Sales still take place, though the rate has declined sharply, and some sellers obtain prices far beyond their expectations.

David's job is to act as a mediator to help the sellers obtain the best prices from the dealers or to help them with the decision about whether to refuse the offer and to take the item to auction.

My first reaction was to wonder how sellers could legitimately obtain these items for discounted prices.

CQout have an 'anti-sniping' feature which allows sellers to obtain the true selling price of their goods.

When the seller does not obtain the shares within the required time frame, the result is known as a "failure to deliver".

In the case of the Maplewood assemblage, the developers paid the former property owners an average price of $350,000 a lot, which Mr. Lamb says was about $90,000 more per lot than sellers could have obtained from a user-buyer.

The clients were in the middle of building a house on the lot when it was discovered that "the sellers had obtained the deed fraudulently," Mr. Gould said.

For a business to buy or sell goods within the Community without incurring EC VAT, the seller must obtain his customer's VAT number.

Where the seller obtains such an undertaking it will relieve him from his liability "to such extent as is reasonable having regard to the terms of the undertaking".