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Fred CAbout the ebay reserve, you're right, you can be listed as high bidder. The point I was trying to make is that you wont win it unless the reserve is met. That's what would happen if the auction houses started doing this. You would never be high bidder unless the reserve is met.
The last major auction I know of where this happened was Superior Sports Cards, a few years back. I was high bidder at the close of the auction on a few lots but when you checked the auction results it listed the high bid as $0 (not sold). The fact that there were hidden reserves kind of ticked a few of us off. In this case it was like an ebay reserve auction except they didn't tell you the reserve wasn't met. You found out when you didn't win the item.