The auctioneer must know fairly accurately the current market values of the goods he is selling,and he should be acquainted with regular buyers of such goods.He will not waste time by starting the bidding too low.He will also play on the rivalries among his buyers and succeed in getting a high price by encouraging two business competitors to bid against each other.It is largely on his advice that a seller will fix a "reserve"price,that is ,a price below which the goods cannot be sold Even the best auctioneers,however,find it difficult to stop a "knock-out",whereby dealers illegally arrange beforehand not to bid against each other,but nominate one of themselves as the only bidder,in the hope of buying goods at extremely low prices.If such a "knock-out"comes off,the real auction sale takes place privately afterwards among the dealers.

拍卖师必须相当准确了解拍品目前的市场价值同时也应该熟知此类拍品的经常性买家。这样才不会因起拍价太低而浪费拍卖时间。拍卖师也需对买家之间作为对手出现的竞争局面具有掌控能力。而且也要会鼓励两大竞争买家相互竞价从而成功获得拍卖高价。卖家是否愿意定下拍品不能出售的“底价”，在很大程度上取决于拍卖师（是否具有令人信服的专业性）的建议（给卖家）。然而，甚至是最优秀的拍卖师也感到难以防止不法商家事先“串通压价拍买”行为，造成拍卖中无竞价行为的发生从而使不法商家指定的一位买家成为最后的竞拍者，企图以极低的价位拍下物品。如果这样的“串通压价拍买”行径奏效，则事后这伙商家私下将进行真正的拍卖交易。