Insolvency

Elizabeth, Swampwalker--I think the owner (a young, passionate audiophile) needs some time away from his business to mourn its demise and, slowly, to reorient himself.

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?

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.

I would like to say what happened at the insolvency sale. Like kelly anticipated, it was a 'going out of business sale' with an external institution supervising the sale of the merchandise. Everything was discounted the same 40% irrespective of condition or other considerations. Nothing had a guarantee or a return policy. One of the sales personnel from the store ran around helping a thick crowd of customers. Needless to say, amidst the chaos there was no chance for a listening test of anything. It seems the good, expensive components were the first to go (Avalon speakers, Audio Note equipment, NBS cables, etc.) and the rest was sort of sold randomly. The owner of the store was mysteriously not present. There were many frustrated customers wanting cash for coupons and vouchers the store had given on trade ins. The external agency denied them any cash returns. They were all given an address to write to in order to be put on a list of creditors. There were also many people expressing surprise and disappointment that the store was closing. Reasons for its bankruptcy ranged among a number of different explanations. The salesperson present does not have plans to go into audio retail again. He gave me his telephone number and we will remain in contact on a private basis.