Posted By:
Aaron M."Now they have just purchased a lot that they probably don't want. What do they do with it?"
They can re-sell it.
"Or a variation on that theme: the employee has his own collection and is willing to add that piece to it for $1100, so he places the bid and wins it. How great a transgression is it if he bid in good faith?"
That's the key distinction here: we might never know for certain if that's the case. Just like Doug can't prove shill bidding is not occurring, we can't prove shill bidding is occurring, because to do either would require prying open the employee's head and figuring out what their true intentions and feelings were. None of us can do that.
There's opportunity and motive to shill. There's also opprunitnity and motive to genuinely add to your collection. But what the policy of allowing employees to bid does is create those circumstances that could allow it to happen. And so really, as collectors, our only real protection is to "trust" (and take their word for it) that the auction houses don't give in to that temptation when we consider bidding. I genuinely believe we shouldn't have to, even if it means that employees have to forgo items they might genuinely be interested in -- it's a fair sacrifice given they expect our business in return.
"Please understand I deplore shilling but as an auctioneer I recognize other sides to every story."
That's what this forum is for -- to openly discuss issues surrounding our hobby. To me that requires listening to all angles to a particular issue and being open to considering other positions even if you end up not agreeing with them.