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Help needed



Greetings, O Wise ones! I have a new problem.

I got a call late yesterday from a gentleman who said he had loaned us a
significant collection of equipment literature 10 or 11 years ago, and that
he wanted to terminate the loan so he could sell the collection. That
prompted my curiosity, as I'd never heard of him or his collection.

I called our managing director, who told me that he's had the collection at
home ever since it was loaned to us. (To digress from the issue at hand
slightly, I  was relieved to know that it was safe and sound and not lost
somewhere. It was also reassuring to know that my memory wasn't so far gone
as to have forgotten that we had a collection of this size; I never knew we
were supposed to have had it in the first place. <begin rant> Nonetheless,
if it was loaned to the HCEA, what in thunder was it doing secreted away in
the managing director's house all this time? Out of charity, I want to say
he probably did that to ensure that it didn't get mixed up with other
collections here, something that could have very easily happened given the
utter lack of record-keeping before I started here; but I have to wonder.
<end rant>)

Now, back to our story. The collection's owner verbally (not in writing -
remember, very poor record-keeping was the rule here) promised several years
ago to  donate the collection to us. Now, having been convinced of its
monetary worth by one of our directors (of all people!), he wants to sell
it. I discussed his intention with him, and he said he needs the cash from
the sale now rather than waiting for a tax deduction on a donation. He said
that he wants to sell it as a complete single lot to someone who would be
willing to donate it to us. That way, he gets the cash, the buyer gets the
tax write-off and we get the collection. The collection is worth far more
than we can afford to pay for it ourselves, and we may not have time to
raise funds for its purchase.

Here's the problem. Is there a legitimate way that we can help this
transaction to take place without setting ourselves up for a possible
conflict of interest? I'd like to be help him sell the collection as he
wishes so that we do end up with it,  but I don't want to get us, him or the
buyer into trouble doing it. Any ideas?

Best wishes,

Thomas Berry, Archivist
Historical Construction Equipment Association
16623 Liberty Hi Road
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
Phone 419-352-5616
Fax 419-352-6086
tberry@hcea.net
http://www.hcea.net

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