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My mother died recently. She lived in NY. She had a whole collection
of collectables, like Hummels and Lenox. I live in Boston. I found a
guy up in Boston who worked for his father's licensed Auctioneering
and Appraisal business, and said that he could sell the items on Ebay
for a 35% commision.
I go through the pains of moving the stuff up to Boston. The guy comes
to my house and he spends 3 hours with me selecting the items that he
thinks are Ebayable, gives me a contract on his father's letterhead
and takes the stuff, 65 items which he said he would sell in lots of 3
of 4 pieces.
Two days later, he puts 14 of the items up for auction, in 5 lots. The
4 lots of Hummels sell. Things are good. I hear nothing for two weeks.
Today he calls me up and says that he's returning all of his stuff
because they didn't sell for high enough and its too much of a pain in
the ass. He never actually collected anybodys money, his Ebay account
has been suspended.
He's going to return the items to me all wrapped up. I'm going to have
no way to prove that anythings missing if they are.
I don't think his father knows he did this, and his father's firm has
a pretty good reputaiton.
Do I have any legal leaverage against his father's appraisal firm.
The son materially breached the contract to auction the items. What
kind of damages can I sue them for.
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John Smith wrote:
[agreed that a person would act as agent for eBay sales. Agent did not
follow through so returned all or some of the items]
He's going to return the items to me all wrapped up. I'm going to have
no way to prove that anythings missing if they are.
Why not unwrap them and find out if any are missing? If you didn't take an
inventory and get a reciept for what he took into his possession, then you
have problems, but they are of your own doing for not having done an
inventory and required your agent to sign a reciept for taking the items he
did.
I don't think his father knows he did this, and his father's firm has
a pretty good reputaiton.
Do I have any legal leaverage against his father's appraisal firm.
Perhaps you do. It depends on if the person you were hiring as your sales
agent presented himself as being part of his dad's firm or that his dad's
firm was involved in any way. If he said he was acting outside of his
employment at his dad's firm, you may still have a case against the firm,
but it would greatly depend upon the exact particulars of your agency
contract.
The son materially breached the contract to auction the items. What
kind of damages can I sue them for.
What damages have you sustained? There is nothing in your post indicating
that you lost anything other than the opportunity to sell some figurines.
You'll need to document a loss before a legal action can make you whole. If
you are claiming he kept some of these knick-knacks, but you can't prove it
due to no inventory, then I think, you're out of luck. There is a reason
folks do inventories and demand reciepts. You've just, perhaps, learned of
that reason.
-paul
ianal
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On Thu, 15 Apr 2004 08:26:59 -0400, rshap2l@yahoo.com (John Smith)
wrote:
My mother died recently. She lived in NY. She had a whole collection
of collectables, like Hummels and Lenox. I live in Boston. I found a
guy up in Boston who worked for his father's licensed Auctioneering
and Appraisal business, and said that he could sell the items on Ebay
for a 35% commision.
And you agreed to this?
A little research would have told you that this was outrageous,
because many auctioneers work on commissions of 10% to 20%.
(Christies' top rate is 20%, and that's for lots of less than $2,000.)
Today he calls me up and says that he's returning all of his stuff
because they didn't sell for high enough and its too much of a pain in
the ass. He never actually collected anybodys money, his Ebay account
has been suspended.
He's going to return the items to me all wrapped up. I'm going to have
no way to prove that anythings missing if they are.
You didn't do an inventory? You turned over what you thought were
valuable collectibles to someone you barely know without any record or
receipt?
The son materially breached the contract to auction the items. What
kind of damages can I sue them for.
What damages? If he had performed the contract, he'd now own 35% of
your property. By breaching the contract, he just saved you money.
Take the stuff back and consider yourself lucky if most of it still
seems to be there.
Then talk to a reputable auction company that deals with those kinds
of collectibles and do it right.
*Dan Evans
*"One is not superior merely because one
*sees the world as odious."
*Francios Rene de Chateaubriand (1768-1848).
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On Thu, 15 Apr 2004 08:26:59 -0400, rshap2l@yahoo.com (John Smith)
wrote:
And you agreed to this?
