Sorry to double post, but I had to read the article over a couple of
more times just to cut through all the double-talk (and all the useless
"testimonials" posted as comments at the end of the article). When I had
done that I just had to post my own comment on the article:
"So, just because "everyone at Heritage" knew they were shilling on
auctions, that makes it OK? That makes it legal? Because a legalistic
statement about the practice was buried in the fine print somewhere on a
page nobody every read?
I'm willing to bet that 99.9% of the people who were also bidding on
those auctions did NOT know that Heritage itself was bidding against
them and running the price up. And that's the whole point -- not that
some Heritage employees knew what was going on.
The fact that Heritage was buying these items (or trying to) "for our
own collection" is one huge self-justification smoke screen. If their
shill loses the auction, they still got a much bigger commission from
running the price up (and they keep their consigners happy and bringing
back more items for them to shill up. And if their shill actually wins
the auction, they have acquired the item for "their collection" and they
can eventually re-auction it and get their money back.
Meanwhile, if they won the auction, they pay the 19% buyer's premium to
*themselves*, so they are actually getting a hidden 19% DISCOUNT on the
auction that their shill won -- which means their shill can bid the item
up 19% more than anyone else who was interested in paying only the
"current market value".
But hey, nothing wrong with that, huh?
It's called CONFLICT OF INTEREST folks."
-- JR
Bruce Hershenson wrote:
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2009/09/lawsuit_claims_heritage_auctio.php
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