[tirebird]

I agree Tom: I posted the below comments on the Russo&Steele thread.

I have a few comments that are probably not of interest to most of the readers here. I've never bought or sold a car at auction, never attended an auction, and never watched more than a few seconds of an auction on television. In my opinion, if the auction houses want to protect their supposedly good name, then they have to eliminate this shill business. Yes, by the letter of the law, it's legal. But, by the spirit of fairness and transparency, it's sleezy. There's no better word for it. If a car has a 100k reserve and real buyers only bid 80k, then that's the real value from the buyers willing to purchase the car. Artificially inflating the value up to a possibly outdated price point, doesn't do the hobby or the real buyers any good. But, I'm probably really naive here, it's really about making money for the auction houses.

Out here in California, there are a lot of foreclosed homes being auctioned by banks. I'm sure the same situation exists where you live too. I was visiting friends recently and happened upon one of those auctions at the steps of a local courthouse. This one home, that originally sold for 750K was on the block for a minimum bid of 355k. It didn't get any bids. The bank didn't have shill in the audience to bid the minimum. Would that have been okay? I don't know the law. But I do know, on this day, the bank set an unreasonable price and the laws of supply and demand, rejected it. There was no artificial inflationary bids to unrealistically price the home at a higher value even if it didn't sell. I like that model for the auction business.