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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Hal, I don't know that I necessarily agree that ownership by the auctioneer is the sole driver behind bidders' concern that the item will be shilled. As pointed out, the auctioneer has a vested interest in higher sales of all items being sold. What's to stop them from driving up the prices to the highest ceiling bids, period? Maybe auctioneers should be required to provide the names or at least the IDs for all underbidders, much like in ebay. In that way, we could contact the underbidders to ensure that no funny business occurred.