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Being friendly and knowing someone's name is usually good enough

This. If I am about to post something I don’t need anymore to FB marketplace, first I will hit up a friend or two of mine who I would have in mind as people who might want it. And only if they don’t want it, then it goes to FB marketplace. I don’t expect or accept any “bribes” or favors for that. It is just a natural choice for me to go through them first, as that’s just a win-win for both of us, and everyone involved is a known entity.

I would bet the same principle works here. The whole idea of the auction is to get rid of unwanted items and get paid for it, and that’s exactly what’s happening here as well.

The distinction here is that the warehouse manager is not selling her own stuff. Her job is to manage the auctions and presumably get the highest fees possible (for the warehouse) by allowing an open market to bid on the merchandise.

If her company knew she was doing this I’m sure they’d oppose it and likely fire her.

Apologies for a delayed reply, but I concur, you made a very valid point for why my analogy wasn’t the best in that scenario.

It would only work if the person running the warehouse was an owner. But if they were an employee, like you suggested, then my take would be very obviously flawed.

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