Consigned coins, what if .....
ohbaby
Posts: 768
Coinguy1 asked about what's right and wrong in the consignment game. It started me thinking that the lines of "ownership/possession" start to blurr. Nevermind what is "legal" I am asking about what would hapen if....
...you consign a small group of coins [say $10,000 value] to a dealer you know and trust
then after a few weeks of not hearing from the guy/gal you call him/her. That's when you get the bad news, the spouse of the dealer tells you he/she has died.
Of course the spouse knows zippo about coins, especially your coins.
Now imagine if your stash of coins had been consigned out by said dealer. And the one in possession of your coins learns of dealer's death and decides to wait and see if anyone will come for the coins. Afterall, only 2 people know coins were consigned out. The 2 dealers.
What would a collector do? Has this ever happened to anyone? The knee jerk reaction for many is to "hire a lawyer". Reality is most lawyers want a retainer of $5,000 just to talk.
...you consign a small group of coins [say $10,000 value] to a dealer you know and trust
then after a few weeks of not hearing from the guy/gal you call him/her. That's when you get the bad news, the spouse of the dealer tells you he/she has died.Of course the spouse knows zippo about coins, especially your coins.
Now imagine if your stash of coins had been consigned out by said dealer. And the one in possession of your coins learns of dealer's death and decides to wait and see if anyone will come for the coins. Afterall, only 2 people know coins were consigned out. The 2 dealers.
What would a collector do? Has this ever happened to anyone? The knee jerk reaction for many is to "hire a lawyer". Reality is most lawyers want a retainer of $5,000 just to talk.
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Comments
<< <i>Simple, get it in writing. >>
Absolutely correct!
That's overstating the obvious.
As I mentioned the key here is this is a dealer you "know and trust". It could be even a relative. How often is a consignement done in writing?
OK, for the moment suppose the transaction was in writing. You have a piece of paper stating you consigned coins but the coins are no where to be found in the dealer's inventory.
What many may not know, dealers consign to each other based on trust and a handshake. Go to any major show and watch thousand $ slabs or blue boxes change hands w/o as much as a bat of an eye. Sometimes the exchange is for 24 hrs other times it's longer. No paperwork nor paper trail.
Back to square one for the original collector who consigned out his coins [with or w/o documentation] and that dealer in turn consigned them out to someone else. Could you ever recover your coins if the last dealer never came forward?
I seriously doubt it. Too bad no dealers have weighed in on this issue. As a group, collectors and more so dealers tend to be advanced in age. The likelihood something like this happening is very real. Wasn't there a dealer who collapsed at Long Beach in January or March 2003?
The solution? Tell the dealer not to consign out but that limits the eyeballs looking at coins you want to unload.
Yeah...but it takes a little of the fun out of it...like a prenumptial on a marriage would.
Beyond that, if a consigned coin is later disposed of (through sale, consignment or whatever) and not paid for by the consignee (whether living or dead), the consignor has a legal claim to his property and must pursue it. And, depending upon the circumstances, it might be very time consuming and/or difficult and/or costly.
rainbowroosie April 1, 2003