Posted By:
Joshwhen we enter an consignment contract with a consignor, it is clearly written AND verbally agreed upon, prior to us accepting the lot or lots into our auction, that the consignor may not bid on their own items....HOWEVER...
as stated in a few posts above, it is impossible for us to police this. If a consignor gives us a nice piece and signs our contract that he won't bid on his own items, there is nothing we can do if he decides to ask his next door neighbor or friend around the corner or brother on the other side of the country to bid up to a particular dollar amount on a particular item.
As the auction house, if the consignor has someone win back their item, they are responsible for the consignment fee, plus our 15% buyers' premium. This means they will pay anywhere from 20-30% of the sale price to get their item back. Obviously, we hope this never happens, but we cannot control it in a situation like that.
Just my $0.02
Josh