Only the very astute can pick up on fake or shill bidders. The action of a live auction can be quick and in the excitement of the moment there are many things that can go undetected. An observer can miss a lot of tell tail signs and a bidder will miss the obvious.
Signs to Watch For:
Watch who a bidder talks to, what they do and determine if they are really part of the landscape
Watch for quick increasing bid increments. If you cannot identify a person with those run- ups there is likely no real bidding . The auctioneer is moving things along to get the car to the price they need. The real person will be caught as the winning bidder when the targeted price is finally reached.
If an auctioneer losses their place or backs up on a bid, then they lost a real bidder and got caught with a shill bid and need to re-establish a live real bidder.
Watch for the same person bidding all night long, Very few people bid on more than a couple of cars in one evening.
The bidder or winning bidder will follow the car out or change character unless the person bidding is a dealer buying several cars,. They won't act like nothing happened.
Watch for that person who is the under bidder or the bidder that starts the bidding on multiple cars, again few people participate in multiple bidding if they are really buying
Watch for the ring man or auctioneer looking into an area where no particular person can be identified. That spot is usually over the crowd or towards the back. It won't be right down in front unless they are using a plant.
Ask questions, look around the room
If you bid always look at the person you think you are bidding against, never bid if you don't know you are bidding against because you will be bidding against yourself
These practices by unscrupulous auctions, manipulate the process, cost real bidders thousands of dollars and artificially inflate the prices. An auction item should bring the most money a real person is prepared to pay by bidding. At Russo and Steele the final price can be the price the auctioneers decide to run the bidding price up to. They are trying to get a real person to jump in and if that doesn't happen the consigner thinks the job almost got done, or in the case of a no reserve auction the seller gets to buy their own car back, that is unless the partners of Russo and Steal have decided to buy the car for themselves and resell it later. Don't fall into this trap.
The purpose of this blog was to educate potential victims before they get taken at auction, it's just too bad the education has to come from those who had to pay a price to learn.
The focus is not an entire industry, that would take more time to expose and many more innocent people would continue to get hurt by the worst of the worst.
The worst of the worst is the Russo and Steele auction company owned by Drew and Josephine Alcazar. These people smile in the face of victims. They have spent a lifetime honing their skills. To call yourself a hobbyist and represent yourself as catering to the enthusiast is a crime. Why not at least tell the truth and say your real goal is to make as much money as possible in the shortest amount of time. When corporate sponsors climb on board, when magazines take advertising dollars and write articles ignoring what is said behind doors it is time for the individuals to speak up.
You cannot fake bids, buy and sell cars at your own auction, fabricate sales numbers, manipulate a market and create a place where knowledgeable people prey on decent hobbyists. The big companies don't want to have a cloud over their core business so they try and look the other way. The advertisers are short sighted and sponsors go where they can and try anything sometimes. So once again the little guy has to work to expose those that manipulate and exploit others of more honest nature.
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