Stolen instrument purchase

[Steginkt]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Rare-B ... cvip-panel

Is anyone aware of who purchased this instrument? It was was stolen from me enroute by greyhound to its new owner. Would appreciate any help. I can provide absolute proof that it was mine

[Ken Herrick]

Also contact Ebay. I'd also be blasting Greyhound as an "inside job" sounds likely.

Good Luck!

[Tabor]

When did you send it? Where was it going? We can concentrate on the areas around the bus stops where it could have been.

[Steginkt]

The instrument was shipped October 19th to Norcross, GA from Grand Rapids, MI. The site tracker shows it loaded outbound, and the station employee I talked to said they sent it to Kalamazoo. From there, an employee was pretty sure it was sent to Indianapolis. I suspect it was laundered by an employee from Kalamazoo or Indianapolis

[scottw]

How do you know it was stolen? I ask because it took exactly one month for a tuba to arrive in S. Jersey from Iowa, via Greyhound. Do you have any information to the contrary that it is not just sitting in some depot along the way? I assume that is what happened to mine, and due to the holiday rush, it might even be more apt to happen along about now. If there is too much baggage from the riders, then packages are off-loaded at that station to await another bus that is lees full.Sometimes that package gets forgotten.
Greyhound, while "safer" for handling tubas, is not very responsive with things like this.
Good luck finding it!

[Donn]

Off loaded at some station and left more or less out in the open, if it's a small stop, am I right? So you might not need to be an employee, to have access to a tuba in transit.

Just putting myself hypothetically in the situation of a current owner who spent a lot of money buying what he thought was a clean tuba from the ebay seller, and is now invited to come forward, I'd be curious to know how it's going to work out.

[vespa50sp]

Police in major cities tend to have systems to track stolen items in pawn shops. It looks like Chicago has something like that https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20121018/chicago/pawn-shops-forced-join-digital-age/

Maybe a report to the police might help you out.

[Steginkt]

If you look at the link provided, you'll notice this is a CC Bohm and Meinl 5520 with an added fifth valve before the valve block with a particular setup and missing braces on some of the tubing. I have photos that are an exact match, and I highly doubt there are many 5520s that match this exact description with the exact same dents, wear, and repair marks as my instrument

[Steginkt]

Thank you for all of the advice and suggestions. I have filed a police report. I hope this resolves quickly and favorably

[bort]

Really sorry this happened to you. I've used Greyhound once, and it was a nail biter the whole way for me. At one point I had considered attaching a tracking device to the instrument, in case it got long-term delayed or stolen... but since I was the recipient and not the shipper, I wasn't able to test it out or get that in place. I did have the instrument insured before shipping, though.

Let's hope the police in the South Side of Chicago are better at recovering stolen property than they are at preventing violent crime.

[BrassKicksArse]

Greyhound shipping is always super sketchy. I try to avoid them if at all possible. More importantly, I hope all of this is resolved smoothly for you.

[scottw]

If you look at the link provided, you'll notice this is a CC Bohm and Meinl 5520 with an added fifth valve before the valve block with a particular setup and missing braces on some of the tubing. I have photos that are an exact match, and I highly doubt there are many 5520s that match this exact description with the exact same dents, wear, and repair marks as my instrument

The link is down, as the tuba was sold.

[pgym]

If you look at the link provided, you'll notice this is a CC Bohm and Meinl 5520 with an added fifth valve before the valve block with a particular setup and missing braces on some of the tubing. I have photos that are an exact match, and I highly doubt there are many 5520s that match this exact description with the exact same dents, wear, and repair marks as my instrument

The link is down, as the tuba was sold.

Uh ,,, no.

There's a "See original listing" link beside the title. Click the link and scroll down to see the listing, description, and pics.

[groth]

Thank you for all of the advice and suggestions. I have filed a police report. I hope this resolves quickly and favorably

Man this really is sad, I hope it all works out for you in the end. This is why I don't trust Greyhound to ship expensive things like tubas. Lesson learned eh?

