Estate of Emanuel Trompeter, Deceased, Robin Carol Trompeter Gonzalez and Janet Ilene Trompeter Polachek, Co-Executors - Page 22

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          86 T.C. 91, 101 (1986) (unaccepted offer to purchase land is not            
          conclusive evidence of the value of the land).  We also do not              
          know, for example, whether the bidders at the auction consisted             
          of actual consumers who were willing to buy an item at its fair             
          market value or, as Carmona persuasively opined in the setting of           
          jewelry auctions, primarily dealers who bid substantially less              
          than fair market value in order to resell their purchases at a              
          fair market value price which, to them, would be inclusive of a             
          businessman’s profit.  In fact, we know little about the                    
          composition or number of bidders at the auction, let alone the              
          tone of the actual bidding that took place.  On the record before           
          us, we simply cannot conclude as to any of the six items in                 
          question that the auction market is the “market * * * in which              
          such item is most commonly sold to the public”.  Sec.                       
          20.2031-1(b), Estate Tax Regs.                                              
               We are mindful that this Court has on occasion determined              
          that an item’s auction price was its fair market value.  E.g.,              
          Estate of Scull v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1994-211; Lightman v.           
          Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1985-315.  In contrast with the case at            
          hand, the auction markets in those cases were shown to be the               
          appropriate retail markets for the assets under consideration,              
          and the sales at auction were shown to be to the ultimate                   
          consumer.  Where as here such is not the case, the Court has                
          rejected equating the auction price of an item with its fair                






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