Oh boy, looks like I've opened up a can of worms here. What's new, lol.
So what's wrong with a bidding agreement amongst friends? IIRC, you Poulan guys do similiar all the time. It's no different than you and I, Mike, knowingly bidding up a 8500. "Hey, let me see how much I can make you pay for that saw."
If I ever own one, it WILL BE RUN. I don't care if I'm the first to ever take it out of the box. That's what intriques me about this saw, is it's special sound. I round a sand dune drag racing Yamaha Banshee for years and it's simply music to my ears.
There are a couple of MAJOR differences Brad!
1) We are bidding on Poulans, of which there are thousands, and we all know there will be another come along before long. We aren't trying to manipulate the market price, just keep from running up the bid on a friend. No different than being at a live auction and seeing a friend bidding on an item and deciding not to bid against him.
2) Knowing who is bidding, and not bidding against them because they are a friend is totally different than conspiring amongst a group to purposely deflate the value of a rare item.
3) We all agreed when we developed our recognition code, that if it comes to a rare item all friendships were off, and we would let the price be what the market would bear.
Hope that helps clear it up for you Brad.
BTW -I was prepared to go to $10,000 on that saw so I just know you will let me have it for $500.00.......................................RIGHT???
Mike