[Z-Tuba Dude]

Sorry to hear it!
Please let us know how everything works out.

[doublebuzzing]

Greyhound shipping is always super sketchy. I try to avoid them if at all possible. More importantly, I hope all of this is resolved smoothly for you.

It's a calculated risk either way. Use Greyhound and you get almost no tracking but a good chance that your tuba isn't damaged. Use UPS/Fedex and you get great tracking and a much better chance of your instrument being damaged. Greyhound has never failed me. Can't say the same about Fedex.

[proam]

I’ve never shipped anything via Greyhound. Is the item not insured? While I understand you, as the purchaser, want to receive the item you purchased, it seems to me like the company who would be out the insurance payoff would be the one to aggressively pursue recovery.

Edit: I see now that you were the seller, not the purchaser.

If this is a pawn shop selling a random grab-and-run item, how did they know enough about it to list it as a “vintage rare” item? Their father had it for years???

I’m certainly not at all saying I don’t believe your story. I’m just saying it seems more elaborate and detailed and knowledgable than I would have expected under the circumstances.

Good luck. You should have a good chance at recovery, I would think, but it is still going to be a big pain to deal with.

[pgym]

If this is a pawn shop selling a random grab-and-run item, how did they know enough about it to list it as a “vintage rare” item? Their father had it for years???

I’m certainly not at all saying I don’t believe your story. I’m just saying it seems more elaborate and detailed and knowledgable than I would have expected under the circumstances.

Sorry, I don't see this purported "elaborate and detailed knowledge" you refer to.

"Vintage" in ebay-speak is roughly 25 years. Nirschl bought B&M around 1992, so for the purposes of ebay listings, anything older than that qualifies as "vintage."

Personally, I find a lot about the Ebay listing "interesting" and "curious" (adjectives carefully chosen from among the various possible alternatives) on several levels.

Under "Item Specifics", for example, the seller lists the brand as "Unbranded," and the finish as "Chrome Plated." Not the sort of mistake one would expect from a knowledgeable seller, especially since the brand and finish are listed in the auction title.

As to the identification, it's kind of hard to miss the "Bohm & Meinl," "Geretsried," "Germany," and "5520C" on the bell engraving. The fact that the listing omits important details like the "&" from the brand name and "C" from the model doesn't exactly scream "attention to detail."

The seller also fails to note that it's a CC (suggesting that the seller doesn't realize the significance of the "C" in the model number engraved on the bell), and the it's a 5-banger (suggesting that the seller doesn't realize that the 5th valve is not factory stock): not exactly details that someone with passing familiarity with B&M 5520s would overlook or be likely to omit.

So, nope: not elaborate, detailed, or knowledgeable.

It's also "curious" (in my opinion) that the delivery was limited to local pickup only. Granted, there are legitimate reason not to want to ship a tuba; nevertheless, I find it difficult to believe that the demand for B-M tubas in and around Chicago is such that a seller could limit delivery options to local pickup and still maximize his or her potential profit. For that matter, why sell it locally through a merchant account on Ebay at all since in-state transactions incur an additional 9% in sales tax on top of the ~10% in ebay seller fees: why not sell it through a personal account or—better yet—on Craigslist instead and save yourself the ebay seller fees?

So, "interesting" and "curious": yes; "elaborate, detailed and knowledgable": not so much.

[Steginkt]

You can also see in the last photo ( which was taken first) that the tuba bell is resting upon the bubble wrap that I used to cushion it within the gig bag upon packing. The valve spring were also removed and packed individually in a box so that the stems would'nt be damaged, and you can see that they were not put back in valves 2-4.

As for news on this tuba, it looks like this story may soon be coming to a close. I am very lucky to have had the help of my father and of the buyer.

[ssbolas]

When I had issues with Greyhound,I went right to the head of the shipping division.
I ended up with the National manager of GPX trying to find my horn.. Here is his email if you want to try and see if he can help.

Drew.Klepper@greyhound.com" target="_blank