[camarojoe]

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To me it artificially inflates the price a real bidder is willing to spend and what the real market price of the car(not what the seller wants). If I'm at an auction I don't want to bid against myself. If a car doesn't legitimately meet reserve then possibly something could be negotiated by both buyer& seller once it is off the block.

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I agree, and if you only have one interested party for a car at a way undervalued price at an auction, then you're running a pretty crappy auction. Besides that, the general public sees some car that the seller has set an insanely high reserve on get pushed up to nearly that amount via shill bidding, and then does not sell...they think the car has a value of way more money than it really does, and use it as justification for setting their own rediculous prices. How many times have you heard the line "My price is cheap, did you see what a similar car was bid to at B-J or Russo-Steele, etc.?" Shill bidding at these auctions should not be allowed, encouraged, or endorsed IMO.