Norm I think you are missing the point. A reserve is up front and shown to the bidders, it's not an underhanded trick and fraud to make it look like something is more valuable than it is. The seller decides how much is the least they will take, to protect their interests. Also as someone else pointed out, it saves money on the listing fee.

I have made a personal choice to not bid on auctions that have reserves, until it has been met and I can see that it's not a test. Or if the seller lists the reserve or discloses it in email. Actually, one could just put tye reserve in the auction listing and save the trouble.

What's a test auction? When someone might put something up for sale that might be worth $100, and slap a reserve on it that's $3000 so no one can win it. They are testing the water for how high people will bid.

How about another dealers trick. This one has been used at shows to establish values and drive up prices. Dealer "A" will browse through Dealer "B's" offerings. B has some things marked about double the market price that people are willing to pay. They wait until enough collectors have seen the high prices and then "A" buys some high profile pieces. This establishes that item X has been sold for big bucks. The problem is that the buy is a fake and the item is returned or swapped for an equal value item. All a nice show to fool collectors. The two dealers are partners.

This would work on auctions as well, and the cost would be the listing fees. That's right, bid up something that has interest to many collectors, have your shill buy it high. Then auction another one and have it go for even more. No risk because then the real auction comes along and the suckers believe it's really worth much more, because they have seen it sell for that twice before.

I hope this is educational and isn't giving people ideas. Because when all of us know the tricks and someone pulls them, they will get caught.

Smart buyers means less people will be cheated by scam attempts.