Mastro Auctions Being Investigated by the FBI

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Posted By: Fred C

The interesting thing (in this article) is that someone said that they provided a name of a consignor that bid on their own item. Is it illegal to bid on your own items? I don't think it's ethical but is it illegal? I've had a consignor tell me he bid on his own items in a major auction. Truth be told it disturbed me and from then on if I knew he was the consignor in an auction I would avoid the items. After that I was a little suspect about that particular auction house (who I will not name). I still bid in that auction houses auctions (not as much as in the past) because they do have good material. But it still bothers me knowing what I know about the consignor bidding on their own stuff.

Some may say it shouldn't matter because they have to pay the premium if they win the auction but that's not the point. To me this has everything to do with ethics. If someone wants to sell something for a certain price then JUST SELL THE THING without playing these stupid games. Bottom line is that they could sell it for 15% - 20% less and still get the amount of money they wanted for the item.

Even if there were laws about consignors bidding on their own material there are ways to circumvent the system such as having a buddy bid on the material. Same game, different plan, same stupid MFing a$$hole manipulating the system.

If any auction house allows this then their ethics should be questioned, but then again there's the buddy system.