Generally, for small issues like the B&G 12% bond, the US over the counter bond market is completely disfunctional. The spreads tend to be huge, and you often have to call a broker 10 times to get a price anything close to what you think the market should be. I'm trying to develop an offer through several brokers, but I'm not expecting a lot of luck on that.

The biggest problem is for buyers and sellers to just find each other. There is no "market" in the sense of pink sheets or NYSE/NASDAQ where a bid and offer is posted for everyone to see. Instead you have an informal collection of brokers who just call each other up, and if you are a small customer no one has much of an incentive to push your bid or offer to a large number of brokers. Any of you who have tried to buy or sell bonds before understand my point. Those of you who only trade stocks are in for a shock. Trading bonds is like stepping into the third world.

If anyone here is trying to sell the 12% bond, and doesn't get the price they want from their broker, please contact me by email and we may be able to get our brokers to talk directly and see if they can facilitate a transaction. My email persistentone AT spamarrest.com. I'm interested in the 12% note for an income portfolio I'm helping to build for a relative.