AMI payments

[DirtShoot]

Re: AMI payments

I have consigned with AMI in the past... Like most businesses in this downturn they are not immune and neither is my own business (I too owe some debts).

I like the new payment system to get all payed off. Basically if your owed past monies they can set you up as an "Authorized Dealer". Your items in thier auction are paid directly too you (you need free paypal account) by the bidder. Your items are payed immediatly and ALL fees (the buyers premium and consignor fees are applied to any past due amounts)

They work hard to please thier customers. At least they don't run with questionable items I have seen them turn down and showed up in another auction.

[MSpecht]

Re: AMI payments

"victor is trying to negotiate with creditors/consignors and offering ludicrous terms."
---Rudy


Hey Rudy-- I thought that was alrready copywrited ??

[kingjammy24]

Re: AMI payments

AMI ad - may 2009 - "No one pays faster than AMI"

victor - may 2009: "We are aware that there has been a delay of payments..."

"Our intention is to continue the excellent business practices we have enjoyed for over 13 years and we have devised a plan to do just this."

is it as good as the plan which has netted them 52 complaints in only 36 months? excellent business practices! excellent with a capital F:




anyway, AMI's plan is unbelievable in its premises and assumptions. if this is the sort of stuff rolling around in victor's head, it's not hard to see why the business is failing.

dave grob nailed most of it; the pertinent conclusion, imo, being "AMI is leveraging a current consignment fee to pay a past debt, when now more of the burden for getting the item consignment ready falls on the collector; A collector who is both owed money and now doing the bulk of the work. In essence, collectors are being charged for the time they are now spending to sell their own item. Since the money they were rightfully entitled to is now being seen by AMI as credit against their account, why would a collector do more work that only results in eliminating a debt that is not his to begin?".

basically, AMI's plan to pay back its consigners is to have them work it back. you do the work and the amount that AMI normally charges to do this work themselves will get deducted from your account. AMI is essentially saying they will pay back their consigners if the consigners do all of the work for free; (i say "free" because i don't consider having old debts paid to be payment for new work being done. imagine if you mowed a guys lawn, he didn't pay you, and he said "mow my lawn again and i'll pay you what i owe you on the last job and that'll square us up".) victor's ingenius plan seems like little more than a ponzi-esque debt repayment plan. he's not going to do any work, he'll have you do all the work, he'll charge for the work you've just done and that amount will pay off your old debt. fine but then who'll pay you for your work? noone will. you've worked for free just to get your old debt repaid. unreal. i'd like to speak with the consigners who victor has said "all feel that the solution is sound.."

dave also adds:

"1. How long can AMI keep this up with zero cash flow on consigned items from these collectors?

2. What is the impact on the collector who is owed $25k? In this case, if this the only way they will get paid out, this collector will have to consign items that bring final bids of $70,000. ($25K x 3.5 – 20%) These final bids at $70,000 will result in a net payout of $87,500 required to meet both current obligations and service the previous debt.

What is not factored in to all of this is how much this costs the collector in having his money tied up at a zero % return over the time he is helping finance the AMI debt. While it is true he is making more on each sale than in years past, the end result is he is only getting the monies he is actually owed over a much longer period of time."

if the consignor is responsible for the authentication do those monies come out of the consignor's pocket as well? so on a $1000 sale, the collector supposedly gets $350 of his debt repaid but how much of that $350 is eaten by authentication fees? you're getting miniscule amounts of your debt repaid in exchange for continuing to patronize AMI and enduring all of the stress that that entails. of course, if AMI owes you thousands, then you're either required to consign hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of material in the future or wait an incredibly long time. the only party this plan works for is victor. it enables him to get out of debt by having collectors do his work for him. participating in this scheme sounds even more foolish than consigning with AMI to start with.

"As I see it, your only hope is that AMI can attract new consigners or retain those they have and don’t owe money to in sufficient numbers to get you paid out."

yeah..good luck with that AMI consignors.

anyway, i've come up with a much simpler plan:

1) don't consign to AMI
2) see step 1.

victor is trying to negotiate with creditors/consignors and offering ludicrous terms. if consignors want the monies that are rightfully owed to them, i encourage them to forget victor's latest hare-brained scheme and contact a good lawyer.

rudy.

[jonincleve]

Re: AMI payments

i think the person who consigned the item would have to file a police report listing the item as stolen first. without the police report nothing can happen.

howard, nice photo. i think they would do everything they can to make it to the national to get new consignments for one final hoorah

take care
john

[cordovacollector]

Re: AMI payments

Just a question for an attorney: If the seller has not been paid for a high end item, AMI sold it and collected the money, AMI mailed the item to New Buyer, New Buyer lists it in Auction House Unknown ... wouldn't the New Buyer that bought it from AMI be in receipt of stolen property even if he doesn't know it?

[sportscentury]

Re: AMI payments

Reid,

This is correct. I am not on speaking terms with AMI and find what they have done to people over the past 10-12 months outrageous and unforgivable...

Dave

Dave,

Fair enough.

Reid

[hblakewolf]

Re: AMI payments

The response is "that they have changed the way of doing business and this should bring in new revenues into AMI and they will assess those reveunes to then pay consigners what is owed"... when I asked where is the money from the item I consiged the answer was "the issue is not where the money is from that payment and whether or not AMI was paid"...


either they have your money from the sale or they have your item from the non-sale and can return it. you can't be "a little pregnant' you either are or you're not.

they could have my grail item right now with a photo match and i would not put a penny buying or selling through this company.

serious question do you think they will make it to the national convention as a company? or will their booth be empty.


take care
john

Just a wild guess.......



Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@comcast.net

[jonincleve]

Re: AMI payments

The response is "that they have changed the way of doing business and this should bring in new revenues into AMI and they will assess those reveunes to then pay consigners what is owed"... when I asked where is the money from the item I consiged the answer was "the issue is not where the money is from that payment and whether or not AMI was paid"...


either they have your money from the sale or they have your item from the non-sale and can return it. you can't be "a little pregnant' you either are or you're not.

they could have my grail item right now with a photo match and i would not put a penny buying or selling through this company.

serious question do you think they will make it to the national convention as a company? or will their booth be empty.

take care
john

[shoremen44]

Re: AMI payments

Not that this is an update to anyone, but I just got off the phone with our friends at AMI, and thank god I only consigned to them once and they owe me very little money...

The response is "that they have changed the way of doing business and this should bring in new revenues into AMI and they will assess those reveunes to then pay consigners what is owed"... when I asked where is the money from the item I consiged the answer was "the issue is not where the money is from that payment and whether or not AMI was paid"...

they agreed they owe me the money, and yet there is no clear answer as to how and when I will be paid.

When I explained that I have owned my own business and my currrent job is running national accounts for a global company, and she should stop trying to talk me in circles because I wasnt buying it, the phone went silent.

If you are owed enough GET A LAWYER... if not... do as I am going to... I am going to plan my next Vegas trip around my small claims court date with AMI...

[CollectGU]

Re: AMI payments

There used to be a GUF member who regularly defended AMI, and, being that he has not posted on their behalf in some time, I can only presume that even he has thought better of their situation and future (to his credit).

Reid,

This is correct. I am not on speaking terms with AMI and find what they have done to people over the past 10-12 months outrageous and unforgivable...

Dave

[hblakewolf]

Re: AMI payments

Dave Grob has always been a reasonable, gentle person who has acted in a professional and dare I say diplomatic manner (I mean this all as a compliment, as I have great respect for him). Even this gentle framing of his, though, points to the inevitable (or, rather, impending) doom of AMI. It is very difficult for me to understand why anyone in his right mind would do business with these folks. I'm sure many of you remember my GUF posts from years ago pointing out the red flags, so this sentiment on my part is nothing new. There used to be a GUF member who regularly defended AMI, and, being that he has not posted on their behalf in some time, I can only presume that even he has thought better of their situation and future (to his credit). I bid a not-so-fond farewell to James A. Rast and his many real and imaginary AMI associates. Like Dave, I hope those who are owed money are ultimately paid.

Reid-

Dave O'Brien and his AMI pom-poms?



Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@comcast.net

[sportscentury]

Re: AMI payments

dave grob's analysis of AMI's new plan:

http://www.mearsonline.com/news/newsDetail.asp?id=641

rudy.

Dave Grob has always been a reasonable, gentle person who has acted in a professional and dare I say diplomatic manner (I mean this all as a compliment, as I have great respect for him). Even this gentle framing of his, though, points to the inevitable (or, rather, impending) doom of AMI. It is very difficult for me to understand why anyone in his right mind would do business with these folks. I'm sure many of you remember my GUF posts from years ago pointing out the red flags, so this sentiment on my part is nothing new. There used to be a GUF member who regularly defended AMI, and, being that he has not posted on their behalf in some time, I can only presume that even he has thought better of their situation and future (to his credit). I bid a not-so-fond farewell to James A. Rast and his many real and imaginary AMI associates. Like Dave, I hope those who are owed money are ultimately paid.

[kingjammy24]

Re: AMI payments

i read an article the other day about charlie munger. for those unaware, munger is warren buffett's right-hand man; chairman of berkshire hathaway. he gets almost as much interest in his advice and wisdom as buffett does. anyway, there was a line in the article that struck me as particularly relevant:

"Good businesses are ethical businesses, he tells us. A business model that relies on trickery is doomed to fail."

rudy.

[kingjammy24]

Re: AMI payments

dave grob's analysis of AMI's new plan:

http://www.mearsonline.com/news/newsDetail.asp?id=641

rudy.

[bobbys]

Re: AMI payments

Let me get this straight. AMI wants the you the "Authorized Dealer" to do all the work (photography, writing, shipping, etc) while they still get credit for the consignment and buyer premiums. The "Authorized Dealer" (AD) gets paid directly for their new items that they are selling but the fees for the consignment and buyers premium paid to the AD is subtracted from the amount that AMI owes to the AD for previous consignments. So what is it they are offering? AMI does nothing but gets credit for 35% of the sale of that item. I guess AMI believes that they can showcase those items wit their large customer list. There already is a company that does the same thing wiith a much larger buying base with just a fraction of the fees that AMI charges and it's call Ebay.

I can't believe how stupid and desperate that Victor and Kieta are with this stupid plan. This shows you just how bad financialy they are. Here are a few questions that I would love for them to answer.

1) Is AMI going to cover all of the Paypal fees that the "AD" is charged when they accept a payment for an AMI auction item?

2) Is AMI going to insure that the "AD" is financialy secure if the wining bidder decides to call his credit card company and say that they never received the item and decides to file a chargeback with their credit card company?

3) Is AMI going to insure that the winning bidder will receive the actual item that was auctioned?

4) Is AMI going to insure that winning bidders will be refunded if the item purchased is found to be not authentic?

Both Victor and Kieta deserve to go to prison for along time for the crap they have pulled this past year. I was very fotunate to get paid last year but many out there have been taken. Some of them have been taken for large sums of money.

It's ironic that AMI tries to portray themselves as high end with their verson of the Robb Report with the flashy ads and articles catered to the wealthy when they don't even have two nickels to rub together except for the money that they stole from their consignors.

Geez, the AMI says you can send stuff to them and they will get it authenticated and send it back? Does anyone here trust AMI enough to send them a high dollar item, and believe it will ever be sent back? It seems to me like a risky deal to work with AMI right now.