"A Rock-and-Roll Memorabilia Mess"

from abcnews.com - by Tappy Phillips

For years, a local man collected rock-and-roll memorabilia and his hobby really paid off.

 

Rick Aubrey auctioned off his collection and got nearly $20,000 dollars. But when it came time to pay up, the money wasn't there.

It was a Beatles record collection that took a lifetime to put together. Bought for pennies at garage sales, the vintage vinyl was now worth tens of thousands at auction. But when the money was slow in coming, the collector called Seven On Your Side.

For the past 30 years, Richard has been collecting Beatles records. And now he's turning vinyl into gold.

After buying a fixer-upper, Richard decided it was time to cash in part of his collection.

"We've just purchased a house in the neighborhood and we needed some money for some home improvements," Richard said.

So last July, 16 of his collectible records went up for auction.

Tappy: "And they fetched a pretty good price?"
Richard: "Very good price."

How good? A copy of "The Magical Mystery Tour" went for eleven hundred. One album fetched fourteen hundred and a forty five of "We Can Work it Out" went for nearly three grand.

Tappy: "So you were happy about that?"
Richard: "Excellent prices, can't complain about that at all."

What Richard did complain about was payment. The auction house sent out three checks but ...

Richard: "They all bounced."
Tappy: "They all bounced?"
Richard: "And ever since then it's been a chase to get some money."

Finally, Richard got a partial payment of forty five hundred -- but the unpaid balance still topped seven grand.

Richard: "That was going to go directly to the home improvement for our new house."
Tappy: "So all of that's been on hold?"
Richard: "All that's been on hold."

So we dropped the gavel on the auction house, and two days after our call, there was payment in full.

The auction house said the payment delay was caused by a bounced check by one of their buyers. They apologized and said it was entirely their fault.

(Copyright 2007 WABC-TV)