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?  

[soh.maryl]

Pretty sure that, at this stage anyway, the OP has no obligation to "dot the i and cross the t" as to how he obtained these things.  

[nyr134]

If the OP buys up paper items at estate sales, it would not be surprising that among the purchases is something that another family member wants but was unaware it existed or was being sold.  Think of a family (perhaps estranged) that moves to another part of the country and one of the older folks dies.  Spouse is left with items that have little meaning or value to them and they get sold.  But somewhere else is a child or grandchild who treasures that stuff and now the OP gets notified that it belongs to them. 

It is not so surprising that it was found on eBay - searching for the serviceman's name in description (using advanced search ) turns up the correspondence. 

If the family connection is real, I say the family, for sentimental reasons, should have first dibs on these items.  A monetary payment to the OP is certainly warranted, though.

[soh.maryl]

Chances are that there is no reason or need for the OP to respond to this message.  

[mozartbach1971]

Just a correction it looks like the description said they were unexamined estate sale material. Not examined estate sale material.

[gon-3449]

What is the problem you are having?

[pickapaper]

@mozartbach1971 

Off topic, I just looked at your listings and as a papergoods lover, I must say I am envious.  You have some really cool documents and letters.  

[meme6253]

They need to offer you proof!, First & foremost, Many sellers sell these types of items, Old letters, Photos, postcards etc., You can't really hand out the name of the other seller & involve them in this, You should have obscured the SS#.

[soh.maryl]

It appears that mozartbach is the one with the problem. 

[soh.maryl]

Why bother with all that? OP is under absolutely no obligation to prove how they were obtained. 

[krazzykats]

Direct them to this link to report the issue. They’ll need to follow the steps provided to recover the property. 

They might just move on to the next seller, but if they’re truly serious, this is the best way for them and you to prove ownership.

Stolen property policy | eBay

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[tobaccocardyahoo]

I do not sell personal correspondence though I have friends who have done so with regularity.

They do so with great respect. They would not start a lot at $.01 which a relative might find to be insulting.

When I have been faced with a claim that I was involved with stolen property, and it is not common but happens if one buys at low end auctions, I advise the person complaining that they should file a stolen property report with the police in the jurisdiction where the theft occurred and we will cooperate with the police. One one occasion, where this was a consignment sale and we did not have the property, we received a call from the local police in a small town, and provided them with the information we had on the consignor.

 Frequently, some relatives do not know what other relatives have sold or disposed of. The result of having found the item leads to a family squabble not a police report. I do not feed family disputes with information.

[adamcartwright]

@a_c_green 

Just to be safe, I try to just lay a slip of paper over any identifying names or numbers when I take listing photos, and I state that in the listing.

[glorybells]

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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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 Which begs the question, is this person sending the messages also a seller of these items???

[soh.maryl]

Have read all the various responses, people trying to help the OP.

However, I see no reason at all to respond.  The seller has no idea of the legitimacy of that person's claim.  If that person buys items and pays, the seller can ship just as he would with any other sale.

As I see it, this is in no way the OP's problem.  He can just sit back and see what develops.  

[onefootflipper]

Things like those letters may have "escaped the estate" long before there ever was an estate. They might have been disposed of by the former owner long before they ever died. They might have been tossed in the trash and then trash picked by someone else, they could have been in a big goodwill donation. They might have been passed on to someone else in any of 1000 legitimate ways, all of which are more likely than the items being stolen. 

I had been hanging onto all my letters I got from friends and family when I was in the Army for decades and I finally last year disposed of nearly all of them.  The ones from my family didn't really say anything and were really repetitive.  The ones from my lunkhead male friends also didn't really say anything and were usually barely 5 sentences. In the end I think I just kept a handful of pseudo-romantic / flirty ones from a few young ladies I only knew from church camp, as those were the only interesting ones.