Posted: 1/20/2017 10:53:57 AM EDT
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| Honestly without having your own itemized list to check theirs against as documented proof of items that were put in for auction, I'm not sure you can do a whole lot. Sounds like they've "fessed up" to the egg crate, but without some kind of proof of other items being put into the auction and not sold, you won't have much to go on. |
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Besides writing a shitty review what do you think your going to accomplish? Did you take pics of all the items you handed over? Do you have a list to cross reference? It not its your word against theirs I just want my family to be compensated for what was broken or lost. We DO have pics of the majority of the items. |
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Is the check that is "in the mail", a considerable amount?
When did they send it? Most mail only takes a couple of days to arrive. Also, I would lean on them for my missing items. Especially if they were on the list of items in their possession. After the auction you should be paid and have all unsold items returned. You need to come up with a value of those missing items and demand a check or return the items. I would go ballistic if a company like this was trying to screw myself or my family. |
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I still haven't gotten past someone moving and leaving all the shit they acquired to an auction sale. They didn't care about the stuff enough to move it, and OP didn't care enough to take it for himself. Nothing was itemized or appraised. Now you care?  Yep. Should have kept the nice stuff to sell yourself OP. |
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State your case clearly in a certified letter to the agency. Tell them what you want and what actions you will take if they do not deliver. As a former agent I can tell you that bad publicity is the biggest threat you can make.
Put a price on the items and tell them you expect payment for the items or the items themselves. State a figure. Give them a set time to respond. If you get no reaction or do not like their response, go to small claims. I think thieves, whether they slither around at night or have nice offices, need to be held accountable regardless of how well they dress. If you don't punish thieves, they will continue to steal. I hate thieves who hide behind a profession. But then as a former agent, I am still trying to wash some slime off. |
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I still haven't gotten past someone moving and leaving all the shit they acquired to an auction sale. They didn't care about the stuff enough to move it, and OP didn't care enough to take it for himself. Nothing was itemized or appraised. Now you care? THERE ARE THREE ITEMS WE ARE ADDRESSING WITH THEM. THOSE THREE ITEMS ARE ITEMIZED, WITH PICTURES, AND DESCRIPTIONS. THIS IS VERY CLEARLY STATED IN THIS THREAD. NOT SURE WHAT IS SO HARD ABOUT UNDERSTANDING THIS... I haven't mentioned trying to go after compensation for the other items that we don't know about. We've pretty much just chalked it up. Unless we're able to figure out what they were and have documentation to prove it. |
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State your case clearly in a certified letter to the agency. Tell them what you want and what actions you will take if they do not deliver. As a former agent I can tell you that bad publicity is the biggest threat you can make. Put a price on the items and tell them you expect payment for the items or the items themselves. State a figure. Give them a set time to respond. If you get no reaction or do not like their response, go to small claims. I think thieves, whether they slither around at night or have nice offices, need to be held accountable regardless of how well they dress. If you don't punish thieves, they will continue to steal. I hate thieves who hide behind a profession. But then as a former agent, I am still trying to wash some slime off. This is the correct way to handle the issue. |
| Considering that this one is no where near as nice I would venture to say the Geman piece was much more valuable than you or your parents thought.German Egg Cabinent thingy |
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People who run estate sales know the value of things like that.
