The bj auction reminded me of something I heard at Bob's funeral the other day. One of the persons said that Bob mentioned something about a lot of bj listers were bidding on their own cars with paid buyers, often using multiple bidders. So they get the car and money back, minus fees and the price paid to the paid buyer. The result is that the car now has a documented selling price of whatever amount.

Whether or not there is any foundation to this, what about the legal aspect? I don't see how this could be illegal. For instance, you have 3 paid buyers bidding on the car. Once the bidding reaches the level whereby only the 3 paid bidders are bidding, no one is getting ripped off.

This isn't shill bidding because it doesn't involve hoodwinking anyone out of money. These $25k cars are reaching $250k bid levels, so other than paid bidders have crapped out a few hunderd thousand of so ago. Again, no one is getting ripped off, thus no fraud.

The result nets a car that has a "documented" selling value, and I don't see how that equates into a crime. Appraisers work the same way: The more you line an appraiser's pocket, the higher the value. That's the reason why finincial instutitions won't consider any appraiser than its own source when lending money. Go to a bank and try to borrow money, based on documented appraised value, and see what happens.