A seller cannot bid on their own item. Not discouraged — refused. The app answers the attempt with "You can't bid on your own item" and the bid never happens.
The same block applies to buying their own item and to making an offer on it.
Why that matters more than a policy would
Shill bidding is the thing that would make a live auction worthless: a seller pushing their own price up against a real buyer who cannot tell.
A rule against it is only as good as the enforcement. A refusal in the code is not a rule — the bid cannot be placed at all.
What it does not cover
A second account. Somebody determined could use another person's.
That is why the other rules exist around it: one verified number belongs to one account, buying from your own store to inflate sales is on the not-allowed list, and both are things accounts get suspended for rather than warned about. Can I have two accounts?
It is honest to say this is the residual risk rather than claiming it is impossible.
What else is not staged
The clock. A bid in the last ten seconds pushes it back out, for everybody equally. Nothing lets a seller stop it early or hold it open. The last ten seconds
The viewer count. It is the real number.
The order of bids. Every bid goes through one database function that takes them one at a time, so there is a genuine first and second. What if two people bid at the exact same moment?
The reserve. It is never shown to anybody, so it cannot be moved in response to the bidding. What is a reserve price?
What is theatre, legitimately
A host is performing — pace, energy, a sense that an item is about to go. That is selling, and it is allowed.
What is not allowed is a claim that is untrue: a fake rarity, an invented provenance, a condition that is better in the description than in the hand. Those are decided on the listing if it comes to a dispute. What if the seller lied about the item?
What to watch for
The same handful of names winning everything, show after show.
Bids that only ever arrive when the price is low and stop exactly at a plausible number.
A seller who discourages questions.
If something looks wrong, report it under Safety / report someone. It is looked at, and the data is visible to Metzee in a way it is not to you.
The defence that always works
Decide your ceiling before the item comes up. If the price is being pushed artificially, you simply stop — and a shill who bid past you has bought their own item. How do I know the price is fair?
More: how do I know the price is fair, is Metzee safe to buy from, how are shows ordered.