Insolvency

rcprince, esp. kelly, thanks for the expert advice, and one question. How does an insolvency sale work? Is it open to the public or only to trade professionals? Does it work wholesale or retail, like an auction or something else? Is the equipment sold at wholesale or best offer? Is most of the equipment returned to the distributors?
Re. the warranties. The equipment I bought from this store--Audiomeca CD Transport, Z-Systems digital preamp, NBS cables (with a supposed life-time warranty)--will hopefully last until the warranty expires. Whenever this dealer sold equipment, he always retained the warranty cards, actually took them out of the boxes before the customer got the equipment (I never saw a warranty card with anything I bought from him, and everything was new, at retail price). When confronted on this, he would say that he needed to keep the warranty information for his records "to see when the warranty ran out in case of necessary repair." I was always instructed to bring the equipment to him if it failed. I always thought: "what if I move to another city?" but shrugged aside the doubts so as not to cause a stir. He lost his authorized dealership status for many if not all of the lines he carried as things declined. Also, I used to trade in things with him and get cash-equivalent coupons or vouchers for later purchases. Thank god, I used them up recently, as these easily totalled into the thousands at times. Imagine having thousands of dollars in coupons for equipment from a shop that no longer exists! What was really uncanny was that he never talked about his financial troubles openly (even when he could not deliver a set of cables to me for 9 months). I think that his intense passion and curiosity about new equipment led him to buy more than he could sell. It used to be the best shop in town. Now the contents are being sold off on Monday.

Those mail-in warranty cards usually have one purpose. All those questions they sometimes ask are for gather marketing intelligence. Even a simple name and address is useful to marketing.

sugarbrie is quite right on the marketing questions, which i rarely answer. some companies, tho, send you gifts when you register. i got a dvd, for example, when i registered my loewe crt.

as to "insolvency sales" : that's a rarely used description in the us. i've seen such sales advertised in the uk and canada. generally, a "true" insolvency sale would be held in conjunction with a bankruptcy. in such cases the trustee or debtor-in-possession hires an auction company to conduct these sales. they are usually open to the public but many have restrictions on bidding, requiring, for example, "lot" bids rather than individual "piece" bids. more and more liquidation sales are done on the internet. there are at least a couple of federal gov't approved sites used for specifically for this. the "insolvency" sale your dealer is advertising, slawney, may be a simple "going out of business" sale. such sales may, BTW, be subject to local gov't regulations, usually prohibiting the kinds of stores that "go out of business" for a period of a year or more. i would try to get your warranty cards from this dealer before he shutters his place for good. -kelly

Please disclose the name and address of the store you refer to. If it's within commuting distance some audiogoners might take advantage of the sale. Always an opportunist.

The store is in Europe. The electronics is all 220/230 volt. The value added tax is 16% in this country. There are huge customs fees to pay if you want to transport back to the USA. It will cost you a few hundred dollars to book a flight from the USA. Who knows if the causes for the delay of the liquidation sale will cease (prospect of eternal postponment). Do you really want to know the name of this store?