Originally posted by EdGs: What a horrible mess. I hope that the "thief" is forced to pay the original owner the full price paid by Mongo for this item and All court/and attorney fees for all parties involved, and Mongo gets to keep it. Best of luck to all involved except the "thief".
The price paid by Mongo is immaterial to the original owner- the original owner made a deal with Ailsby, not Mongo. Both Ailsby and the seller should be held to that deal.
May not be at all immaterial, if Ailsby used his well known status to make his offer as a form of appraisal. We don't know the details, but most likely he made quite a pitch, and said something along the lines of "Its worth about $15,000 so I'll give you $10,000", which is clearly not the advice of an honest expert, but a scantless scam artist.
Also, holding up payment and shirking contact for 1.5 years should be grounds to void any deal in any circumstances,
