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Posted By: barrysloate

I'm not sure I would equate allowing an employee to bid with shill bidding. While it is not a widely accepted practice, auction employees do have personal collections. So I believe there is a distinction between bidding on something for one's collection and running up a ceiling bid for the sake of a higher price.

That said, it is preferable employess do not bid. Likewise, it's not clear that the right precautions are in place to make sure the bidding is done properly.

I've said this before but when I worked for Sotheby's I was allowed to bid on Halper material and was even given a form to fill out called an employee bid sheet.