Received message to send items, notifying authorities and Ebay. What should I do?

[mozartbach1971]

I received a message from a person who asked where I obtained their fathers personal letters. I sent a message back saying I bought them from another dealer. They then said they were part of the family estate and not to be sold and they are notifying the authorities and Ebay because their dad's social security number is on the return address for the world to see and to please send all the letters to them for  safe keeping, and they bid on two separate ones to keep them from going to strangers and will pay $15 each for my troubles, and if I can give them the name of the dealer I bought them from it would be helpful.   Does anyone know what I should do regarding this situation.  I have more of the letters listed right now, do I need to take them down?  

[titipeo]

I knew I’ve seen this situation being posted before. The results are the same no matter what, no need to repeat. It’s up to family to pursue action. How did it get lost from the family state? The burden is on them. As for seller, at least dot the i and cross the t on how you got these. There should be a police report if family state was stolen. 

[albertabrightalberta]

My guess is that in 99% of these situations, the messengers are just people trying to get free merchandise. 

[krazzykats]

How did someone even manage to discover their family letters on eBay in the first place?

With thousands of antique documents for sale online, how did they find these?

Quite unusual.

ᓚᘏᗢ

[chapeau-noir]

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@albertabrightalberta wrote:

My guess is that in 99% of these situations, the messengers are just people trying to get free merchandise. 

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Bingo. It's why I can't take this kind of thing seriously. The burden of proof is on them. 

[wastingtime101]

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@albertabrightalberta wrote:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Person-says-their-a-reporter-wants-to-know-why-I-won-t-help-wi...

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That was the first thing I thought of when I saw the OP!

[cityslickercreations2004]

There was a similar story posted here earlier this summer. I think a bunch of postcards belonging to someone's deceased mother was listed.

Quit spinning your wheels by engaging with this person. They may be a scammer and you don't want to keep the messages going.

Or, they may be someone that is having some personal difficulties. Perhaps they will win the auction.

I would not disclose the name of the dealer for a variety of reasons.

[gone.c-33]

Hot take but maybe selling contemporary personal correspondence isn’t a great idea?

I get that Civil War/World War I/World War II correspondence has a historical value, selling Vietnam War era personal letters where the sender and/or recipient and/or their S/O and/or direct descendants may very well still be alive gives me the ick and I can easily see how it could cause problems. 

It’s like the question “what is the difference between archeology and grave robbing?” Well while digging up a civil war era grave would be archaeological, a vietnam war one…?

[bashort]

I would just tell them that if they feel you obtained them illegally that they should file a police report and the police can contact ebay. 

[toysaver]

"They then said they were part of the family estate and not to be sold"

This makes no sense.   Estates don't belong to families.   Ask him to send you a copy of the will.  That will tell you owns the letters, if anyone.  Chances are they aren't even mentioned.  Chances are his father trashed them decades ago.  

[jrkirk]

We had a similar situation a few years ago, and we had purchased at an estate sale; had receipt to show items were bought and paid for. No problems ever resulted.

[pickapaper]

@toysaver 

My only knowledge of this kind of thing is when the family has an estate sale.  The family has gone through everything, removing what they want to keep but things often get overlooked or not readily found, and thus get sold.    Letters would be easy to overlook.

I'm with the others.  If this person wants the letters, he can buy them.

[soh.maryl]

Had a son-in-law in the Navy once upon a time.  That # that was part of his address was NOT his SS number, but just a way for the Navy to identify him, much as civilians might have an ID # at our place of employment.  

[dnasilver]

An unknown person contacts you and makes a claim. Why would you even think they are being honest? They spend every hour of every day looking at letters to find ones supposedly missing from an estate. Does not seem very realistic they just happened to find ones that you are selling. 

[toomuchstuffagain35]

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@albertabrightalberta wrote:

Geez, @mozartbach1971 

You seem to get a lot of messages telling you your listings are stolen items! 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Buyer-wins-item-then-asks-to-cancel-saying-it-may-have-been/td...

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Person-says-their-a-reporter-wants-to-know-why-I-won-t-help-wi...

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It does seem to go with the territory of what the OP sells unfortunately.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

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@albertabrightalberta wrote:

My guess is that in 99% of these situations, the messengers are just people trying to get free merchandise. 

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It can happen with jewellery too.