Mister Harry Zak.
Okay. So back in the 1990s Harry ran a stall at the Chapel St Bazaar in Melbourne and he also held a number of auctions through Rick Milne.
Now for someone that seemed to know stuff all about posters or films, Harry could get a hold of quality stuff. I collected stuff with my dad. It was the thing we did together - auctions, fairs, stalls, Moviola the lot. We did lots of pleasant business with Harry although we knew he was slightly dodgy.
Now I was living far away from dad (who was in his late 60s at the time) when Harry called and said he had a great deal on a set of (original) Chaplin lobbies, but he needed the money that day and would hand them over the following morning. Dad didn't discuss it with me and drove to Prahran and gave him the $500 he was asking (probably close to $1000 today). And that was when Harry vanished. He didn't turn up to the meeting, he'd vacated his house, his phone would not answer (and was then cut off). He was gone...vanished into thin air.
Dad was a poor man and earned little from his work. $500 was a LOT of money. He was shattered. He was duped, he was taken for an idiot.
He was never the same. We stopped buying any posters from anyone after that and dad could barely look at the collection afterwards. He soon suffered a heart attack and although he recovered after surgery he was never the same and died a few years later.
If I ever meet Harry I will ask him for the money and if he hands it over I will donate it to charity. If he refuses I will get the revenge I have been planning for years. That bastard. That F-ing bastard.
Now for someone that seemed to know stuff all about posters or films, Harry could get a hold of quality stuff. I collected stuff with my dad. It was the thing we did together - auctions, fairs, stalls, Moviola the lot. We did lots of pleasant business with Harry although we knew he was slightly dodgy.
Now I was living far away from dad (who was in his late 60s at the time) when Harry called and said he had a great deal on a set of (original) Chaplin lobbies, but he needed the money that day and would hand them over the following morning. Dad didn't discuss it with me and drove to Prahran and gave him the $500 he was asking (probably close to $1000 today). And that was when Harry vanished. He didn't turn up to the meeting, he'd vacated his house, his phone would not answer (and was then cut off). He was gone...vanished into thin air.
Dad was a poor man and earned little from his work. $500 was a LOT of money. He was shattered. He was duped, he was taken for an idiot.
He was never the same. We stopped buying any posters from anyone after that and dad could barely look at the collection afterwards. He soon suffered a heart attack and although he recovered after surgery he was never the same and died a few years later.
If I ever meet Harry I will ask him for the money and if he hands it over I will donate it to charity. If he refuses I will get the revenge I have been planning for years. That bastard. That F-ing bastard.
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I was a bit wary because of previous experiences but Harry phoned me again and said I would never be able to find this daybill again, etc etc etc and if I didn't put the money in his account that day, he would give someone else the opportunity. I was thinking about whether to do it or not when I got a phone call from another collector. He had had a similar phone call from Harry who had said he had access to a rare Sci Fi daybill but needed the money urgently. I was sorely tempted to make the deposit but decided it was just not worth it.
I later found out that a number of other collectors had received similar phone calls with requests to deposit the money. A few days later, Harry was not answering calls.