For anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, here is @smpratte 's most recent video. A $60k SSB sale from last year apparently was lost/stolen. New news for me personally. It isn’t private news anymore and @cullers eBay was shown in the listing, so I hope neither of you mind the tags since it was all publicly posted on youtube.
Video left me with a couple questions that I wasn’t fully clear on and I figured the video in general would lead to discussion on this board anyways.
Was the item actually marked as delivered via USPS to this middleman? I know it said it was shipped registered and insured for the $50k max that allows. At around 4:50 Scott mentioned it was signed for. Was it signed for by the proper person? If so, I’d imagine any claim was done through this airmax middleman or some subsequent shipper that the forwarder used. Did someone actually pay out the $50k? If it was signed by someone improper I’d imagine USPS would have been the ones stuck paying out the $50k.
I know the GSP caps well below $50k so that wasn’t an option and I honestly don’t even know the proper avenues to export something of this value overseas. $60k would be a big amount to pay import duties on if that was applicable. Even flying the card out to sell you’d potentially be breaking some laws (I have no idea), but perhaps not if you flew it out in person and then had all money exchange via wire in person once exchanging the goods you’d be fine? Further it seems odd to me that I can find very little online about this Airmax forwarding company only under some directory of NY fowarders with a phone number and no website. Does anyone know how an international sale of this magnitude would happen fully above board and legal (as well as safely)?
In any case it sucks that a piece of history will likely be destroyed once the dunce who stole it realizes as Scott mentioned they have no avenues out of this card that give them the financial gain they sought.
Scott said in DC that USPS and Aremax are passing the blame so insurance has not been paid out yet.
The best service I have personally used to ship something of this value is FedEx 2 Day. Which would be the most secure so the item isn’t changing hands between different companies.
@tetraninja at least for U.S. folks we have a requirement to register for an ITN ( I don’t know what it is exactly or what it requires, but I’ve not done it ) for anything over $2.5k in value.
As I mentioned I’ve never done it and hope not to, but if the day came that I was selling something overseas for $10k+ I would definitely look into it to make sure everything was on the up and up. Scott mentioned in the video that everything was done as above board as possible, but I wonder if the middleman was a way to avoid VAT or ITN registration?
@gottaketchumall to be honest I probably won’t be commenting too much on this topic. The purpose of the video is to get the word out in an attempt to find the card. Everything else will be handled by each individual/parties involved. I don’t fear my risk and I’m hopeful this will have a happy ending where the card is returned to the owner. That’s all I’ll add to this.
Just echoing @cullers, response. The intention of the video was to spread awareness in case the card appears. Hence the $1,000 reward for anyone who can provide details to its location.
Also, people trying to fictionalize about sending packages of this value; it happens all the time. PWCC, Heritage, etc. regularly ship packages exceeding this value. There is no one singular process. It doesn’t help the situation to pontificate. The buyer and seller did everything they could. The item never arrived. It’s entirely the fault of USPS/Aramex.
@smpratte and @cullers I changed my OP to remove/edit some things that unintentionally sounded almost a bit accusatory/harsh or something else that I wasn’t going for.
I was really just thinking out loud about the whole thing and that came across improperly with some of my choice of words. I genuinely need to put looking into ITN’s on my to do list as it may come up someday as I have no idea the proper way to go about this. We all recently saw that PWCC changed course on their prior lax treatment of international packages. Perhaps forwarders exist that declare everything properly and are registered with their own ITN’s allowing smaller folks to get around that bureaucratic hurdle.
I definitely wasn’t trying to push blame on any party other than the shipping companies used but I see how I came across in that way and I should have reworded my initial post. That was just from my point of view being someone who has never handled a single collectible worth more than $2k and would be scared to death to put it in the hands of anyone other than the buyer. I meant no negativity toward either the buyer or seller and I hope this whole situations gets sorted out and the card is found soon.
And If this card was stolen and someone comes forward with what proves to be the name of the thief and the card is retrieved, I’ll add 1,000.00 to the reward. If that person gets convicted, I’ll add 2,000.00 to the reward.
What we have here is a potential $3,000 bounty on a thief. With that kinda cash I could add steak to my special Bell Peppers and Beef recipe. Good luck boys, we are all bounty hunters on this blessed day.
What a freaking bummer. This whole scenario sucks so immensely. What sucks even worse is that the card could be sold privately with ease. From the details of the video I believe it was stolen, not lost (as I’m sure most do as well). The thief would probly sell it for 1k, 5k, 10k, or any given low amount to a collector that wants the card. The thief makes a quick hefty buck and the collector gets a killer deal. Both win. Probably one of his buddies or a friend of a friend or something.
I’m sure it’s been thought of already but has or can the dark web be searched for something like this? I don’t know how the dark web works but I’m sure they have selling platforms too?
You said the package was signed for. You should be able to see who signed for the package if you look into the tracking number. I think the person who signed for the package has some explaining to do and is responsible for the missing package.
The person that signed for the package probably signed for a pallet of parcels, multiple people could’ve had access to the package once it enters the facility.
Either way there’s no chance the card can get sold now as everyone knows the cert number so I guess it’s up to the individual or whoever took it (if that’s the case) to come forward
@smpratte, See this was an opportunity for the potential theif…to go right to jail. Guess they couldn’t pass that one up. Round of applause to the dumbass that just committed a federal offense. I wish the best for the buyer and hope this eventually gets resolved.
@pierce, Hit it on the head! They sign for a pallet or numerous shipments. If @cullers wants to add the details he can. But that is the typical scenario: signing for a shipment of shipments (yo dawg).
