information it's illegal and they should be punished. In most cases it's hard to tell wether the underbids are legit.
Some of what's been described does look very bad. being bit up to a maximum within minutes of placing the bid would put me off bidding if it happened regularly. Or more likely I'd bid lower and on fewer items.
I've seen some crazy stuff at live auctions. I used to work for a car dealer taking used cars to an auction. The auction got away with more than anyone would have thought. Shilling was common, by the auctioneers, competitors, friends of the seller, even a random guy one day who "won" a car and literally ran off when he won. The guy I worked for always stood against the back wall so there couldn't be any "bidders" behind him. Plus reverse shilling. If a car sold for over 1000 there was recourse if it had problems like a bent frame and the auction had their own mechanics for inspections. once in awhile a care would rapidly be bid to 900 and sold as soon as the bid was placed. Usually accompanied by arguments from guys who thought their bids had been missed. A fine environment to learn how to walk away at a certain price.
Steve B
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