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Aaron M."knowing all of the principals and employees of mastro, i can assure you they are not shill bidding or running up the bid by this clause. in fact they are all collectors of various items, from the head guy on down. i know for a fact if they are interested in something for themselves they bid on their own off site computers like all other bidders."
I admire Bill Mastro's collection (his profile on A&E was one of the factors that pulled me back into the hobby) so I know he (and I assume his staff) are collectors. However, the fact that they bid on lots in their own auction is an irreconcilable conflict of interest. Other than the fact that you know and trust them, there is nothing factual or in their terms to prevent rampant shill bidding.
The fact that they are told to bid off-site is both an acknowledgment of the conflict of interest and shadiness of the practice and would tend to actually draw more suspicion to the practice since Mastro's corporate officers can't keep track of their employees bids. (It would also serve as an attempted legal defense - "we didn't know--it happened off-site" - were they ever to face federal fraud charges.)
Bottom line, no matter how passionate of collectors they are, this is a practice that should unequivably stop and is more or less indefensible. Until it does, they will always be a target of suspicion--even more so now that Robert Edward has thrown down the gauntlet and made this issue more public. I firmly believe that the vast majority of Mastro participants don't have any idea that this practice goes on because it is so outrageous as to be inconceivable. Once they figure this out, I would imagine Mastro will hear complaints.
"i consign and bid in every major and minor auction known to man and am very comfortable bidding in their auctions, even more so than some of my recent winnings in other auctions where i won low dollar items but mysteriously was bumped to my 4 level max at the last instant, ????"
Well, the fact that you consign to, and benefit from, these auction house that engage in bidding on their own lots that may result in higher realized prices for you is the whole point (it would also tend to explain your happiness at consigning with them). Mastro and other houses are in a increasingly competitive field and their revenue stream and sales pitch for future consignments is based on their ability to get higher and higher prices realized. If I you were a Mastro employee and saw some of your lots underperforming in price level, knowing that your company makes less money, your consigner will be disappointed and you might lose future consignments and market share as a result, you might be awfully tempted to play with the price and shill bid a bit.
Man, it would be something if a couple years from now federal investigators are putting the clamps down on these auction houses for fraud. Not hard to imagine at all.