Stock Exchange Award Card wanted

[terry]

Hi, all. Just returned from Jerry's auction with a nicely restored Essex Automatics Stock Exchange and wondered if anybody had an original award card to sell or copy for me??

[badpenny]

Nice machine that Terry, heavy as well isn't it?
As I was holding it above my head at the auction I remember how disappointed I was that it didn't reach its reserve, which makes me wonder how you managed to arrive home with it?

The idea of an auction is that the organisers run it, then in exchange for countless hours working at night, paying up front for printing and posting catalogues, hiring a venue and tables then creating an IT system to allow payout on the day, you as a buyer pay us 5% it's not really a lot is it?
However working outside of that arrangement is extracting the urine.
It's called fee avoidance, incidently this site also has a market place where your request for paperwork should have gone, you should have coughed a fiver to put it there instead of on the open forum for free.

[terry]

Hello, Jeremy. This subject has been covered in a private email to Jerry but if I am trying to hush up an evasive and dodgy deal at an auction then why would I make such an obvious posting on that very auctioneers website the very next day??? I know I'm a bit daft but............

Best regards.

Terry..

[badpenny]

Thanks for replying Terry, I wasn't suggesting you were trying to hush it up, I'm wondering how many times we have to say deals in the car park are not on?
And why do we have to say it in the first place?

[terry]

Jeremy, below is my recent email to Jerry, yourself and anyone else who deems me a petty criminal.

Not all of us mix in slottie circles or pore over every single thread on this site and therefore DON'T know the rules set by the in crowd. We see an auction, we buy the catalogue, we adhere to the conditions of sale. What we don't expect is to be subjected to abuse when we break one of the great unwritten slottie taboos that half of us didn't know about in the first place!

All the best.

Terry.


"Hi, Jerry. All perfectly clear and understood. I haven't read every thread on the site including Laurence Fishers so I'm not totally au fait with the ins and outs of slot machine dealing but although it may technically be illegal it would be very hard to stop sales going on outside of registered auction houses. ebay must be the prime example and I'm sure we have all used them to buy machines in the past. As for Sarratt, I seem to remember reading about a private sale occurring before the auction thus denying everybody the chance to bid which must have been a pain. I myself turned up on Sunday hoping to bid on the Payramid that never showed and this too could possibly have fell victim to an interception of some kind! However, I was totally unaware that buying a machine that failed to sell AFTER the auction would be frowned upon. Obviously my posting on Monday made clear that I was blissfully unaware of any wrongdoing. I'm not a bad lad really, Jerry and was just a bit shocked and upset at having the phrases "underhand, fee avoiding and piss taker" used against me in both emails and forum postings by site administrators before I even had the chance to explain my side of the story.

I know that your good selves and many other live and breathe slot machines but many more like myself only have interest on a lesser scale so please cut us a bit of slack if we sometimes fall foul of unwritten rules set by the people "in the know".

I stand with wrist slapped..."

Terry.

[badpenny]

Hi Terry .........

I'm glad you understand now how important it is that we all take the responsibility to make ourselves personally aware of the outcomes of our actions and are therefore answerable for them.
I agree you're not a bad lad, of course you're not. You'd wondered into a mine field, and I'm sure at the time you were unaware of that.

I sense a note of anger in your reply and you feel I over reacted. I can understand that and am sorry you feel that way. I have no intention of prolonging this any more than is necessary but for everyone's benefit it might be advantageous to clarify that it's not simply a case of
"the rules set by the in crowd" or "break one of the great unwritten slottie taboos" Jerry quite clearly outlined in his mail to you the law of the land and how much it cost us personally to operate within it.
I shall ignore the need for income via the 5% commissions as that has been explained to death and shouldn't need to be outlined anyway.

You do confirm that "I'm not totally au fait with the ins and outs of slot machine dealing which of course is your responsibility and in case there are others out there who are vague about it.
Make no mistakes the government would brand each of us a criminal by dealing in vintage slot machines.
It's not illegal to own them but it is to deal in them without a licence. This time round the Gambling Commission wanted to charge us £20 for each machine sold, they wanted to be present on the day and take your personal details as the new owners. We were able to avoid all this stupidity by staying legal and incorporating with "Classic Amusements" to whom we are very grateful.
The issue of the machine not having sold in the auction room, so is fair game in the car park is a matter we are discussing with the vendor. If he was prepared to drop the price in the car park he should have dropped his reserve in the room. I feel sorry for those bidding on it legally who now realise they were squeezed out through greed.
Only a few years ago a good friend and colleague had to cancel his auction at the last minute because someone called the authorities, I understand he lost hundreds of pounds. I personally ran a slottie get together in one of my pubs and sweated cobs when the local plod turned up to advise me to close it at the earliest as he could make a call and get a van in order to confiscate all machines present. (He didn't as the winters are long and cold and he needed somewhere to warm his feet)
Both of the above were very scary incidents and I personally believe the action(s) of somebody in our midst who wanted to scupper any competition.
I insist at this point I DO NOT BELIEVE IT WAS S.HUNT ESQ. I suspect it was person or persons wanting to muscle in on the auction scene, erroneously believing it's loads of money for bugger all effort ..HA! Something that both Steve and us know to be far from the truth.

At our auctions all transactions, all machines and personal reputations are safeguarded by Jerry and I crossing those 't's and dotting those i's regardless of what it costs us.
Now before everyone leaps into print with suggestions about selling a screw for £500 and giving a Bryans Elevenses for free, or selling immaculate machines as scrap etc.etc. Forget it! We are dealing with a branch of HM Customs here, these are the guys who have more power than the police and can enter any premises at any time without a warrant.This isn't a question of getting around a rule, YOU DO NOT MESS THEM ABOUT.

Now you mention e-Bay. They are in Hyper Space, we're not.
Saying payout mechs are disabled to comply is all meaningless, even those toy bandits sold in NEXT are illegal and periodically the authorities do a purge on them (how sad can you get?) I know someone using eBay who was suspicious about a supposed bidder he thought was going to entrap him, so he pulled the auction. The point of all this is you buy or you sell in the auction and all is legal, you do it in the car park, not only is it illegal you put the spotlight on us and the venue who are kind enough to let us be there, unacceptable.
I am not in the business of being anybody's conscience nor am I responsible for educating anybody.
However I will not leave others at risk, either through my carelessness or my ignorance. I require the same in return.
The law surrounding vintage slot machines is worse than an ass but at the moment we are stuck with it.
So between battling with The Money Grabbing Nanny State and working these auctions for 50p an hour it may (or may not) be understandable that I view dealing in the car park, whether it be through thoughtlessness, ignorance or bloody mindedness to be a piss take. So how about you cut us some slack?

This should never have needed explaining, I do not wish to wet nurse anybody else, but feel that Jerry and I now have something else to consider before we tie up countless late nights and lost weekends preparing the next one.

I accept your apology, thank you.