Stamp Stolen During Appraisal - Be Wary

I think many of us would go to someone certified, but just in case, check this out.

Always a good idea to take pictures of stamps you think are valuable, so you have a record of owning them before sending them in.

https://kdvr.com/2019/06/12/parker-...g-appraisal/

Thanks for posting.

Ouch, not good optics for the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library.
Don

Content not available in the UK - please can you add a summary of the item?

Thanks for sharing.

peterh,

"Parker woman says valuable stamp stolen during appraisal"
June 12, 2019

A woman claims she brought a collection to the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library for appraisal. She allowed an employee named 'John' to view the collection and he told her it was not worth anything. Apparently picked up one of the stamps and said "'I'll just throw this one away because it's not worth anything." She says she said 'no' but he just walked away. RMPL has apparently fired the guy and are cooperating with police.
Don

Strange story. She had an 80 year old two cent Washington that had been passed down as a family heirloom. Does any of this sound familiar? My guess is it probably is a common stamp someone knowing nothing about stamps thought was priceless, based on the dumb ebay listings we've all seen. She claims the guy told her it was not worth anything then walked off with it?

The whole thing reads like an urban legend.

I agree that there appears more to the story but the RMPL most have felt there was wrong doing if they fired the guy.
Don

Does the RMPL have employees? Wouldn't it be more likely this was one of the volunteers there? I wonder if he recognized it as a common stamp and just to humor her offered to keep it for evaluation, or something.

Yes it makes the Library look bad and this is the sort of thing that needs to be addressed by them.

'
I've suggested to RMPL that they need a statement on their website. Right now.

The usual scandal statement will do: honor all visitors, take security seriously, cooperating with authorities, zero tolerance for anything best not tolerated, etc.

The advice from "collection experts" was a little over the top; correct, but hobbled by severity.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

No matter what the stamp was or was not worth, anyone who cares about the hobby should not be telling people to throw away stamps. If the stamp(s) had no significant market value, they should have encouraged the lady to start/continue the hobby. If this person was a paid employee or a volunteer, they should have been vetted and trained before representing the Library.
Don

Agreed. RMPL needs to put a statement on their website, like yesterday.

'Investigators are searching for the man'.!!! The library doesn't know who he was? Makes for a lot of bad publicity for the hobby.

I am sure others will disagree but this may be what happens when ebay tolerates vendors listing dreck at ridiculous six figure prices. Someone understandably gets the mistaken idea that their 20 cent catalog stamp is some great rarity. Now a respected institution maybe in danger of financial ruin because of all the misinformation out there.

All of these stories have a short life span now. Remember David Kol's and Regency Superior? He took hundreds of thousands from consignors. One lady consigned her deceased Father's collection to R-S and they never sent her the $167,000 check. $167,000. How many collectors right now are aware of the story? No, these things die quickly.

Not everyone forgot.

We just love the legal system.

If you research you can find it. I have been updating the R-S/Kol thread on SCF with CaseNet info regularly and nobody says anything and it gets few reads. A large percentage of collectors are not aware of that recent history. It should be remembered because it is a good cautionary tale when you are dealing with the sale of your or your heirs collectibles. It is hard to prevent but there were some warning signs. The news was difficult to readily find though and people kept consigning.

https://goscf.com/t/53427&whichpage=1

The challenge we see is that people in the know often keep quiet for various personal or business reasons. Have often have we heard that "exposure" would undermine some grander thought.