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Posted By: Marty

As a buyer, how many people have had to pay more than they actually bid?
As a consigner, how many people would rather take a lower price than have an employee buy the lot?

If you are concerned about being shilled, stay up and place one bid at a time, and do not alow anyone to know what you are interested in.

Maybe we could demand that auction houses do not allow any employee to sell anything except through another auction house. Maybe the employees could not have any collection. Maybe they could not have friends that collected. How about if they did not have knowledge about what the auction house sold, that way they would not be tempted.

For me, I do not care who owns what I am buying as long as it is described and represented correctly and I am not chaged more than I bid. When I am selling, I want to get the most for my items, I do not care if a Mastro employee or Doug Allen or Barry buys the item, as long as I get paid.

No, I do not want to be shilled, but if I am, I will not pay more than the highest bid that I put in. If someone is trying to run up the price and I do not bid again, someone else will be the proud owner. I do not care who is selling. Not everyone want to take the risk of selling through auctions so the house buys rather than another collector or dealer. There are probably some that sell there own stuff to round out the auctions.