I guess I don't see this as a black eye for the entire hobby. When a store I have a gift certificate for goes belly up, I don't hold the entire industry responsible, just that store and their owners.
I see this as a black eye for Mastro, for sure, and for the principals involved. The attempt to walk away from a financially struggling company and start up another company, with the purchased assets of the first, while not addressing the liabilities, is both troubling and transparent.
I don't even think that Mastro's, er... I mean Legendary's biggest problem is bidders boycotting. They will still have some, if not most bidders. Their biggest problem will be consignors not consigning, going forward. If word is out industry wide that a company is having trouble paying consignors, it won't take long for those consignments to dry up. When that happens, the whole bidder thing takes care of itself, very quickly.
As far as the hobby goes, there are still plenty of auction houses around and most pay their consignors, and pay them on a timely basis.
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