The fact that auctioneer secretary Audrey Long has stolen the rare stamp and later manages to retrieve it after duping the mailmen would have made it unnecessary for her to even return to Marcel Journet to receive her promised, but relatively small $5000 cut of the actual full value of the $100,000 stamp. Furthermore, why would Long expect Journet and pay her any upfront money at all before he actually had the stamp in his possession, which she very well knew was not the case? If they'd been more opportunistic, Long and her accomplice Danny Morton could have simply disappeared, laid low for as long as it took for the heat to die off--months or even years--then eventually sell the stamp to any unscrupulous dealer or unwitting collector anywhere in the world--a common occurrence with coins, jewels, rare paintings, etc.