Consignment to a dealer

"Demand payment now and pursue it--if you're not the only one owed funds, and funds have been squandered, get your money before there's none left."

THIS

I guess plan b could be to accept coins from his inventory as partial payment or used a collateral until resolved.

m

@MFeld said:

@Justacommeman said:
I guess plan b could be to accept coins from his inventory as partial payment or used a collateral until resolved.

m

Under the circumstances, I wouldn’t be confident that the dealer even has clear title to coins in his inventory.

Impossible to say. We only have very limited information to work off of. We can only hypothesize. We don’t know if this the beginning of this dealers troubles ( momentary hiccup) or the end of the line. Just thinking out loud on how I might handle

m

@evergreen said:
If what transpired is a manifestation of a deeper problem involving many others, seems like a bankruptcy filing could be on the horizon. There is a potential for clawback of any monies paid to unsecured creditors within 90 days of a bankruptcy filing. Highly recommend OP seek the advice of an attorney. A twin strategy of obtaining the monies, as well as protection from the potential for clawback seems to be called for. Receiving monies from the consignee only to have to potentially return them to a bankruptcy court later would be doubly unpleasant.

Well stated

m

@btcollects said:

Thanks for commenting. What does the strategy to protect against a clawback look like?

Key is to be a secured, rather than an unsecured, creditor. One way to do that may be to file a UCC Financing Statement before a bankruptcy is filed. That protection is limited for consignments ( gives you security in inventory), but it is something.

Understand the need for forum discretion, not outing names. One unintended consequence of silence though is that others may not know to secure their claims before things go completely sideways and it is too late to perfect his/her status as a secured creditor.

Please understand all the above is a very general statement. Are other prophylactic ways to protect yourself with a security interest if larger consignments might be contemplated. Those situations are fact specific and best addressed in advance of a consignment with an attorney in your state of residence

I agree with @MFeld and @evergreen and forget the property lien (I was in error and thinking of a mechanics lien). Get going now and don't wait. You don't even know how many others are in the same boat...you want to get to the head of the line.

bob

If it were me I'd have started looking into prosecution for fraud as soon as his story changed.

You should file a police report either with your DA or AG office. Do not agree to any partial payment or delay in fullfillment of debt as that could be considered a civil structured payment plan which means you'll get screwed when he fails at that. Yeah, get your lawyer but a personal attorney cannot prosecute anyone. Your lawyer is the District Attorney and Attorney General. Peace Roy

He can block you if you are texting him and he won’t get any messages from you, but if you call him and leave a message on his cell number he will get all of your messages.

Do you know where he lives? If so, you may want to pay him a visit to discuss your concerns.

@btcollects said:

@evergreen said:
If what transpired is a manifestation of a deeper problem involving many others, seems like a bankruptcy filing could be on the horizon. There is a potential for clawback of any monies paid to unsecured creditors within 90 days of a bankruptcy filing. Highly recommend OP seek the advice of an attorney. A twin strategy of obtaining the monies, as well as protection from the potential for clawback seems to be called for. Receiving monies from the consignee only to have to potentially return them to a bankruptcy court later would be doubly unpleasant.

Thanks for commenting. What does the strategy to protect against a clawback look like?

One strategy is to be the first to take aggressive action and get your money early and cross your fingers that the preference period expires before bankruptcy is filed (if that’s the direction this is going).

@jdillane said:

I appreciate the input from all. The dealer has either stopped reading my texts or changed settings so that the read receipt no longer shows. I do suspect financial woes are at play. Doesn't excuse but may explain. I hope he is reading this because I am a reasonable person but have no qualms about seeking criminal and civil recourse if he thinks ghosting me will garner him a reprieve. I also won't out him but welcome his setting the record straight if he thinks I've misrepresented anything.

My experience is that delays and excuses followed by sudden silence rarely means a "debtor" is busy at work trying to put a wrong situation right. Nor do delays generally work in favor of a creditor. A debtor using that MO often is later found to have been trying to rob Peter to pay Paul (as mentioned by another poster), or to be hiding/transferring assets in the interim. Of course it is always possible he could be attempting to refinance his newly remodeled house or doing other things, but silence sure is not an indicator that he is actually taking any substantive steps to rectify the situation. It very much says the opposite.

Criminal complaint could provide a moral, non financial remedy of sorts. You would need to be lucky enough to have a local state attorney who has any interest in pursuing a property crime, in the middle of a pandemic. That would most likely happen only if there is a great number of victims. A one off complaint would likely receive a response that "it is civil in nature." Your chances of receiving any restitution by way of a criminal complaint, especially if there are a number of other victims, would likely be much lesser than taking an active civil approach to the situation you now unfortunately find yourself in.

Silence seems to say to me that situation has crossed the line where informal resolution will have an effect, and is a signal that active steps need to be taken, and rather immediately. Inaction now may later find you empty handed at the end of a who knows how long line of creditors, coin related and otherwise (would be no surprise if other financial stressors are a driving factor behind his conduct and there might be all sorts of other creditors).

You know this, but if he’s changing stories then he’s spinning tales to buy time and/or to partially mollify you. Don’t let him.

At minimum you need to send a certified letter that documents the fact pattern to date so that when litigation ensues, you’ve got something (along with emails) to prove what has occurred and to document his silence. You should at least do this in the event you want to delay engaging counsel.