[meteorite-list] Relating to the Elbert A. King Collection

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From: MeteorHntr_at_aol.com <MeteorHntr_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:04:47 2004
Message-ID: <e6.27ae3ff2.2a0a1acc_at_aol.com>

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In a message dated 5/4/02 3:25:12 PM Central Daylight Time,
Michael_at_caspercoin.com writes:

> The name is Michael NOT Mikey. Yes I did lose out of representing
> the "King Collection". If I would have sold the collection his daughters
> would have been paid.
> It is a fact that I offered OVER $200,00.00 cash to the family. That is
> $200,000.00 more than they received!
> Steve Arnold, a questionable attorney and a corrupt male nurse saw to that!
> the King Family has NOT been paid by Steve Arnold AND ASSOCIATES (Geoff
>

Hello list,

I regret having to post this to the list, but I feel that some explanation is
necessary.

For those who are unaware, Sharon King, Dr. Elbert A. King's widow, passed
away in September 2001. Lisa King is her stepdaughter. Sharon was executor
of Dr. King's Estate after he died in 1998. In 1999, Sharon King hired me as
the exclusive agent on a five year contract to sell the meteorites belonging
to Dr. King's private collection.

As usual Michael Casper has made some unsubstantiated comments:

1. He implies that no money was paid to the King family. However, In the
year 1999 alone, with me as sole agent, over $325,000.00 (YES, I REPEAT, OVER
THREE HUNDRED TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS!) was paid from individual and
institutional buyers to Sharon King for the sale of items in Bert's
Collection. Additional sales were made in 2000 as well.

2. Casper claims to have made an offer of over $200,000 for the entire
collection. However, the largest offer he made to me for the collection was
$100,000. Jim Strope and Darryl Pitt were "silent" partners with Casper in
his bid for the whole collection. As I understand it, Casper did not have
enough personal funds to cover his $100,000 offer. At some point, I know
Pitt and Strope backed out of the deal with Casper for various reasons. I
haven't talked with them about this in nearly 3 years, but I am sure they can
verify this information. When I received a larger offer for the collection,
Casper said "I am not going to bid this up, you go get your best offer and
then come back to me and I will beat it." The highest offer I received from
another party, was for $225,000 which Sharon King turned down. I asked
Casper if he wanted to top that offer and he asked "What will it take for me
to buy it?" I asked Mrs. King and she was firm on wanting at least $300,000.
When I passed this on to Casper he said some things I won't repeat here, and
he never submitted another offer to me after that. Mrs. King then decided to
sell the meteorites individually. I contacted several institutions including
the U.S. National Collection at the Smithsonian and they were not interested
in purchasing or trading for any of the specimens. I also contacted the
British Museum of Natural History in London and they were willing to trade
for just one specimen from the collection. Several other specimens were sold
to another interested institution and then we began selling the remainder via
auctions to the general public.

3. Casper mentions that "the King Family has not been paid." If by that he
means that Sharon's stepchildren have not been paid yet, then he is correct.
Sharon King's Estate is still in Probate, so of course the heirs have not
received any of Sharon's assets yet.

4. I am not sure what he is referring to when he mentions "a questionable
attorney" and a "corrupt male nurse." However, as for his comments concerning
Geoff Notkin, Geoff was my webmaster during some of the sales, but he had
nothing to do with anything other than website updates.

Many items from the King Collection were purchased by people on this list.
It is possible to verify that all the checks were made out to either Sharon
King or to the King Estate's law firm's trust account. It is also possible
to verify through those canceled checks that all funds passed through one of
these accounts and NOT mine. After the funds cleared the bank, my commission
was paid either by Sharon or her lawyer.

There was a comment made that Casper might be open for a lawsuit due to
things he has said on this list. Maybe that might be the case, but even if I
would win a lawsuit against him, I would still have to prove "damages" before
I would be awarded any money. Since Casper's credibility has suffered so
much, it is hard to imagine that his comments have cost me any loss of sales
(damages), so why should I sue him? However, I did have several auctions on
ebay this last weekend right in the middle of all this commotion.

<A HREF="http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=ViewListedItems&userid=meteoritebroker.com&include=0&since=7&sort=3&rows=0">http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=ViewListedItems&
userid=meteoritebroker.com&include=0&since=7&sort=3&rows=0</A>

I would be very interested to know if anyone would be willing to swear under
oath that they did indeed plan to bid on some of my lots, but then decided
not to bid based directly on Casper's public and or private comments. Not
suing Casper has nothing to do with any fear of "full disclosure" on my part.

Even though the statute of limitations has expired for the King Estate to
consider filing a lawsuit against Casper, I would be interested to know if
anyone was scared off early on by Casper's public fiasco on this list three
years ago (see list archives April/May 1999). <A HREF="http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/">
http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/</A>

Lisa King has inquired about purchases made from the King Collection after
February 4, 2001. Although my records indicate that I have not sold any
items from the King Collection after January 2001, if anyone has purchased
such material from me since then please feel free to contact her. I would
appreciate a copy of any correspondence with her concerning these topics.

I know this is far more detailed than most of you care about, but I hope I
have cleared up any confusion that has been caused. I must admit that I am
pleasantly surprised by all the support I have received both on the list and
off. I would like to say thanks to all of you.

