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Posted By: davidcycleback

The only intent of shilling is to add fake bids in order to artificially raise the bidding of others. To a seller who finds nothing wrong with this, what would you think if a bidder used computer software to block competing collectors from placing bids, thus allowing him to win the lot at an artificially lower price? The shiller artificially add bids to raise price, the bidder with the software artificially removes bids to lower price. Other than they are working in reverse to each other, tell me they aren't equivalent. Let me guess, a shiller wouldn't be too happy with a bidder removing bids.

The shiller argues that a collector should place a maximum bid he's comfortable with, and if the max was too high that was the collector's fault. The bidder with the reverse-shilling software would argue that the seller should place a minimum bid at a price he's comfortable selling at, and if the minimum bid was too low that was the seller's fault.