I really wish you well. There are some shady characters in this business, all right. You are at their mercy on realized prices, for one thing. Can you figure out their on line presence, for example, such as an eBay account that you can keep an eye on? Moving everything in 30 45 days at an antique mall happens never, so the dealer would have to buy the inventory himself, at his own price.
If you sue in small claims, you still have the uphill battle of collecting on the judgement.
If the dealer had high recommendations, he or she is probably just too casual at business and will make good after all. If you know the movers’ ID, give them a call and see if they were paid.
Again, good luck.
Yes, I gave this a LOT of thought as I got into it. The liquidator I contracted said there would be a catalogue of the items with the sales prices listed for full disclosure. I got none of that. She is a complete thief.
I later realized that only about half of the stuff (if you're lucky) actually gets sold to end-user buyers, the rest of it either gets bundled and sold to another liquidator at pennies on the dollar, or goes in a dumpster, which they charge you for. So, when you agree to liquidate your loved one's estate you have to mentally prepare yourself to accept the fact that a lot of your dearly departed's prized possessions are going to end up in a landfill if they aren't marketable. A lot of people can't accept that.
My departed mom had a massive VHS movie/documentary collection of classics. These are going straight into the heap, and that bothers me. I've tried selling them online, but I might as well be selling buggy whips.