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Stolen books...What to expect?
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Started by cammer,

74 posts in this topic

cammer

cammer

Posted
Posted

First post so bear with me if I ramble.

 

Back in August I sold about 1200 gold,silver, and early bronze age books to a guy that turned out to be a scammer. Gave me a check on a fake bank account. I was stupid I know.

 

He sold the books immediately to one of Ebays biggest most respected comic sellers.

I tracked my books down by comparing my own scans of the books to the ebay sellers and without a doubt are my old books. Local police contacted the ebay seller and he said he did indeed purchase my books from the scammer. He said he separated the high grade to sell on ebay and has put the low grade aside. He told the police here that he would be willing to give me back whats left. Those he hasn't sold. He has already sold thousands of dollars worth of my books.

 

My question: should I just be happy to get back only the lower grade items that he can't sell anyway? Should I expect some compensation for my items that were sold? I think he was probably selling them without the knowledge of them being stolen. Maybe I should consult a lawyer for advice. Just seems to me the ebay seller should not be entitled to any profits on books that were stolen property.

 

If anyone has any past experience in anything like this I would be interested in facts or just opinions. Thanks

 

 

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kav

kav

Posted
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It would seem the person who now is in possession of the books is in possession of stolen property and must return them to you. I believe the seller would have to give you that information.

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kav

kav

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If the persons now in possession lie and say they already sold em and cant give you names politely let them know if the books ever show up for sale or surface anywhere and the sale can be tracked back to them after you contacted them they would be guilty of a felony.

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cammer

cammer

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Kav,

 

I'm thinking the same way as you. Unfortunately our local police doesn't want to go thru that trouble. The detective here didn't want to do anything at all until I made him compare my scans with the ebay pictures. Now after he knows who is selling the books he "suggests" I take what is left because it "would be a lot to ask" to get all the books returned. Was tough to let them go as I had many of them since a child in the early '60s. Now to see them go for basically nothing is bad. Guess I have to think it over.

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kav

kav

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Maybe contact media? If TV station does a story and asks police why they aren't doing anything about it that could change rapidly. Make the story as juicy as possible. Childhood collection, victim, cops don't care, etc.

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kav

kav

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Also even without police you can ask seller to divulge who he sold them to and if he refuses point out he might want to talk to a lawyer then. Then contact the people who have the books.

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cammer

cammer

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In our medium-small town area complaining to the media would make you a target for retaliation so that is really not an option.

 

Looks like I'll probably contact the dealer and see if we can work something out. I'm sure he doesn't want to let his customers know he was selling stolen books so maybe he will be willing to work with me. I won't mention his ebay ID but wish I could so you could see the quality silver age superhero books he's getting $60-100 or more each. Makes me sick.

 

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kav

kav

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If you can post pics of the books here we can at least keep an eye out

Even like 5 years from now someone can say-hey that book is stolen you better return it

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cammer

cammer

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Thanks for your input Kav. Don't want to embarrass the dealer without giving him a chance to do what's right. If not then I may name name's and post pictures even though I'm sure Ebay knows where each book was sent. After the detective here told me I should just settle for what's left I guess I was hoping you guys would tell me I was not crazy for expecting even the books he sold on ebay should be returned. I'll update what happens after I meet with the dealer. 150 miles away so not sure when that will be.

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CBT

CBT

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If it really is "thousands" of dollars of books, you need a lawyer. Then have the lawyer act through ebay to getting the address info on the stolen property. All transactions and people involved can be forced to unwind the illegal transactions.

 

But it will take a lot of time and likely fees to the lawyer. If that will vastly exceed what you can get back, not worth it. Since no one was intentionally moving stolen property you cant sue, so your only recourse is via lawyer/police forcing the transactions to be unwound.

 

The police might not want to do the work, but that's irrelevant. Stolen property cannot be sold or kept. Lawyer letters threatening everyone involved who wont cooperate would likely be sufficient to get it resolved, but ebay would need to give up the details if the dealer wont.

 

If you can go through the dealers feedback history and find the transactions, using the ebay developers API you can pull a lot more details on specific sales then are available on ebay's website, so that could be an option to expose buyer account names on your own.

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VintageComics

VintageComics

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Sorry to hear about your stolen books.

 

Can you give us the name of the person who wrote you a bad check for your books?

 

Yup. And did he show you ID when writing the check?

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cammer

cammer

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Don't want to give the name of the bad check guy until I give the ebay dealer a chance to settle with me. I want to stress I don't want to embarrass or sound like I'm accusing them of any wrong doing. The bad check guy provided his drivers license with his real name, three credit cards with the same name. I took down his license plate number off his car. He had an amazing knowledge of everything comic related. Haggled price with me for 45 minutes. Only picked out 10,12, and 15cent books. No Disney or funny animal. Went through about 8,000 books to pick out what he wanted. 4 long boxed and 2 short packed tight. Seemed at the time that if he was writing a bad check he would have taken everything and not haggled price just to get in and out quickly. He was there over two hours.

 

Cop that took my report said he had many warrants for the same thing from New York to Florida and all the way to Colorado and Texas. Professional criminal. They also told me he has a violent record and I was lucky I didn't try to back out of the deal.

 

He didn't care about using his real name. He even posted on craigslist selling stolen items using his real name and phone number. Maybe that's how he got busted don't know but he is in jail now with $100,000.00 bail. I think they told me there are 14 other jurisdictions waiting to get to him if he ever gets out. Hope you understand my reasons for keeping names quiet for now.

 

 

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kav

kav

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he is in jail now with $100,000.00 bail. I think they told me there are 14 other jurisdictions waiting to get to him if he ever gets out.

freakin awesome

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jop

jop

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Kav,

 

I'm thinking the same way as you. Unfortunately our local police doesn't want to go thru that trouble. The detective here didn't want to do anything at all until I made him compare my scans with the ebay pictures. Now after he knows who is selling the books he "suggests" I take what is left because it "would be a lot to ask" to get all the books returned. Was tough to let them go as I had many of them since a child in the early '60s. Now to see them go for basically nothing is bad. Guess I have to think it over.

 

They should be wanting to do something a bad check over $500 is typically a felony and if you know where the merchandise is the odds are if he sold them to a huge seller that he took some form of ID before kicking up that kind of scratch.

 

I would be going back to the Police with as much information as I could gather

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kav

kav

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So if I buy a book on eBay from an established dealer and it turns out to be stolen, I'm on the hook?

Yes

Stolen property does not get cleaned by repeated sales

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