... Steve, but I must be missing something.

I have looked at:

1 -- all of the auctions linked in your message
2 -- all of cablemansam's own auctions (mackeral is not a bidder in any of them)
3 -- the complete list of mackeral's recent auctions (there are 153, of which cablemansam bid on 16)

Of the 16 mackeral auctions that cablemansam bid on:

1 -- he is or was high bidder on four (one of which he won with a bid of 73.51 where there was already a bid of 72.51 by erishty & one of which he won as the only bidder at the opening bid)
2 -- he is or was #2 bidder on five (the one you linked is the only one where his bid is substantially higher than the next lowest bid)
3 -- he was outbid by substantial amounts in five other auctions (including one in which Don Lueders was the #2 bidder)

The only thing which looks unusual is the fact that every auction cablemansam bid on was one of Mackeral's (albeit, just over 10% of Mackeral's auctions) -- and Mackeral is not returning the favor at all.

The complete rundown looks like this:

thecasinokid 46.13
DonLueders 45.13
cablemansam 39.00

cablemansam 9.50 opening and only bid

mbuz 9.00
cablemansam 8.50

v.o. 9.99
cablemansam 2nd bidder in open auction

cablemansam 11.00
bvwtwist 2nd bidder in open auction

bigbug27 36.00
cablemansam 35.00
chefeyman 25.00

bigbug27 76.28 this for $25 PMSC Pai Gow chip
goldplated 75.28
cablemansam 61.00
Moored (David Moore) 50.00

ramjet001 200.00
brasschips 199.00
4ayl 180.00
cablemansam 175.00
r2d2casino 150.00

ramjet001 51.53
goldplated 50.53
chinook27 39.03
4ayl 26.50
cablemansam 22.00

goldplated 50.28
ramjet001 50.00
chinook27 22.52
cablemansam 22.00

reddogchip 102.50
cablemansam 100.00
lhwp 34.08
goldplated 32.08
r2d2casino 25.00

bvwtwist 30.50
cablemansam 29.50
chinook27 24.59
r2d2casino 20.00

cablemansam 23.00
gjlovell 22.50
ramjet001 21.50
treasey 19.95

cablemansam 73.51
erishty 72.51
chiphary 55.06
nvr 45.00

sardman 9.00 (earliest bid)
cablemansam 9.00

giver1st 10.50
cablemansam 10.00
gjovell 9.50

This does not look like a pattern of shill bidding to me, Steve. Have I missed something? What is it about these bids that leads you to conclude that this is a shill bidding situation? [The $73.51 bid over $72.51 in particular would be a pretty stupid shill bid, if you ask me.]

In the interests of complete disclosure and fairness, I have bought chips from both of these sellers and have had satisfactory transactions each time. Mackeral is David Whalen, who lives in Las Vegas and is a member of the club. Cablemansam is Sam Heppler, who lives in Billings MT (don't know if he's a member of the club or not).

Does anyone else have information which would indicate collusion between these two sellers? ----- jim o\-S