Why doesn't this ever happen to ME??

[goon]

Probably too late to worry about it.
My friend was buying reloading equipment from a widow last year at a fair price. Once the auction people got involved, she wasn't allowed to deal with him anymore.
The rest of the reloading components went at the auction - someone gave $20 for the bullets to use them as scrap lead. The auction people didn't care one way or the other.

Go with your gut, but I don't think I'd feel too bad about keeping them.
Odds are that if they were going to get passed on to the grandkids, someone other than gramps would have known they were there and cared enough to get them out.
As it is, no one from the seller's side misses the revolvers and they now belong to a couple people who will value them.

 

[green country shooter]

I'm amazed but really surprised how few people seem to care about the difference between morality and legality. It may be legal to keep the guns, but it's not right.

And it may not be legal. Mistake is sometimes a valid reason to set aside a transaction.

 

[420Stainless]

It may be legal to keep the guns, but it's not right.

In my opinion the reverse is more the truth. If I made a sale to someone and it contained something I did not intend to sell, I would be morally obligated to now offer them their price to buy it back. An auction is an auction, and a blind auction is a blind auction. The property belongs to the buyer after the sale is finalized. Not sticking to the original agreement of the sale would be immoral. A man who does not abide by his agreements is a despicable creature.

Offering to give the guns back to the seller would be a very noble and kind gesture, but not doing so is not immoral. If I was strictly after the file cabinets I would offer to give the hidden treasures back to the seller only because I'd be pretty certain that they did not intend them to be part of the sale and that there inclusion was an honest mistake. But, the only way I could insert morality into this situation is if the buyer pre-inspected the property before the sale and then knowingly offered a low price while realizing that the seller was unaware of the value of the contents. As it is, the seller did not want to go to the trouble of cleaning out the cabinets and felt it was worth it to sell as is with the contents included.

 

[Mohawk]

Finding a wallet with ID and money and not returning it to the rightful owner intact is immoral. Being the high bidder of lot#144(file cabinets) at an estate auction and keeping the contents is not immoral IMO. The original poster stated that he had to clean out the old files and folders so obviously nobody cared what was in it.

 

[KansasMustang]

Truth is, he bought the cabinets with contents. Register firearms? where? Sorry, finders keepers

 

[WC145]

Sounds like a helluva deal for your bro-in-law, wish it had been me!

Auction stuff is sold as-is, where-is, deals are final. I'm guessing that all of you that are suggesting this guy return the guns offer to pay extra when you buy a gun or a car or whatever that is priced below "fair market value", right?

I once bought an old guitar and tube amplifier off of ebay for real cheap (back when there were deals on ebay). When they arrived it turns out that under the stickers and crappy spray paint was an all original tweed covered Gibson amp in surprisingly good shape. It was worth easily 5 times more than I'd paid for the package but you can bet your ass I wasn't calling the previous owner and offering to send him a little extra or to return it so he could hand it down to his grandkids.

If every now and again fortune smiles upon us, who are we to spit in fortune's eye?

 

[TEDDY]

What a good deal

APARENTLY SOME DONT KNOW WHAT AUCTONS ARE.YOU BID YOU PAY AND ITS ALL YOURS.STORAGE COMPANIES SELL KOTS FOR OVER DUE RENT.sorry I shouted.they are only interested in getting rid of the stored goods they dont search the goods and any thing good you get is yours.went to an auction with a friend he bout a lot with many envelopes[he would sell the stamp]there were stocks in this lot and they were worth big money.they were his to keep and he did the storage company is not gooing to look for the owner or tell the buyer who it was owned by.If it was a set of womens underwear whould you go looking for owner ,no .but its the same with the guns.

 

[qwik]

Call auction and tell them these items are defective ,and you will need ..... never mine

 

[BBQLS1]

I'm amazed but really surprised how few people seem to care about the difference between morality and legality. It may be legal to keep the guns, but it's not right.

I tend to think of myself as a fair and just person, but I'm failing to see a moral delimia in this case. The family didn't care to bother looking and both parties kept their end of the bargain.

 

[66912]

Hey Rickomatic,

Was that a "COLT" Trooper or a Smith and Wesson "Highway Patrolman" your brother in law so luckily procured at this auction? Congrats to him on his find.
I was not aware that Smith and Wesson made any revolver called the "Trooper"

And for the rest of you critics out there on this guy's luck.......Your just jealous!

 

[Gottahaveone]

I tend to think of myself as a fair and just person, but I'm failing to see a moral delimia in this case. The family didn't care to bother looking and both parties kept their end of the bargain.

Bingo. It's not like we're talking about a sheet of paper that could be easily overlooked, it's TWO pistols. If they had bothered to do even the most casual of checks they should have seen those. You're not obligated to protect them from the results of their own laziness. I try to be fair to all and will mention it to a clerk if I believe they've returned too much change or if they missed scanning an item in my cart. Here, I would have sucked it up and lived with it if I found that all the tracks for the drawers were trashed and the cabinets unusable, so I would feel no obligation to return the extra stuff .....

 

[Wedge]

Lucky B-I-L!

Only interesting thing I ever found in a used car was some girl's phone number and a set of fuzzy handcuffs!

 

[theotherwaldo]

Once the hammer drops, the lot is sold! Doesn't matter if the contents are solid gold or contraband, it goes to the high bidder. What if the contents had been marijuana seeds and pressed leaves, as has happened to me? Should that kick back on the deceased grandfather and grieving family? (It went in the nearest dumpster, BTW.)

Nope, sold is sold.

The only exception would be if the items were stolen and the estate had no right to the materials in question... and I'm not cutting into that ball of wax.

 

[ColinthePilot]

I've never found anything interesting in a car, file cabinet or anything. I've also never done the auction thing.
Nothing immoral here. Laziness on the part of the family and the auction company means they lost a few hundred extra dollars, and the lucky bidder got a lot more bang for his buck (sorry, had to say it)
I bought two motorcycles from a towing company a few years ago. They were legally selling a bunch of impounded bikes for cheap and in as-is condition. Got the pair for about $350. Found out one just needed some new spark plugs and it ran. The other needed a little more work, but we got it running that day, too. Did I go back to the seller and tell them about the minor issues and offer another $1000 for the bikes? I'll let you guess.

 

[deaconkharma]

Maybe Gramps wanted to leave them to someone

...who cared for them and loved them like he would. Apparently that person wasn't in his family or they would have
A) Known about them
B) Already be in possession of them.

So, in a way, Gramps got his wish. They are now in loving hands.

We searched my grandfather's house top to bottom and found one or two things before my father and his sisters sold the place. Got a nice little rossi 7 shot .22 for my efforts. Am I pissed that something else might be in that house that someone else now has? Nope, I did my due diligence to find and remove everything I could. So if the new owners got a bonus, well shame on me for not doing a better job to find things. Congratulations to them on finding said bonus.

 

[CU74]

.....If it was a set of womens underwear whould you go looking for owner ,no .......

Perhaps NOT "no" - might depend upon the type and size.........

 

[Mal H]

... and with that thought to mull over, let's close this one up.

The BIL found a "surprise" in an auction item he purchased. He is either a very lucky sonuvagun or an immoral son of a ... well, it all depends on your viewpoint, and everyone has now had a chance to offer their viewpoint. What happened - happened. No need to continue debating the luck or the morality of it here. If anyone wants to start a thread on the actual firearms, please do.