My post pertains  to firearms and related items acquired  by means of buying at auctions, so here is what I'm asking.....
A lot of you have bought firearms etc at various auction venues over the years, and the plan is usually pretty straight forward: Items are offered for competitive bidding in front of an audience; either live, online, or both.
As a general rule, auctioneers will act as an agent for the seller, and if accepting absentee or phone bids, as an agent for the buyer as well.
I have been told that that isn't acting as an "agent"; but I do not know what else it would be called.
Now recently I have come across a situation that to me at least, blurs the lines between running an honest auction and one that is sort of shall I say, questionable.
It is a situation where the auctioneer is offering goods for sale from various owners by soliciting bids from an onsite audience,as well as online bidding (absentee), as well as phone bids, AND IS ALSO BIDDING UP THE ITEMS FOR THE OWNER .
This last function is what I have trouble with.
It smells of what I've read as being called "puffing": The act of artificially bidding up an item for the benefit of the owner.
As far as I know, no mention is made during the auction as to whether a given item does or doesn't have a reserve. And after knockdown, no mention is made as to whether the item actually sold or did not meet it's reserve.
The only way I've seen to tell if an item sold or not is to check the prices realized page.
If there's a gap in the consecutive numbering, then that item must not have sold.

I  know that the act of bidding on behalf of a seller to help reach a reserve is in the "fine print", so they DO mention it if you look through terms and conditions.
But there's something about it that doesn't seem quite right.
So do you guys think that is a fair way to operate or not ??

That's true. Know what you want to pay and stick to it. 
That's why I'd sooner use absentee bids, so I'm not there getting caught up in the moment and spending more than I planned on.

However, the act of bidding up an item to try and coax it to a reserve is giving a false impression IMO.There is a hidden vested interest .
If an item has a reserve, either state so as it's being offered; or after bidding is over and it hasn't reached it. That's fair and the audience knows exactly what just happened. OR if a printed list or catalog is available, a capital "RES" next to the item for reserve would at least alert buyers to the fact.

Now look at  ebay. As far as I know, bidding your own stuff up isn't allowed.
Nor is having a buddy run it up. That is a hard thing to prove, but I know some people that did get caught doing it, and they were kicked off the site.

Some of the auction regs I've come across are interesting.
For instance, it is unlawful for an auctioneer  to bid on items for themselves. Now why is that unlawful, but it isn't unlawful to run an item up for your client ??

somewhere I had the idea that shilling and related acts are classified as collusion and violate Federal law but I sure couldn't quote the book, chapter and verse.

I never bid on Gunbroker where a person has a reserve price.  If they will not list no reserve and start opening
bid at the least they will take I will not waste my time bidding.  I will not keep bidding to try to reach some
unknown reserve.

I do bid, just to show 'em what the real price should be.

My take is auctions have no rules and odds are against you.  Just like Las Vegas.   I set my maximum price and stick to it no matter what.  Other principal is never pay more than you can afford to loose.  Over the years once or twice have been taken with hidden problems.  Chalk it up to luck and spread the loss over the good deals. 

If buying from someone I know I will pay a premium, cheap insurance.

Boats

sportslube wrote on Jan 30^th, 2015 at 5:22pm:

I think the worst case of shilling or puffing was at a farm auction where the owner had a few cronies bidding stuff up for him.
It wasn't just guns; it was farm equipment, antiques, and some higher end household goods. Each man had a sheet with minimum prices for each item, and if they ended up buying the item back, the owner would saunter over and pull out a roll of cash that would have made a roll of toilet paper look puny. He'd peel off whatever was required to pay for each item.
What was funny to me was, when I outbid his crony for a Stevens 44-1/2, the owner still wasn't satisfied with the price; so he stepped up and started bidding just before the auctioneer knocked it down to me. I had to pay a bit more for the gun, but luckily the owner had no idea what a 32-40 44-1/2 was actually worth 

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The same thing happens with online auctions. Often sellers on various ebay or gun auction sites will have their friends bid on their item, and tell the friend what their reserve is. So 2-3 guys bid the item up close to the reserve, so innocent bidders will see all the interest, and possibly push them towards jumping in, and they bump it over the reserve. Then all the bidders who were driving it to the reserve suddenly disappear, and the new bidder wins the item.
I bet we'd all be shocked how often this practice is done.