Questionable Estate Auction practice

Thanks guys. I am aware of the degradation of Apogees, I have Calipers right now. This pair of Duettas was in excellent shape so the price was right to me.
I don't have the form they had me sign and I'm kind of over it now so I don't think I will go further. Especially since I scored about 600 albums in excellent shape today for a fair price.

I think someday I will get a pair of rebuilt Duetta sigs for a fair price and then all will be good in my world.

Sleazy practice at best; deliberately deceptive in all likelihood. It seems to me like they knew they had a bidder for the whole system and used the individual bidders as "shills" to run up the price. Plenty of very questionable practices in auction world; on line and in person. However, the reality is that there is no practical relief you could be granted, because you didn't suffer any loss in an economic sense. Even if what they did is "illegal" letting it go like you did is probably best for your mental health.

I don't do auctions but this is the craziest thing I ever heard. What would the auctioneer do in the event the hammer came down and the winning bidder refused to pay unless the auctioneer lowered the bid price?

"However, the reality is that there is no practical relief you could be granted, because you didn't suffer any loss in an economic sense."

I know why you would think that but its not really relevant. Assuming there are no special laws for a case like this, or a wavier of rights by the OP, when those speakers were won by Fse, the auction company had a legal obligation to sell the speakers to him. When he won the auction, a contract was created. Beyond that, nothing else matters. Just because there was no loss doesn't mean they could just walk away from the deal. Raks, in his post is correct. If the OP decided not to pay, the auction could come after him for the exact same reason; there was a contract.

Zd- I agree, contract was created. Auctioneer broke contract, what are the damages? Not a lawyer (but I play one on TV) but again, what kind of relief could you get? No court is gonna take the items away from the system purchaser and Fse did not lose any $, so unless Fse asked the court to enjoin the auctioneer from that practice, there is not much else they could do. I suppose there might be a consumer protection law violation but that would probably result, at best, in a consent agreement not to do it again. Best to just chalk it up to experience and make a mental note to avoid that guy's auctions.