A little research would have told you that this was outrageous,
because many auctioneers work on commissions of 10% to 20%.
(Christies' top rate is 20%, and that's for lots of less than $2,000.)
Thanks for replying.
My mother's items were not shall we say "Christie's material".
Honestly, the whole lot of about 65 items is probaly worth between
$1000 and $1500. I didn't think that $350 - $500 was unreasonable for
someone to photograph, list, ship, and deal with the winners, given
the hassle factor of selling small items. This fee included all the
Ebay fees also.
You didn't do an inventory? You turned over what you thought were
valuable collectibles to someone you barely know without any record or
receipt?
I got him to drop them off at his sisters thrift shop and I did an
inventory. About a dozen items are missing. He's dropping those off
Thursday.
What damages? If he had performed the contract, he'd now own 35% of
your property. By breaching the contract, he just saved you money.
Take the stuff back and consider yourself lucky if most of it still
seems to be there.
Then talk to a reputable auction company that deals with those kinds
of collectibles and do it right.
As I said, I think you're envisioning a much larger amount of goods.
There are some specialy auction houses in the country that deal with
these kinds of goods, but they charge 25% and I have to ship the stuff
there. This guy was local and charged 35%. Easy call. I've wasted
about 6 hours of time, and still have to find someone else. If he had
fulfilled his contract, I would have had between $650 and $1000 for
the estate, and it would have been hassle-free. The 35% was not
unreasonable for hassle-free. I value my free time at about $100/hr.
In other words, if I can pay someone $100 to save me an hour, I'm
usually happy to ante up. I've found thrift shops that do consignement
for 50%. If I can't find a local consignment guy, then I will have
material damage because of the breach. Furthermore, dealing with my
mother's death is difficult enough, I really don't need the additional
aggravation this guy is giving me.
I want to either sue the father's auction company for breach of
contract, or sue the son for fraud and misrepresentation (which I
think pay treble damages) if the father disavowes all knowledge.
If I have a legitimate case, I'm sure the father would settle for a
few hundred bucks. If I don't, I'm not going to bother.
Again what we're talking about is probably less that two hours of a
decent lawyers time, so
*Dan Evans
*"One is not superior merely because one
*sees the world as odious."
*Francios Rene de Chateaubriand (1768-1848).
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John Smith wrote:
Perhaps you do. It depends on if the person you were hiring as your sales
agent presented himself as being part of his dad's firm or that his dad's
firm was involved in any way. If he said he was acting outside of his
employment at his dad's firm, you may still have a case against the firm,
but it would greatly depend upon the exact particulars of your agency
contract.
What damages have you sustained? There is nothing in your post indicating
that you lost anything other than the opportunity to sell some figurines.
You'll need to document a loss before a legal action can make you whole. If
you are claiming he kept some of these knick-knacks, but you can't prove it
due to no inventory, then I think, you're out of luck. There is a reason
folks do inventories and demand reciepts. You've just, perhaps, learned of
that reason.
Thanks for your reply.
I expect to get all the stuff back. I convinced the guy to drop the
stuff at his sister's thrift shop and I went over there and did an
inventory (took an hour and a half). About a dozen items are missing
and the father, who was there, called the son and promised me that his
son would make good.
They seem to think that if I get my stuff back then I have suffered no
damages, but I've wasted 6 hours on these people, and I still have to
find somebody else. The damages are mostly a loss of work time which I
had to make up the hours, and additional mental anguish to compound my
grief.
The son represented that he was part of his father's buisiness and
wrote the contract on his father's pre-printed contracts. The father
disavows all of this, but I think in that case, the son is guilty of
fraud and misrepresentation because I never would have given him the
stuff if I didn't think it was going to a licensed dealer. I think
that's worth treble damages in my state (MA) but I'm not sure.
After I get my stuff back, I'd like to demand an additional $500
-$1000 in damages for the breach of contract or the fraud and
misrepresentation. I know its not worth getting a lawyer involved, I'm
just trying to figure out if I have any grounds to even write the
demand letter with a threat of small claims court, or would the
father's lawyer just blow it off and ignore it.
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