Q.Distinguish between Consignment and Sale, stating at least four points of difference.

The core difference is ownership: in a consignment it never passes to the agent until a real sale is made to a third party, while in a sale it passes to the buyer immediately.

1. Ownership of goods: in a consignment, ownership remains with the consignor throughout — the consignee only holds the goods as an agent — and passes to a buyer only when the consignee actually sells to a genuine third party. In a sale, ownership passes to the buyer immediately, the moment the sale is concluded.

2. Relationship between the parties: a consignment creates a principal-and-agent relationship between the consignor and the consignee. A sale creates a buyer-and-seller relationship (a debtor-and-creditor relationship, once credit is allowed).

3. Risk of loss: in a consignment, the risk of loss or damage to the goods remains with the consignor (unless the loss arises from the consignee's own negligence). In a sale, the risk passes to the buyer along with ownership.

4. Return of unsold goods: a consignee is generally entitled to return goods that cannot be sold, since the consignee never became their owner. An ordinary buyer, having already taken ownership, cannot normally return goods merely because reselling them proved difficult.

5. Reward for the agent/seller: a consignee earns only an agreed commission on what is actually sold, regardless of the ultimate profit margin. A seller, in an outright sale, keeps the ENTIRE difference between cost and selling price as profit, with no commission involved.

Students sometimes treat the despatch of goods on consignment as if it were itself a sale simply because goods have physically left the consignor's premises — the decisive test is always whether OWNERSHIP has passed to a genuine third-party buyer, not merely whether the goods have been moved.