Archie,

Even if the buyer paid what he thought was reasonable, he was undoubtable hurt by the shill bidder. If it were not for the shill bidders, he would have paid much less. So while he paid what he thought was reasonable, he paid much more than he should have. Bidding for any other reason than to win the auction, is immoral and illegal. I think the difficulty we have in understanding that shill bidding is wrong, is because we never really know when shill bidding has occurred. It is quite possible that the other party, the shill bidder, actually wanted the item. But in Rich's example, shill bidding was not in question, it was definite and then it is wrong.