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So I bid on a BM Disk on Ebay and the seller got threatened


Luffliffloaf

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Here's the scenario:

 

I like benchmarking. I am on Ebay a lot. Last week a saw a benchmark disk on Ebay.

 

The seller had found it in a box of junk in an old barn. I believe the barn belonged to his family.

 

He listed it on Ebay. I bid $20. I thought if I won it I would report it as destroyed and use it as a coaster.

 

Well apparently the seller received *several* emails about the item. Some were from an .edu domain and some were from a .gov domain apparently. Each email was basically a cease and desist letter, threatening legal action if the disk auction was not removed.

 

The guy panicked, deleted the emails and ended the auction.

 

I can only assume that someone doesn't want the disks to be sold, for others will go and steal them and try to sell them also.

 

But I wonder why people got mad about one was that obviously not in use and had been sitting around in a barn for 50 years?

 

I'm no expert. I have no clue.

 

Thanks,

Loomis

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There is a fine and possible jail time for removing or distubing these marks. Don't know if the law is ever enforced or still valid. Some of the older survey disks have a statement about that.

 

I suppose someone took offense to selling these as they could become a object for collectors and then fools would be ripping them out to sell for a quick $$.

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This is what gets me......The fact that if I decide I need to grade a corner of my property, and there is a benchmark there, and I decide to bulldoze it out anyway, I can get fined or jail time.

 

Yet in my town alone, about half of the BM's I search for, turn out to be long gone, destroyed by town workers during development, and never reported as destroyed. icon_frown.gif

 

Art

 

www.yankeetoys.org

www.BudBuilt.com

http://www.ttora-ne.mainpage.net/

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The ones knocked out by local workers were probably replaced nearby. In fact, there are almost certainly a lot more markers now in any given town that has experienced development than there were when the NGS database was created. The local surveyors and engineers rarely see any need to submit there work for inclusion in a national database, since only local parties would ever be likely to need to know about them anyway. Remember, the NGS work was merely a skeleton, your local professionals have put the meat on the bones over the past several decades.

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In Michigan, most all the private PS's and gov't agency's have are in contact with the NGS advisor on marks in danger. We (MDOT) would often supply the NGS disk (we had stach of disk & wit post) to a local surveyor or reset the mark ourselves as most did not have the equipment of expertise to do the work, not to mention the cost of materials and manpower. My PS was involved with the local PS society and they would often contact us and tell us of impending doom of the mark. Also, many of them would contact the state advisor, get the mark and a suppply of witness posts from him. The NGS advisor would always come to the annual PS state conventions and push for cooperation from the PS.

 

Also many PS's were involved with the state HARN and when we postioned our STATEWIDE CORS

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