laws regarding auctions?

Probably varies from state to state as to legalities. Sometimes employees will bid absentee for someone so it's hard to tell what's going on. If they are a legit auction house they should belong to some associations, you can check with them as to what the rules and regs are.

You have some people who are like groupies...they follow a few or just one auction company. I my self follow a short few as I find others to be a waste of my time 90% of the time.

He could be family or close friend to someone who works/owns the auction company and would explain why he has some of there gear. As to laws per people bidding on lots. Only time I know they are NOT able to is if its a GOV auction. The company and there family's can NOT bid on the gov auctions.

Now....if you can show to a court system that they are setting the bids to make things run higher than it should of...then you have a court case but trying to show a court that they really did NOT want the item and was just trying to run the bids up is very hard.

This would be a good website that could help you.

http://www.justice.gov/atr/public/gu...ter_primer.htm

Originally Posted by decjr2006

theres a man the claims he does not work for a local auction company although he goes to all there auctions, sometimes runs there tickets, he wears a hat with there logo on it, and they sometimes bid on stuff on his behalf when he is not with current auctioneer at big auctions...

Hes always bidding on scrap nothing else runs it up high if it wasnt for him me and the other scrappers would be makeing a lot more money he swears that he does not work for them. weve try to talk to him several times about keeping stuff low like it is at other auctions and he doesnt seem to care.

Does anyone know if this is legal for an employee of an auction house to be bidding on there items? not to mention he seems to be doing it just to run the scrap stuff up higher. I live in maryland dont know if this makes a difference

Maybe you and the other scrappers should tell the owners of the auction house that you suspect he is a shill. Auctioneers have state licenses, don't they? They probably don't want to tangle with the state licensing board. If they are not licensed you could still threaten to boycott their auctions. Or you could take a pretty female relative to distract the guy during the auction. LOL.

As stated some states have licensing and others do not.

But as stated its very hard to show in a court of law that blank is going on. Best way to take care of the issue (works better if you are a "high roller" and spend a good penny there....if you go up to the manger and or owner and tell them flat out that something seems fishie and your not liking it and that you may find another auction house.

If a auction house has no buyers "bidders" in this case the items will sell to cheap and they will get a bad rap. They all so would LOVE to keep the high bidders around knowing that you will do a few things...run the bid up and buy it..and buy the other things that other people DO NOT WANT...trust me...every auction house has a list of scrappers that they call out....

Originally Posted by Kris Kringle

Yeah let her Flash em

Sweetie, put on those Daisy Dukes, we're going to an auction!

Originally Posted by decjr2006

i cant imagine being able to spend enough money at one of there auctions to get noticed like i said before they have several heavy equipment/contractors auctions and im just your everyday scrap guy

I have spent as much as 17grand and as little has $120....its not about how much you spend...its what they THINK of you...if they THINK you have all the money in the world it wont matter if you spend 17grand or 50bucks.

Or do what I did once when I realized a plant was running up the bid on my wife. Most people have a pattern to bidding and she was no different. She is a Barbie dealer and there were a lot of doll and stuff. I told her to pick something she didn't really care about and let me know; then do exactly as I said. She indicated the item. The bidding started and went with no hesitation in bids till it was over $100. I kept whispering "bid", "bid" "now, no more bidding". He was waiting for the hesitation and would bid once more, knowing she'd bid again before stopping. There was no hesitation. He knew he'd been dumped on when I grinned at him. HE WAS PO'd at losing $100 but he never tried that on her again, either.

That works well...but can back fire real easy....

Originally Posted by easyrecycle

That works well...but can back fire real easy....

Yes. Only do it once per auction. That's why you want to pay attention and watch who's bidding. You can learn the frequent bidders easy enough.

Originally Posted by Mick

Yes. Only do it once per auction. That's why you want to pay attention and watch who's bidding. You can learn the frequent bidders easy enough.

One reason why I stand to the back...so I can see everything that's going on.