American Philatelic Society APS Swindled, Lied, Cheated, Ripped off, Unfair, Scammed Me, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania

7th of Oct, 2011 by User777225

I was nearly swindled by The American Philatelic Society also known as APS. My grandfather was a member of this organization all of his life and amassed a stamp collection consisting of 54 large specialized stamp albums by Scott. When he passed away he left me the collection. Inside many of the albums were labels that stated to contact The American Philatelic Society after his demise. Not having any previous knowledge of the society I called them and was referred to an advisor who took my name and phone number saying an official appraiser & dealer of APS would contact me. I received a call from a man saying he was a member of APS and was a certified appraiser. He told me there was a modest appraisal charge only if he did not purchase the collection. The caller was very friendly on the phone and I made an appointment with him. He came to my home and spent about two hours looking at my Grandfathers lifetime collection. I was completely shocked when he informed me only after several hours it was basically a hobby collection with a few better stamps. He told me he would pay me $5000 for the collection. My first response was no and suddenly this very nice man became very angry and went on to tell me I had wasted his time and I owed him for the appraisal. After further conversation it was agreed I would like another opinion and should I not sell him after a second opinion would pay him the $250 he wanted. I called The American Philatelic Society back the following day and requested they have another appraiser contact me and another man did. The second man spent even less time than the first and offered me $5300. Unfortunately having fully relied on APS and my grandfathers membership I asked for $5500 and he agreed. I thought I could pay the other party for his appraisal. I told the second dealer he could come by in a week to pay me and pick up the collection. The dealer was upset and wanted to write me a check right then and take away my collection. I wanted my children to see it one time before I sold it but also something was bothering me which I at the time could not understand. Over that weekend I showed the collection to my children one of which was in college and having related the experience he suggested I contact someone not affiliated with APS. I found someone online who agreed to come over early the next week and that is when I discovered how I would have been cheated by APS. A very nice young man came by, the APS dealers were in their sixties. He spent nearly half a day with me and only reviewed less than half the collection. He told me he needed to come back the following day to finish. He came back and spent nearly the entire day with me and after he finished offered me $22,500 for my collection. I happily accepted the offer and told him my experience with APS. His response was a smile and a single remark, he said they are known for this and whomever buys the collection must "accommodate" APS in some way or another. I hope others out there who
read this and have had a similar experience will comment here.

Track this Report 0 Comment | Post a Comment