from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
WITHOUT RESERVE, contracts. These words are frequently used in conditions of
sale at public auction, that the property offered, or to be offered for
sale, will be sold without reserve.
2. When a property is advertised to be sold without reserve, if a
puffer be employed to bid, and actually bid at the sale, the courts will not
enforce a contract against a purchaser, into which he may have been drawn by
the vendor's want of faith. 5 Madd. R. 34. Vide Puffer.