Maybe Ed does not have a friend and this entire post has hurt his feelings.
Shill bidders are thieves. And if there are shill bidders they are there to aid the seller not the bidders. Auctions can only set fair market prices when they are honest. A fake bidder does not create market demand he tries to manipulate prices to others loss by trying to make them over pay.
A house had legit bidders up to 200,000 and everyone is done but the shill bidder bid it up more. Not knowing it was a scam the high bidder increased his bid again. What he should have won at 200,000 ended up costing him 220,000. The shill bidder cost him 20,000 by pretending to be another buyer. The house is still worth 200,000 because if you try to sell it that shill bidder will not bid on it now. His job is done. So the value will drop because it was not real in the first place.
