Received an email from a "Justin Quinn" today, announcing a "Proxibid" tonight for a "Huge Selection of U.S. Pre-1933 Gold Coins As Well As Rare U.S. Bullion Items." Thought you might be interested in the fine print that's disclosed at the bottom each bid page...this is simply amazing...read carefully: "PLEASE READ: At the request of the auction company, this auction permits bids to be placed by the auctioneer, an employee of the auctioneer, or the seller or an agent on the seller's behalf, even if such bids are placed solely for the purpose of increasing the bid. While Proxibid's Unified User Agreement prohibits this behavior, in accordance with UCC 2-328, this auction is permitted to engage in this activity by providing this clear disclosure to you, the bidder. PLEASE READ: This auction company has requested and been granted access to see all bids placed including any maximum pre-bids. This auction is permitted to engage in this activity by providing this clear disclosure to you, the bidder." Here's the auction link. So what do you think of this?
Run, as fast and as far away from this auction as you can. It's a contradiction of the policy. Proxibid claims their policy prohibits bids to be placed by the auctioneer, an employee of the auctioneer, or the seller or an agent on the seller's behalf, even if such bids are placed solely for the purpose of increasing the bidi.e shill bidding when you get down to it, but they're relaxing their policy on it at the request of the auction company. No way, jose!
Rather like eBay seller saying "Submit an offer". I think it is fair as you were notified and can choose to participate or not, and the seller wants to protect his items from being sold at "bargain " prices. I feel it is a sign of a seller not being sure the proxibid.com can supply an adequate supply of buyers since as a middleman, Proxibid has to take a cut also. It would be like bidding on Heritage through an agent rather than directly, Of course they will take a % of the price.
Soooooo wrong, especially if they can see what your maximum bid is. It does at least seem that there's some validity to their citation from the Uniform Commercial Code. From Cornell's web site: "If the auctioneer knowingly receives a bid on the seller's behalf or the seller makes or procures such a bid, and notice has not been given that liberty for such bidding is reserved, the buyer may at his option avoid the sale or take the goods at the price of the last good faith bid prior to the completion of the sale. This subsection shall not apply to any bid at a forced sale." Still pretty sleazy, especially when you consider the fact that this law was likely written without taking electronic auctions, and how automatic maximum bids work, into consideration.
If I'm not mistaken, I think that code was written long before there was eBay, Heritage, Teletrade, or any other online, electronic auction service or site.
In Pennsylvania, it is illegal for the auctioneer to bid solely to drive up the price. It is permitted for him, or an employee to bid, in order to meet a reserve, but it has to be disclosed prior to the start of the auction and the bidding that the item has a reserve price (don't have to say what the reserve is, just that it has a reserve). It is also legal for employees to bid for the purpose of buying a particular item. Usually when a runner starts to bid against me, I simply back off, since I don't know what the intention is. Me, if I read this prior to entering a live auction, would simply walk out the door. After reading this, I think either the sellers will still own their stuff, or the auctioneer will have some tremendous bargains being the only one bidding. Won't participate, but may be interestng to watch.
