All Poster Forum
Collecting and Collectibles in Other Areas => General Discussion => Topic started by: Dr Hackenbush on September 25, 2010, 03:26:34 PM
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A sports authentication and research company, that also has their own auction house, called MEARS (Memorabilia Evaluation and Research Services) conducted a shill bidding experiment in a recent auction of theirs. They posted an article on their website (http://www.mearsonline.com/news/newsDetail.asp?id=758) discussing the results. I know Bruce will appreciate it ;D
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That was neat, thanks :)
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Interesting but I think I would be pissed if I was an "innocent bidder" who really wanted the jersey and had no knowledge or their little experiment...
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That's the whole problem with their "experiment". They took a wildly over-valued item where no one would bid half the reserve, and then drew all kinds of unwarranted conclusions from it. PLUS tons of people knew of the experiment and could have altered the result, knowing they would never be buying anything.
But the kind of shill bidding addressed here (bidders raising prices by placing bids not knowing what other bidders are bidding) is a real problem, but it is dwarfed by the most common bidding problem, which is the auction house raising the bids of absentee bidders when they DO know exactly how much they have bid.
So while this is interesting, it fails to points out that most auction houses are less trustworthy than used car dealers, and that extreme care needs to be taken before participating in any auction.
Bruce
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re what Bruce said, really annoys me where auction houses use absentee bids like this.
I sometimes bid at an auction house in Australia, (absentee) and somehow EVERY item I have won has been spot on my max bid, never over the years have I won with even $5 change.
I asked them, and they said NO, THEY BID ON MY BEHALF.
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re what Bruce said, really annoys me where auction houses use absentee bids like this.
I sometimes bid at an auction house in Australia, (absentee) and somehow EVERY item I have won has been spot on my max bid, never over the years have I won with even $5 change.
I asked them, and they said NO, THEY BID ON MY BEHALF.
Yeah they bid your max right out of the gate :P
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IMO, they just wasted their time here. It would take a great many items and more attention to secrecy to really prove anything. I'd take all of that with a grain of salt.