Dan- we've had this discussion many times, and I was always the one who suggested these groups were colluding to keep the bids down. But now I realize there can be extenuating circumstances.
Say there is a large lot of cards that appears likely to sell for around 10K. And let's suppose that five collectors can each use quite a few cards in the lot, but none of them can afford to spend that much. As a result, they form a group and bid on it that way. In that example, you've actually created an extra bidder, because individually none of them would have bid.
I imagine intent has something to do with whether or not it is collusion, but I don't know legally know how it can be determined.
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