I’ve heard about reserves. What are they?
A. Many auction houses use “hidden reserves.” These are secret minimum bids higher than the published minimum bid. They are similar in procedure to that of a maximum bid, but the difference is that customers are bidding against the consignor rather than other bidders. A customer believes he is the high bidder on an item, but unless they have exceeded the reserve they do not receive the item and it is returned to the seller. We believe these practices to be deceptive and we do not use reserves in our auctions.