[Jeff H]

A lot of people keep calling it shill bidding, but if the auction house divulges that it will place a bid on behalf of the seller then I don't think that is considered a shill bid. If a private individual has his buddy placing a bid on his car, then that is considered a shill bid unless of course his buddy really wants to buy it. I'm not trying to defend anyone here, but it's in plain writing that this is what most reserve auctions do so it should be no surprise.