Thank You,
Steven K. Arnold

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<HTML>In a message dated 5/4/02 3:25:12 PM Central Daylight Time, Michael_at_caspercoin.com writes:
 
 <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">The name is Michael NOT Mikey. Yes I did lose out of representing
 the "King Collection". If I would have sold the collection his daughters
 would have been paid.
 It is a fact that I offered OVER $200,00.00 cash to the family. That is
 $200,000.00 more than they received!
 Steve Arnold, a questionable attorney and a corrupt male nurse saw to that!
 the King Family has NOT been paid by Steve Arnold AND ASSOCIATES (Geoff
 Notkin?).</BLOCKQUOTE>
 
 
 Hello list,
 
 I regret having to post this to the list, but I feel that some explanation is necessary.  
 
 For those who are unaware, Sharon King, Dr. Elbert A. King's widow, passed away in September 2001. Lisa King is her stepdaughter.  Sharon was executor of Dr. King's Estate after he died in 1998.  In 1999, Sharon King hired me as the exclusive agent on a five year contract to sell the meteorites belonging to Dr. King's private collection.  
 
 As usual Michael Casper has made some unsubstantiated comments:
 
 1. He implies that no money was paid to the King family.  However, In the year 1999 alone, with me as sole agent, over $325,000.00 (YES, I REPEAT, OVER THREE HUNDRED TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS!) was paid from individual and institutional buyers to Sharon King for the sale of items in Bert's Collection.  Additional sales were made in 2000 as well.  
 
 2. Casper claims to have made an offer of over $200,000 for the entire collection.  However, the largest offer he made to me for the collection was $100,000.  Jim Strope and Darryl Pitt  were "silent" partners with Casper in his bid for the whole collection.  As I understand it, Casper did not have enough personal funds to cover his $100,000 offer.  At some point, I know Pitt and Strope backed out of the deal with Casper for various reasons.  I haven't talked with them about this in nearly 3 years, but I am sure they can verify this information. When I received a larger offer for the collection, Casper said "I am not going to bid this up, you go get your best offer and then come back to me and I will beat it."  The highest offer I received from another party, was for $225,000 which Sharon King turned down.  I asked Casper if he wanted to top that offer and he asked "What will it take for me to buy it?" I asked Mrs. King and she was firm on wanting at least $300,000
.  When I passed this on to Casper he said some things I won't repeat here, and he never submitted another offer to me after that.  Mrs. King then decided to sell the meteorites individually.  I contacted several institutions including the U.S. National Collection at the Smithsonian and they were not interested in purchasing or trading for any of the specimens.  I also contacted the British Museum of Natural History in London and they were willing to trade for just one specimen from the collection.  Several other specimens were sold to another interested institution and then we began selling the remainder via auctions to the general public.
 
 3. Casper mentions that "the King Family has not been paid." If by that he means that Sharon's stepchildren have not been paid yet, then he is correct.  Sharon King's Estate is still in Probate, so of course the heirs have not received any of Sharon's assets yet.  
 
 4. I am not sure what he is referring to when he mentions "a questionable attorney" and a "corrupt male nurse." However, as for his comments concerning Geoff Notkin, Geoff was my webmaster during some of the sales, but he had nothing to do with anything other than website updates.  
 
 Many items from the King Collection were purchased by people on this list.  It is possible to verify that all the checks were made out to either Sharon King or to the King Estate's law firm's trust account.  It is also possible to verify through those canceled checks that all funds passed through one of these accounts and NOT mine.  After the funds cleared the bank, my commission was paid either by Sharon or her lawyer.
 
 There was a comment made that Casper might be open for a lawsuit due to things he has said on this list.  Maybe that might be the case, but even if I would win a lawsuit against him, I would still have to prove "damages" before I would be awarded any money.  Since Casper's credibility has suffered so much, it is hard to imagine that his comments have cost me any loss of sales (damages), so why should I sue him?  However, I did have several auctions on ebay this last weekend right in the middle of all this commotion.  
 
 <A HREF="http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=ViewListedItems&userid=meteoritebroker.com&include=0&since=7&sort=3&rows=0">http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=ViewListedItems&userid=meteoritebroker.com&include=0&since=7&sort=3&rows=0</A>
 
 I would be very interested to know if anyone would be willing to swear under oath that they did indeed plan to bid on some of my lots, but then decided not to bid based directly on Casper's public and or private comments.  Not suing Casper has nothing to do with any fear of "full disclosure" on my part.
 
 Even though the statute of limitations has expired for the King Estate to consider filing a lawsuit against Casper, I would be interested to know if anyone was scared off early on by Casper's public fiasco on this list three years ago (see list archives April/May 1999).     <A HREF="http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/">http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/</A>
 
 Lisa King has inquired about purchases made from the King Collection after February 4, 2001.  Although my records indicate that I have not sold any items from the King Collection after January 2001, if anyone has purchased such material from me since then please feel free to contact her.  I would appreciate a copy of any correspondence with her concerning these topics.
 
 I know this is far more detailed than most of you care about, but I hope I have cleared up any confusion that has been caused.  I must admit that I am pleasantly surprised by all the support I have received both on the list and off.  I would like to say thanks to all of you.
 
 Thank You,
 Steven K. Arnold</HTML>

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Received on Wed 08 May 2002 02:08:12 AM PDT

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