If it's disclosed, there is no fraud. People can make an informed decision whether they want to bid or not, knowing there is the potential for the AH to bid up to the reserve. It would still be better, in my view, just to put the reserve as the opening bid, but AHs don't seem to ever want to do that.
I suppose one could also argue that this style of auction can create some pricing misinformation, for lots that didn't meet reserve, but I don't see that as a legal issue.
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My avatar is a sketch by my son who is an art school graduate. Some of his sketches and paintings are at
https://www.jamesspaethartwork.com/
He is available to do custom drawings in graphite, charcoal and other media. He also sells some of his works as note cards/greeting cards on Etsy under JamesSpaethArt.
Last edited by Peter_Spaeth; 07-10-2015 at 08:24 AM.
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