Which Auctions Allow House Bidding / Owned Items?

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by glchen

To me, the shady part of house bidding, even in the case where it's only meant as a "reserve" is that is seems like it's trying to create the illusion of demand. If you're interested in a lot, and you see numerous bids on it, you might think the item is more highly in demand, and you may need to raise your ceiling bid. Whereas if you were the only bidder in the auction, you might start thinking of that famous quote: "the only thing rare about this item is the number of bidders for it," and therefore bid less. Again, that's why I think that to protect consignors, the house should just put a reserve. That reserve amount could be the price that the house is willing to purchase the lot from the consignor. Everything is much cleaner that way.

I don't think any auction house, whether or not it is shlling, tipping off consignors to ceiling bids, etc., wants to show its lots with NO activity throughout most of the auction.