"I believe that the club did the right thing. I am asking again to be re-instated." ... Larry Eastman

Larry; Your request for re-instatement should be OFFICIALLY and PRIVATELY directed to the CURRENT club officers (who BTW have not been in office for a year).

I personally do not believe that posting such a request on a public bulletin board is the generally accepted protocol for presenting such a request. A year from now, one could claim that you again had sought re-admission to the club on May 9th, 2004 ... based on your above bb post.

As for the value of the item(s) in question; perhaps what YOU paid for the item was not the criteria for judgement. It might have been the replacement value of the item claimed, which I understand was not returned to Mr. Herz because of its subsequent loss during your possession?