[Lil bastard]

I would like to see the heirs get some compensation, I mean the old man didn't store a car in this condition not knowing it's potential value, it wouldn't make sense to spend money storing an old 'junker'. But we're getting waay ahead of ourselves.

We do not know there are any heirs. We do not know the circumstances of the delinquent storage bill - how long was it in arrears?

From the start of this auction, it appears the seller didn't know the true value, so it's a little difficult to call it fraud, deception, or unethical. The fact that the car brought way more than the seller first sought is no crime and certainly the seller cannot be faulted here.

The laws governing the seizure of stored property by the 'landlord' to satisfy a delinquent bill varies by state, but usually involve filing papers, informing the renter (usually to last known address and/or by posting a notice in a newspaper), and allowing a set period of time where the renter can bring the account up-to-date and recover their property.

Assuming there are heirs, were they so informed? Did they ignore the notice? Or, lacking knowledge of the car's true value did they just let the 'landlord' keep the property rather than fork out money for an 'old' car?

Was the old man's estate probated? If so was the car a known posession (it appears to have had a very old original title, issued before such documents were computerised) or it's true value disclosed? If not, there could be upcoming issues with the state and fed. revenue depts. if they get wind of this ebay sale. The value of this car could well have caused an otherwise exempt estate to now be required to be filed in probabte court. Also, the seller is going to have to report the sale as a capital gain and pay the appropriate taxes... a LOT of taxes.

Assuming there are heirs, are they even aware of this auction? If so, what might their future actions be? They wouldn't likely find an attorney to challenge the ownership on a contingency basis, so again, they'd be out money upfront with no guarantee of winning the case and coming out ahead.

There are way too many unanswered questions right now to draw any conclusions about whether or not the seller was honest, or even if his ownership of the car was fully established.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this story pop up again sometime in the future - I don't think we've heard the end of it just yet.