Puffer - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition puffer

Definition :

Puffer, one who attends a sale by auction, to bid on the part of the owner, for the purpose of raising the price and exciting the eagerness of the bidders.

The (English) Sale of Land by Auction Act, 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c. 48), regulates the employments of puffers at an auction for the sale of land, and enacts that all sales of land where a puffer has bid shall be illegal unless a right of bidding on behalf of the owner shall have been reserved; that the conditions of sale shall state whether the sale is to be without reserve, or subject to a reserved price, or whether a right to bid is reserved; that if it be stated that the sale is to be without reserve, a puffer is not to be employed; that if a right to bid be reserved, the seller or one puffer may bid; and that the practice of opening bidding, formerly sanctioned by courts of equity, shall be discontinued. As to sale of goods by auction, see similar provisions, s. 58 of the Sale of Goods Act, 1893, and see AUCTION.