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Posted By: Tim Newcomb

Adam, I respect your opinion as much or more than I do anyone's, but I can't help feeling your argument in the post above-- I paid less than my high bid for Lot X, Y, Z and therefore I doubt shilling is going on-- is at least as fallacious as those who claim to KNOW that shilling exists in the absence of incontrovertible evidence. Every time an insinuation of shilling is made, somebody wheels out this line of reasoning, and it amuses me.

But--

-- No sane person is going to claim that EVERY lot up for auction is shilled up to the max bid.

-- Even if an auction house embarked on a vast systemic conspiracy to shill, which I very much doubt, they would never do it on every lot because it would be immediately obvious what was going on.

-- Therefore even in the worst-case scenario we would always have plenty of counterexamples to point to--which means they signify nothing as evidence.


Shilling by its very nature is a shadow act, like insider trading. I agree with you that if those who do it can maintain some restraint and keep their mouths shut, it is almost impossible to prove. But that hardly means it can't exist, and possibly even be widespread.

Cheers,
Tim