Belt Auction

seller bids on own items at local auction house what can we do?

Ok so there were items up at a local auctions house that me and my business partner were there to bid on. We noticed a guy who collects these items and sells them so I asked if they were his.. he stated they were NOT his. and that he was going to bid on them. I then witnessed the owner of the auction approach him and ask him if he still wanted to auction off his stuff (it was way past the normal time they close and they were not anywhere near done) he said yes. The auctioneer then asked him how much he was going to bid them up to. he said $15.. I was outraged.. I thought maybe i miss understood there conversation. I went to the office were you register and she confirmed that they were indeed his items. Also they have an auctioneer that "makes up bids" he pretends someone bids against you to raise your bid amount.. and alot of employees also bid against you. this is a very well known auction house and I cannot believe this has been going on for so long. What steps can someone take? this is illegal I'm almost positive. We live in Kansas City Missouri please someone help with all of our options. I want this to stop.

Public Comments

1. Contact the FBI. This person is acting as a Shill or "plant" on their own item, (obviously) driving up prices and initiating a bidding war. Should the seller place the 'winning' bid he or she pays money to him/herself and only loses the auction costs.
2. This is a common trick called shilling and some auction houses including ebay have a policy of throwing the guy out and revoking his selling permit . But unfortunately some crooked auctions allow it because they profit more from higher priced items . I am not sure what you can do about it but raising a stink and embarrassing them is sure a good idea that might teach them a lesson and make them think about bankruptcy .