Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The E-Bay HOLTON


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Posted by Frank on January 16, 2003 at 17:20:25:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: The E-Bay HOLTON posted by Lew on January 16, 2003 at 09:53:52:

Its not just Ebay. In fact this covers any case where a bogus bidder is there just to push up the price past what it would legitimately bring. I have seen consigners try to bid up their own items, or in the case where the auctioneer is honest and can identify the consigner, the consigner will have another person do the bidding. Since the shill is in essence working for the seller/consigner, the most the conspiritors can loose is the auctioneers commission, that is if the shill does get stuck with the bid.

It is possible for some dishonest seller on Ebay to register another bidder registration at a different address and different credit card # from the one he originally used to register on the site, and run the price up him/herself.

The honest way for a seller to protect himself against a loss is with a reserve. (On Ebay the seller can control the opening bid, so it works either way). At a live auction the auctioneer will announce that there is a reserve, and once it iseached will then announce that "we are selling".

The other side of the coin is where two or more buyers conspire to avoid bidding against each other during an auction, buy up a portion of the auction items well below cost, and split the purchased "loot".

I am part time auctioneer, doing mostly "for fun and fund raising" benefit auctions. In most places the above mentioned practices are criminal acts. Honest auctioneers will bring charges, especially against those conspiring to reduce price (it surely reduces the auctioneer's commission).

In fact it is a federal offense for competing auctioneers to compare commission schedules. The feds consider that an action "in restraint of trade". When I went to auction school the instructors taught us how to do all the paperwork involved with properly documenting an auction, but never discussed what their actual commission rates/fees were. The instructors told us the FTC was very tough and they would not discuss it. That was the ONLY part of their business that they held back on, being very free and helpful with everything else.

FWIW


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