[barrysloate]

Scott and Scott (sounds like a father and son law firm),

No doubt that rule sucks in so many ways. At least it is not done under the table but out in the open. I will say this, however: there is no perfect auction system, and I do applaud the auction houses, such as REA and others, who very specifically engineer rules to protect the bidders from any kind of shenanigans. But there is a downside, and that is consignors do at time get hammered and really have no protection whatsoever. When I ran my auctions I tried to do whatever I could to protect the bidder, and had a software system where consignors were locked out from bidding on their own lots. But I also got that occasional unwanted call from an unhappy consignor who thought his material did poorly. It will happen. I realize when one consigns to auction he is assuming risk; he can't always expect all his lots to hit a homerun. But he really has no protection at all.

I don't know what the fairest system is. Maybe allowing reserves is fairer, but as an auctioneer I wouldn't want to be returning a large percentage of my consignments without collecting any fees.

And let me add that the OP asked the question about bidding regrets, and we're now way off topic. My apologies.