I bid against people who I trade with, buy from and sell to, because we are all going for the same chips. If I didn't I might as well stop looking for the missing WI chips that I need.

I would hope that the community is large enough that a good chip would attract more than a few buyers who are friends. If that's true, there isn't much of a market for the "better material" in the first place.

But if you mean, I'd see Archie is bidding on this, so I just leave it alone (without collusion) I'd say, nope, I'm going up against you buddy. High bidder wins.

I'm watching an action that Skip is also bidding on, along with five other people, and it's still a couple of days until closing. That's a sign that I'm not going to win it, without making a fair bid. Goldplated isn't going to let anything get away cheap! (my compliments intended)

But just because I recognize four of the other bidders, it doesn't mean I'm dropping out. Maybe they are reading here now and I should warn them I'm bidding a gazillion dollars and they should just give up now.

I could see a problem if I saw Mr X is bidding on something that we both collect and I know him and write an email saying, I'm not going to bid anymore on this, if you don't bid against me on that...