In August 2012 I contacted the Native American Trading Company in order to sell my collection of baskets, blankets, pottery, and other Native American artifacts. After speaking with the owner, Jack Lima, I was confident a consignment in his store was a good option for the sale of my collection. I was told consignments were generally for one year but could be adjusted, and that I would have my appraisal in two to three weeks. After weekly email and phone messages from me pressuring him for an update on the appraisal, it was finally completed in December 2012.
At the time I set up the consignment, Jack told me I would get quarterly statements and checks for items sold. Not once did I ever receive any statements or checks from them. Throughout the course of the next several months, I called and sent email to Jack to get updates on the status of my consignment and never heard anything. I wasn't too concerned about how long it was taking for the sale of my collection, because I knew where my things were and the store had a solid reputation with the BBB and from many reviews I had read.
In March 2013, I let the owner know that in the fall I was moving out of state and needed a status update on the consignment, so I could make arrangements to collect the items not sold or possibly sell them to the store out right. After many more unanswered email and voice mail attempts, in May I was finally contacted by Jack and was told only a couple of small items had been sold but summer was their busy season and things should move quickly. (I never did get a statement from him regarding these sales.) I didn't hear from Jack for several more months, and in August we were preparing for the move. I asked Jack if he would be interested in purchasing the entire collection as I wasn't going to leave it when I left Colorado. The price he offered was less than ¼ of what the collection was worth. I told him that I would pick up my collection and gave him the date. He refused to release my collection to me stating he had a right to hold on to it until the yearly commitment was over. I pointed out that I had dropped off my collection on August 11, 2012, so the date I was proposing was well past the one year mark. We went back and forth via email with it becoming very clear that he had no intentions of giving me my things back and was now saying the consignment was for one year from the date of the completed appraisal (which I had to constantly harangue him to even do) and he would not release the items to me prior to November.
This was NOT what he had told me when I took him the collection in August of the previous year. I did not sign anything saying I had to leave him my collection for any period of time, much less a year, whether from the date of appraisal or not. At each turn, Jack would make up "rules" in order to keep from giving me my belongings or accepting responsibility for his poor business practices.
The last communication I had with Jack prior to consulting with my attorney was an email where Jack stated that nothing had been sold (contradicting his message in May,) and I could have my things back only after I paid the appraisal fee (which he told me was waived when I put my things on consignment with his shop) and insurance coverage for my items while in his shop (I had asked him about insurance when I set up the consignment was told they covered the insurance while my items were in their shop so there was no need to contact my insurance company about setting up a rider.) Now not only will he not give me my collection, he is holding it for ransom.
At this point I consulted with my attorney who wrote a letter to Jack stating he was to release my collection to me immediately and that I was in no way responsible for paying his appraisal fee or insurance coverage; the letter was completely ignored. Three weeks passed after my attorney's letter was delivered to Jack, and I had finally reached my saturation point with dealing with this scam artist. After consultation with my attorney, we decided it would be more cost effective for me to let Jack keep a couple of items to cover his ransom demands than to take him to small claims court, since now I was living out of state and it would have required travel back and forth. I let Jack know he could keep two items but he was to release everything else immediately. I had already left the state and had to make arrangements for a friend pick up the collection. When my friend arrived at the shop, nothing was ready, and my friend was forced to wait a couple of hours for Jack to get it all gathered.
I will accept partial responsibility since I did not force him to give me anything in writing regarding his consignment policies. However, at this point, I'm fairly certain even if I had anything in writing, it would have been ignored, or Jack would have made up something about how he had changed his policies.
Jack's business practices are unprofessional and unethical. Avoid! read more
