I don't understand these informal auctions. Can't someone make up bids if they are devious?

: I am a big fan of the informal auctions, and I will write up
: some thoughts over the weekend.

: For everyone worrying about the ethics of the seller, who may end
: an auction early or not play fair with the
: "transparency" of the bids, please tell me how you
: feel about the members of our community who offered Michael
: (novice seller of the Autavia shown below) $4,000 for his watch
: and tried to assure him that this was a fair price? Or the
: others who tried to buy it at $5,000? Michael ended up believing
: that the watch was probably worth $6,000, and I recommended the
: informal auction as a way of seeing whether it might be worth
: substantially more. The informal auction produced a sales price
: of $13,500, from another member of our community, with multiple
: bids above $10,000.

: Does an informal auction make sense for the standard Viceroy?
: Doubtful. Does it make sense for the very rare watch that is
: difficult to value? I believe that it does.

: Just a couple of points to ponder . . .

: Jeff

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