[Exhibitman]

It had no credit to extend. The "credit" was other peoples' possesions that were entrusted to Mastro, that Mastro did not own, and that Mastro did not have the owners' permission to "lend" to the bidders.

I reviewed a Mastro consignment of mine to see whether it said anything about making loans with my stuff. Not surprisingly, there isn't a word in there to that effect, but it does say this:

"If any Buyer does not pay us for any Memorabilia within sixty (60) days after the end of an Auction, you have the option to withdraw the Memorabilia and have us return it to you, at your expense, or you may leave the Memorabilia with us for placement in another Auction."

So, not only did Mastro NOT inform consignors that it had the right to send their stuff out without payment, they promised consignors that if the item was unpaid for 60 days, it could be reclaimed. You cannot possibly tell me that what Mastro promised to its consignors is consistent with Mastro "extending credit" by "loaning" the consigned items to bidders. By definition, if the item's owner had the right to take it back from Mastro after 60 days, the item never, ever should have been sent out by Mastro to a bidder without payment first being received by Mastro. I do not think I would have any problem in court proving that this condition in the contract constitutes a promise by Mastro that it will hold onto the items until they were paid for by the winning bidders, and that continuing to make this promise despite what is now apparent was a long history of repeated violation of this promise is evidence of a management policy of actively defrauding consignors. The fact that they weren't caught until now is not an indicator of the soundness of the practice; by that logic Bernie Madoff did nothing wrong except to the last people who didn't get their principal back.

As far as SGC goes, that is another case. Right now it is supposition and innuendo--we don't know what really happened, yet. What we do know, right now, is that Lege-stro screwed some of its consignors. It is a much "bigger" story to me at this point because it is proven. Some of our members have had the pleasure of watching their cards sold on Ebay with no money to show for it from Lege-stro.