I've personally witnessed an auctioneer apparently in cahoots with a bidder allow the bidder to pull off some real shady stuff once. Box full of assorted quality American Indian artifacts that had been laid out open for inspection on table before auction started mysteriously disappeared as auction started.
Eventually found it again hidden down inside of another box of wore out household junk with household junk piled on top of artifacts. Told auctioneer assistant about it but was basically ignored. Shortly after I watched a man pull the same assistant aside and quietly talk with him for a minute or two then the assistant did the same with auctioneer.
As that box came up for auction bidding started real low as one would expect and as usually done for boxes of common assorted miscellaneous odds and ends. Bidding stayed low but that same man that had talked with the auction assistant earlier kept ahead by raising the minimum bid each time. After what few that were bidding on that box quit bidding I jumped in and bid it up so high that he was obviously very pissed-off at me.
I let him win the bidding but he paid a whole lot more for it than what he planed on and also aroused the curiosity of others there as to why he would pay so much for what was basically a box of odds and end junk that normally would have only brought a couple of dollars at most.
