[QUOTE=Heritage Sports;1015232]
In these two regards, our “house bidding” policy is distinctly different from shill bidding. A shill bidder has no interest in owning a piece at his high bid. We do have an interest. And, most typically, shill bidding is used to “run up” another bidder’s absentee bid. Our “house bids” are placed a week prior to closing, long before the vast majority of competitive bidding takes place.
QUOTE]
You can use terms "house bids" but there is no difference between a "house bid" and "shill" bidding. I been attending auctions since I was a teenager and I have seen just about everything at auctions. While bidding by the owner of an item, who shows up at the sale, is considered shill bidding, it is accepted and happens very often. When the auction house places bids, it's again, "shill" bidding.
I have seen an auctioneers bid on an items but only because they could not get a decent starting bid and only seen this a couple times in my life. I have also seen auctioneers bidding against their own staff and everbody knew what was going on. No customers were getting bid up.
So you can call it what you will, but personally, if I knew an auction house was placing bids on items that were on consignment, without disclosure to the other bidders, I would never set foot in that auction house again.
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