Regency Stamp Auctions In St. Louis

Yes, I was referring to Regency Superior Stamps, who actively sell Stanley Gibbons products on ebay. The coincidence is remarkable since "Regency" (auction house) was the US's SG dealer and they are both located in Saint Louis!

Has anyone heard if Regency has gone into receivership yet?

Given that they may appear to still be doing some business, are they doing it under Chapter 11 bankruptcy?

@svensson

They could be totally different legal entities even though have same owners.

If Jaffe/Brookman bought their literature inventory. then what is it that is being sold on ebay??

rwpommer:
The following is an email I received on May 22 (which I posted earlier in this thread) from Kols attorney, David Dare. Note that I am due proceeds in excess of $10,000 from the January 2017 auction. You are welcome to contact me directly to discuss further.


Here's the email...

"I have reviewed the messages back and forth between you and Mr. Kols. His message below is absolutely correct in all particulars. Regency has ceased operations and does not have any assets. Their senior secured lender has taken possession of all of its collateral and is liquidating all of the assets to pay down Regency's debt to that bank. The most likely scenario is that the senior secured lender will take a substantial, million dollar plus, loss on its loan to Regency. There are other lenders with a security interest in the assets of Regency who will probably receive nothing. Then there are numerous other unsecured creditors who will also not get paid. Mr. Kols has guaranteed all of the secured obligations and will lose everything personally and have to file a personal bankruptcy along with his wife Penney.

It appears that Mr. Kols returned the unsold item to you and it is just a matter of tracking it down. It also appears that you and many others are not going to get paid for the sold items. It is too bad that money is not available to pay all of the consigners, but that is the reality of the situation. It would be nice if the stamp business were to return to its former glory, but not a single person to whom I have spoken thinks that this will be the case. Given David's health situation I would appreciate it if any further communications could be made through me. This request does not include any correspondence regarding the return of your unsold item. Thanks.


David M. Dare
Herren, Dare & Streett
439 S. Kirkwood Road
Suite 204
St. Louis, MO 63122
(314) 965-3373
(314) 965-2225 fax
ddare@hdsstl.com"

Do we know for sure that they have declared Chapter 7 (liquidation)? Or is it Chapter 11 (reorganization)?
Don

The following statement does not inspire any confidence in handing any material to a business to sell:
"It is too bad that money is not available to pay all of the consigners[sic], but that is the reality of the situation. It would be nice if the stamp business were to return to its former glory, but not a single person to whom I have spoken thinks that this will be the case."

Agreed. That statement seems wholely inapproriate coming from a legal representative. The impliciation that industry and market conditions somehow justify any lack of due diligence and fiscal responsibility, is specious at best.

As I stated before. auction proceeds must go into trust accounts only.

Unless this becomes a requirement by law, it becomes a very risky crap shoot to deal with auctions.

The one in Australia is going through the same mess and many consignors will also be stiffed due to poor management.

Consignment is a risk. Anytime anyone consigns anything to another party there is a risk. The risk extends beyond just bankruptcy; the party you consign to also should have insurance to cover things like fires, earthquakes, or theft. But we all just assume that the insurance has been kept up-to-date and will cover the entire amount of any loss.

And just as it is hard to get an accurate understanding of a company's financial health it is also difficult to get an accurate understanding of their insurance status. Anyway you look at it, consignment is a risk.

Other then this thread, I do not recall a discussion in any forum that educated hobbyists on the risks of consignment. I do not recall any articles in Linn's that outlines the rare cases where you may lose everything as a consigner. Even APS does not communicate any risks involved if something catastrophic were to happen to them (i.e. a fire destroys the office/headquarters including all the consigned circuit book records). They obviously have insurance but like everything else all debtors would be lining up and those with the largest amounts owed would get first cut.

These situations are, fortunately, rare. But this does not excuse the lack of communicating the risks of consignment.
Don

JOGIL ----Thanks for your posting , I had not had my coffee yet this morning so I am going to shoot from the hip and let loose .
First ,the above letter is just "lawyer speak" and says the small collector is going to suck wind .
Not so fast ------Lawyers don't know the stamp business like we do .
David K. didn't work by himself , there are others who are officers and employees who are part to this . One big area we haven't address is was their criminal laws that were broken with CUSTOMER SEGREGATED funds .
Another area that needs to be addressed is David K. business relations with some of his buddies {these friends are well respected APS officials} who where big consigners who put material in his stamp auctions . These people have gotten advances before the auctions happen or who got money right after the day of the auction ------OLD STORY ---pay your friends first and Joe "farmer" in Iowa is left with nothing .

Then we need a investigation of what the ASDA and APS knew and what they did ,it will be sad if both organizations had received compliants but continue to give them awards and hid the compliants as they piled up . The APS was in business with them and received payment . If there is a CLAW BACK of payments ,the APS membership will go nuts .

The big thing is who already got paid from REGENCY before the banks shut the door . I need to see the books going back at lease a year and "Follow The Money" David Kols is not stupid ,he is hoping all the small fish just leaves it to the banks lawyers and they close it up without us looking deeper .

Thankfully, I have nothing financially at risk in this situation.

It is my understanding David was a licensed auctioneer under Missouri laws at least in previous years. Not sure this is either here or there today.

51studebaker:
I've enquired of Kols attorney if there was a court order to freeze bank accounts and assets for the benefit of the bank, and the attorney has yet to respond.

I would think that for a creditor to freeze a bank account and obtain the assets of the company, a court order would be necessary!

Not necessarily. If the bank is a secured lender then the securitization agreement can provide for automatic freezing and holding of funds on deposit in accounts at the same bank if a default occurs. That's the way my law firm's line of credit works. By freezing accounts, the bank is just exercising its rights under a contract.

As floortrader noted, the attorney's comments on the state of the debtor and the hobby are not inappropriate, they are advocacy. Every lawyer representing a debtor tries to tell small creditors, "Sorry, there's no money, I wish I had better news but there are secured creditors and 50 other big unsecured creditors in line ahead of you" and many creditors will drop their claims in response, which is the lawyer's goal.