I am upset..

Where was this auction. Unless specifics are given, I call BS

 

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What, you think he's making up the story, but if he makes up more details you'll believe him? That seems kind of goofy.

I think it's a useful discussion, even if the original story weren't true (and I have no reason not to believe the original story).

 

Nah, I don't see that. The auctioneer simply offered $80 to Tim to walk away rather than consummate the sale. Tim agreed. Now, I simply do not know what "intimidated" means. Short of the auctioneer having two goons ready to break his kneecaps, I think Tim could have simply said no and bought the coins.

Illegal? No. It is nothing like your carjacking example. In that one the person was breaking the law and asking the person to not report it. In this, the auctioneer screwed up, and asked Tim to instead take $80 instead of completing the sale because of it. The auctioneer messing up the auction is NOT the same as someone committing a felony. Please name the law being broken in your view.

 

My interpretation of @19Lyds' comment wasn't that something illegal happened; it was that Tim agreed to an offer under duress, and it isn't necessarily wrong for him to pursue the issue.

Now, I can't see how he'd succeed -- there was no signed agreement, there may be no witnesses willing to cooperate, and the auctioneer probably has a good deal more sway with his regulators than an unknown customer.

 

It would depend on whether or not he had already paid for the coin.

If he was indeed backed into a corner and unable to retreat by the physically imposing presence of another, no matter how brief a time, it could constitute kidnapping in order to extort an unwilling transaction under threat of future exclusion through no fault of his own.

Technically and legally any action or speech intended to cause fear in another is assault.

A cellphone video should have been taken to corroborate this.

 

Jeebus...Detecto is allowed out in public unsupervised and now we're talking kidnapping?

 

I didn't say it wasn't ridiculous that that can be what it can be called, just that it can.

 

The seeds have been planted. Allow the fruit to grow.

 

Almost identical event happened here.
http://community.ebay.com/t5/The-So...into-giving-an-item-back/td-p/24223184/page/2

 

Want me to sugar coat it?

 

Coincidence? I'm not too sure.

 

The mere fact that someone is an auctioneer does not imply that they have any intelligence. If that auctioneer had the slightest bit of intelligence, he would have placed a reserve on the lot. If those rolls had been part of a consignment and I was the owner, I would have taken legal action.

Chris

 

It was a consignment auction. I can't remember if it was an estate, or if it was one of donations to a church being auctioned for a fundraiser. One of the two.

 

I might be wrong, but I think that for a reserve price, it is up to the owner for each individual lot, and there is a fee assessed directly relating to the dollar amount of the reserve. I think they do it that way to prevent people from consigning with an unreasonable reserve simply to "see what it's worth" and waste everyone's time in the process.

I'm sure he didn't ever expect to sell money for less than face value and that he learned from the experience. haha!

 

In that case, the auctioneer is acting as an agent for the owner and has a fiduciary responsibility for the sale of his property.

Chris

 

I hear you Chris, but you can't seriously be saying an auctioneer has to be an expert in every area of collectibles, and place high reserves on every piece. Even if it were possible to know everything, if an auction has a high reserve on every piece many bidders, like myself, would not attend. The auctioneer would end up selling very little. At some point an auction is an auction, and the highest price someone will bid at that location at that day sets the price.

 

That's not entirely accurate. About 7 years ago, I decided to consign a working copy of the Presidential Seal to Stack's for their FUN Show auction. I was working directly with Christine Karstedt. When she asked me if I wanted to place a reserve on it, I told her I had no idea what it might be worth. Christine suggested that I place a reserve of $7500 on it, and if it didn't sell, I wouldn't owe anything to Stack's because the reserve was set by them.

FYI
As it turned out, it didn't sell and I owed them nothing. However, a couple weeks later, Christine called me and said she had a client who was interested in buying the seal for $5000. I agreed, and when the transfer of the seal was made to a Stack's employee (in South Florida), I was given a check for the full amount. I was expecting to pay a commission on the sale, but Christine declined to accept anything.

Chris

 

That's very cool. For sure, any auctioneer could set discretionary reserves to protect consignors. For all I know, he may have evolved his current practices to do just that.

 

Does it take an expert to figure out that the face value of two rolls of quarters is $20? Absolutely not, but the auctioneer should be smart enough to figure out that if an opening bid of $20 doesn't work then he can always drop the price. "Do I hear $17.50?" "Do I hear $15?"

Chris

 

I, for one, thought that he was selling single roll lots. I must not have been the only one. I think the winning bidder even thought it was for a single roll. He was so smiley!