Hi Jim,

I do believe you are trying to justify something, and I'm not sure why. Shill bidding is deception. It doesn't really matter why someone uses shill bidders, it is still deception on the part of the seller. If an auction's rules put a seller in a position of having to protect his auction item with shill bidding or open bidding by the seller (not the case with eBay) then I as a seller will not put items into this type of auction (is the case with the club auction.)

Bob