I noticed the other day that in very small print that proxibid provides prebid information to auction companies that request it. I became suspicious of this practice when a number of auctions I had bid high prices on for items I really wanted closed at that price, and could not have been bid up incrementally to that price. My suspicions were confirmed today when I was watching a live auction today and low and behold the auctioneer called out my high bid as the starting bid when the actual starting bid on proxibid's site was far lower.
When I spoke to proxibid's customer service rep today while closing my account, I asked him about this and he said under some UCC law the auction companies were allowed to see these prebids but "were not supposed to use them as the starting bid" in the live auction. When I asked him if anyone was policing this practice, he said no and it was up to the consumer to work with the auction company if they felt this was happening.
It's pretty obvious this leads to illegal and deceptive business practices in the auction industry, and that they and their clients (proxibid/auction companies) benefit from this practice and loophole at the expense of the consumer/bidder.
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