Russo and Steele auction

[Steve Shauger]

I never knew that auction houses as part of their standard business practice bid the cars up. I had heard they may have secretly done this, but to have it in their standard contract was quite enlightening. BTW its my understanding this only applies to reserve auctions.

Now if a car is bid up by the auction house (artificially)but under the original reserve and then the auction lowers the reserve and a bid is placed by a real bidder that exceeds the lower reserve then that to me is shill bidding. Again the sale price has been established artificially by the auction house and not the market.

I am not anti auction, but this specific practice seems very questionable...at least from a buyers perspective.