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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TIF, post: 1823070, member: 56859&quot;]I&#039;ve been signing up and bidding with bunches of different auction houses in the last few months.&nbsp; Admittedly, I rarely read all the fine print-- I just check to see the fees, methods of payment, etc.</p><p><br /></p><p>While signing up with Spink today I read through their Terms &amp; Conditions pages a little more closely.</p><p><br /></p><p>Hmm.</p><p><br /></p><p>If I&#039;m understanding this correctly...</p><p>(a)&nbsp; I can submit my maximum bid in writing (absentee or commission bid) and they will execute it as best they can (nothing unusual about that)</p><p>(b)&nbsp; They can also, as a company, bid on any lots they want.&nbsp; <i><span style="color: #0000ff">???</span></i></p><p><br /></p><p>Is (b) standard operating procedure for auction houses?&nbsp; Seems like a conflict of interest.&nbsp; If a client submits an absentee bid well in excess of the minimum and the bidding is slow, what&#039;s to stop the company from bidding it up?&nbsp; Under what circumstances would they bid on lots in their own auctions?&nbsp; If there were no other bidders?&nbsp; That might be OK.&nbsp; Otherwise, hmmm.&nbsp; Seems problematic.&nbsp; Or is this much ado about nothing?&nbsp; I guess if the bidders are known/named it might not be a problem.</p><p><br /></p><p>Those of you experienced in dealing with major auction houses, can you shed some light on this for me from a real world standpoint?</p><p><br /></p><p>And what does section 4.10.1 mean?&nbsp; It looks like if Spink bids up to the reserve on the Seller&#039;s behalf, the <i>Seller has to buy back his/her own consigned lot at the reserve price.&nbsp; </i>&nbsp; Surely I&#039;m not reading that correctly.&nbsp; Not that I really need to understand that section since I&#039;m not consigning anything.&nbsp; Just curious.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]299654[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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