vendor bid

A type of bid at an auction which is made by the auctioneer on behalf of the vendor,…A type of bid at an auction which is made by the auctioneer on behalf of the vendor, without any desire to buy the article. This is used as a tactic to keep the bids moving, or to persuade buyers to pay more, or merely to have a higher price to report if the property is passed in. Such a bid is in essence a fiction; if not clearly announced as such, it approaches the deliberate deception of a dummy bid.