Such sales are usually done after the death of the owners and their heirs are unaware of what all they had. There is a bunch of stuff to be sorted through and they usually leave it to the estate sale company to sort through it. I'm going to say someone at the auction company figured they could keep a few nice things and no one would ever notice. Whether or not the owners of the company were aware of it and involved is yet to be determined. It could just be an employee with sticky fingers. But somebody stole your shit! They did not realize you have pictures and such to document the pieces. If it were me, I would let them know they have X number of days to return my property. If not, I would be filing a police report for theft. |
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Simple lesson of don't absolutely trust other people to handle your shit.Â
My parents are also in the middle of a move. My dad packed and labeled just about everything himself (my mom and I did some too) because he doesn't trust movers. Then he watched them load and unload every box. This has been going on for weeks/months now. But I can't blame him. The horror stories he has about when my grandparents house caught fire and they had to move and relied on movers and an auction house. The tens and tens of thousands of dollars worth of stuff unaccounted for. Just a mess. Don't trust anyone. |
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THERE ARE THREE ITEMS WE ARE ADDRESSING WITH THEM. THOSE THREE ITEMS ARE ITEMIZED, WITH PICTURES, AND DESCRIPTIONS. THIS IS VERY CLEARLY STATED IN THIS THREAD. NOT SURE WHAT IS SO HARD ABOUT UNDERSTANDING THIS... I haven't mentioned trying to go after compensation for the other items that we don't know about. We've pretty much just chalked it up. Unless we're able to figure out what they were and have documentation to prove it. You quote me twice, I must have touched a nerve. I reread the OP again. You DO NOT state that all the items were itemized. Since you have pictures, I suppose you may have all the items sent to auction listed somewhere, but that sure as hell wasn't "CLEARLY STATED." The biggest mistake you made was not getting an appraisal. An appraisal has no effect on an auction, but where it does come into play is in this very situation. If the item does not sell at auction and the cosigner can not return it, for whatever reason, they then owe you the appraised value. You have no appraised value, ergo, you have no claim. If you wanted the crate or coins, you should have taken them. If you wanted the best value possible on them, you take them to an actual collector. Handing all this over to a third party then complaining after the fact about all the mistakes you made to not cover your own ass is taking the easy way out. You don't profit on the easy path. |
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I haven't mentioned trying to go after compensation for the other items that we don't know about. We've pretty much just chalked it up. Unless we're able to figure out what they were and have documentation to prove it. How will you know they stole stuff you don't know about in the first place? The first thing you should do is find an antique appraiser and a coin appraiser. Find out the estimated auction value of the egg box and the coins. This will tell you how much money you're fighting over. It was also tell you whether to accept the offer from the auctioneer to "make things right" on the egg box. If you're fighting over $100, move on. Next, stop sending text messages. That's too informal. At a minimum, send the auctioneer an email. A real letter would be better. Keep a complete copy of whatever you send. Include a complete list of items that were put in the auctioneer's custody that are now missing. Include pictures and whatever documentation you have to show the items were delivered to the auctioneer's custody. Keep the email or letter short and to the point. Do not make theft accusations. Just ask where the stuff is or what happened to it if they don't have it anymore. As for the eBay auction for the egg box, note that it doesn't have any bids. Watch that auction and see if somebody bids on it. Even then, it doesn't tell you much about the value of your egg box because they're so different, but it's more than what you've got now. Right now, the fact that somebody is asking $385 for an egg box tells you nothing. |
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THE ITEMS MENTIONED ARE ITEMIZED AND THAT IS CLEARLY STATED. THOSE ITEMS ARE: THE EGG CRATE THE WWII COINS THE CIVIL WAR COINS THOSE ARE THE ONLY ITEMS I AM TALKING ABOUT PURSUING HERE. NOTHING ELSE. I'm not sure why you have such an adversarial tone with me on this... I didn't mean to offend anyone with my thread. My family just got ripped off and I'm trying to get some help man. I didn't come here to get criticized and made to feel worse. The past is the past, I can't change that. I'm just trying to figure out what I can do to get compensated for THESE THREE ITEMS. So sorry if I offended or pissed you off some how. Do you need a safe space to run to? My apologies. When you posed your story on the internet, I thought you wanted to hear what other people's assessment was over your situation. I did not realize you just wanted some internet bro-hugs to tell you things will be OK. Look, I'm trying to be honest here. The value of those items is nothing. You have no proof as to their value at the time of auction. Just because I can find an example of what you had that may have sold for thousands, that does not mean that what you had was worth the same. You say the crate is worth $1,000, the auction house says it was $10, (not real numbers, just an example.) |
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As to the coins. Had you had them graded when you had them in your possession? If not, it will be near impossible to attach a value. Also, most coins unless they grade high or are rare, don't usually bring much.
As to the egg crate. Looking at it from your pics, it doesn't look like it's worth a lot of money. I see screws on it as opposed to being pegged or dowelled. I could be very wrong though. Best thing to do would be to scour the internet to find one ,Ike it, but also take all of the pics of it to someone (or three) locally and see what they say as to potential value. |
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Egg cabinet
This is the closest I could find, not as fancy of porcelain but only went for $68 |