There's certainly nothing wrong with it legally, although the customer probably isn't going to be too happy about it and it might wind up costing the seller some business in the long run. There was a thread on a similar topic a few months back, something along the lines of, "Do you bid on an auction in which a friend of yours is the current high bidder?" I usually don't, although earlier Saturday I was outbid by a friend of ours about 2 1/2 hours up I-80. <g>