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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Last edited by Peter_Spaeth; 07-10-2015 at 08:24 AM.
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