Yeah, Mecum auctions are now custom tailored to cater to the big dogs with the big money. I get it, as from a business perspective if makes total "cents". What I didn't get was all of the shenanigans that go on at those auctions. A few years ago I was at MCACN and was at Tom's after party. I somehow found myself in a group conversation involving a number of the big dogs. They were talking and I was just listening, but the stuff about the fake bidding, shill bidding, chandelier bidding, seeded house bidders, short hammer sales, inflated reserves so on and so forth just blew my mind!! I guess I was naive but I had assumed that it was all pretty straight forward as described in the rules ... but it's not. It's a money making machine and like Vegas, the house always wins.
