Capital Stock (Details Textual) (USD $) In Thousands, except Share data, unless otherwise specified	0 Months Ended			0 Months Ended	1 Months Ended	3 Months Ended				1 Months Ended		12 Months Ended
	Mar. 15, 2011	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Aug. 10, 2012 Co-CEO [Member]	Nov. 30, 2010 CRB LLC [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Employee And Director Option Exercise [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Employee And Director Option Exercise [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Employee And Director Option Exercise [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Employee And Director Option Exercise [Member]	Jun. 30, 2011 Equity Partners [Member]	Feb. 29, 2012 Heritage Global Partners, Inc [Member]	Dec. 31, 2012 Class N Preferred Stock [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Class N Preferred Stock [Member]
Common Stock, Par or Stated Value Per Share		$ 0.01	$ 0.01
Preferred Stock, Par or Stated Value Per Share												$ 10.00	$ 10.00
Common Stock, Shares Authorized		300,000,000	300,000,000
Preferred Stock, Shares Authorized												10,000,000	10,000,000
Business Acquisition, Equity Interest Issued or Issuable, Number of Shares					3,200,000					122,950	1,000,000
Common Stock Shares Issued for Each Co-CEO				400,000
Net Shares Issued Due to Exercise of Options						10,000	17,778	8,145	26,275
Stock Issued During Period, Shares, Private Placement	1,000,000
Proceeds from Issuance of Private Placement	$ 1,803
Preferred Stock, Voting Rights												Each Class N preferred share has a voting entitlement equal to 40 common shares, votes with the common stock on an as-converted basis and is senior to all other preferred stock of the Company.
Convertible Preferred Stock, Terms of Conversion												The value of each Class N preferred share is $1,000, and each share is convertible to 40 common shares at the rate of $25 per common share.
Preferred Stock Shares Authorized but Unissued												9,486,500	9,486,500