Has anybody ran into this. The Sherman Act of 1890 and "bid rigging". of course

 YOU HAVE!!--The Sherman Act of 1890 and "bid rigging".

Bid rigging is the result of a conspiracy between two or more participants entered into for the purpose of artificially affecting auction prices. The parties' agreement to the scheme is the necessary keystone to establish a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Here are two important points about bid rigging that are not commonly known.First, a violation of the Sherman Act does not occur when a rigged bid is executed in an auction. The law is broken at the moment the conspiracy was formed by the co-conspirators. The Sherman Act outlaws a conspiracy made "in restraint of trade or commerce." The statute is triggered upon the parties' making an agreement to do what is impermissible, and it does not require execution of the plan.

Second, it is not necessary for the conspiracy to succeed for the Sherman Act to be violated. Again, the violation occurs immediately upon the parties making an agreement that is prohibited by law. If two or more would-be bidders conspire to depress bidding in an auction, they have violated the act even if their plan fails. Likewise, if an auctioneer and a shill, or a seller and an accomplice, conspire to artificially boost prices in an auction, a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act has occurred regardless of whether they gain a higher selling price.

Upon conviction, the statute provides for a "fine not exceeding $100,000,000 if a corporation, or, if any other person, $1,000,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding 10 years.

The Sherman Act is clearly broken in one episode where hosts Allen Haff and Clinton "Ton" Jones use the phrase "Drop the unit on him", where they deliberately inflate the unit's price to $950.00 and then stop bidding.  

As employee's of Spike TV, Allen Haff and Clinton "Ton" Jones are not liable, however Spike TV is guilty of breaking The Sherman Antitrust Act as the corporation that hired and promoted the activity. Spike TV should be getting a 100 million dollar fine.  Wait!  It's fake remember, so Spike will never see such a fine, proving this show is nothing more than a "show" and not reality.

Gee BWD......I wish I could convince you to use attribution when you post such things.

Definition: Attribution is to show or indicate where information in a news story comes from

For those who care, here's the source link:

westcoasttruth.com/spike-tvs-auction-hunters-is-fake.html

*****

See also reply #21 in this thread:

http://storageauctionforums.com//index.php/topic,2318.30.html

I'm way to lazy and simply don't care enough to research my answer so I'll pose it as a question.....which since I'm unsure it kinda is.

Isnt the Sherman Act for interstate commerce?  Which auctions are not (in most of our cases) so couldn't be applied?

Not to say each of our own states and localities don't have laws against it anyway. Just that the Sherman Act has no relevance in this case.       

Tho...guess if the facility has facilities in several states......But the unction is run by a private individual, it would actually be THAT business you are acting against......   

Just that the Sherman Act has no relevance in this case.       

I think Shakespeare said it best in the title of one of his plays...."Much Ado About Nothing".

It has even less meaning for us than arguing who really wrote Shakespeare's plays. But, that's just my opinion.

I think Shakespeare said it best in the title of one of his plays...."Much Ado About Nothing".

It has even less meaning for us than arguing who really wrote Shakespeare's plays. But, that's just my opinion.

I thought Shakespeare made fishing rods.....shows what I know 

Better call the law, cause I've dropped a number of units on folks too!!

Simple rules of storage auctions:

1. Buyer Beware!
2. Nobody twists your arm to place the highest bid, you are responsible for your own actions. How other people bid, or the quality of the property inside the unit after you win are of no consequence.
3. When two or more people collude to depress the price of a unit, bid them up!!
4. When two or more people collude to elevate the price of a unit, stop bidding!!

Simple as that 

It's not illegal to run up a bid if you just being a dick. Only if you are doing it with another in hopes that one party receives a financial gain. (Dave Hester's comment that the auctioneer should give him a cut cause he's run up so many bids and made him so much money....    If the auctioneer agreed, that's illegal.)

On the "I won't bid on x-unit if you don't bid on y-unit" runs into some grey area's of the law.


What I do is just not say the words. I'll go to people that look interested and before or during bidding just say "looks like you really want this one, I don't think I want it, I won't stand in your way" something like that.   Just be friendly.   Then if one come up I really want I do the opposite "you don't look like you like tis one. I'm going to try. I need to get something today...."

Found a lot of people will be good and won't bid.  Not illegal .  We both have the right and neither of us are not going to bid if it looks sweet...
A lot of people will still bid but at least they don't run you up cause you were nice.


Just remember people: "you can get farther with a smile and a gun, than just a gun"

.....wait.....I don't think that....ooh, never mind.  You get my point.   

It's not illegal to run up a bid if you just being a dick. Only if you are doing it with another in hopes that one party receives a financial gain.

Count me in to the above with a slight modification:

I am doing it in hopes that the winning party gets the lkr at such a high price (either a newbie or greedy regular) that he/she will experience a financial loss and thus will learn a lesson in economics.  This has worked on many occasions.

But its better than nobody posting anything at all. Its been slow here so thought I might get a rise out of someone. Looks like I did.

Didn't we talk/discuss/argue about this some months back.  I've only read about a auction company & bidders being arrested and convicted of this once.  It was a big real estate auction scandel in California.

I've noticed a slow down here also.  Not a many new people.  Wonder if interest in storage units is starting to decline.

Every forum ends up like this.
Talk the sh*t out of a subject. New people come and old timers direct them to past threads instead of talking about subject agian.  Forum turns to a smll group BS'n about non-sense.  New people don't see much content. .....

Tho one forum about 5 of us still talk 10yrs later.  Met in person. Going to ones wedding. And have a place to stay when I'm in London....

So some good comes of sticking around these things.   

Small world story:   I was on a forum for about 5yrs.  Eventually, thru time, things the web master said started adding up.  Finally I asked him where he worked.  Turns out he not only worked across the street but I could look out my office window, down about 20 floors, and see him in his office!  I saw him everyday at coffee shop!

Another small world story:  same forum, another member from the east coast was talking and was in my town on business.  Not only was she in the hotel three blocks from my condo but she was opposing counsel to one of our cases! 

Didn't we talk/discuss/argue about this some months back.  I've only read about a auction company & bidders being arrested and convicted of this once.  It was a big real estate auction scandel in California.

I've noticed a slow down here also.  Not a many new people.  Wonder if interest in storage units is starting to decline.

See the link in my reply #1 above. Yes, we have discussed it.