[Archive]

Posted By: Hal Lewis

In fact, there is even a HUGE BENEFIT to the auctioneer who shills his item and then has his auction end WITHOUT the item auctually selling...

because now he owns an item that the REST OF THE WORLD thinks was just sold on the open market with competitive bidding for $XXX.

Now the auctioneer can turn around and CONSIGN his item to a DIFFERENT auction house (who will NOT have to disclose that they are selling their own item since they are not) and hope that people buy it for something close to $XXX because they ASSUME that this is the "fair market price" for the item.

This is why FULL DISCLOSURE IS NEEDED.


But then again...

what is to stop two auctioneers from selling each other's items (therefore no disclosure needed) and agreeing to shill bid up the prices for each other?

I guess we have to TRUST these folks at some point?