I sold this on eBay and it’s been STOLEN! Don’t make my mistake which allowed the thief to steal it

Hi guys, David Harper here. I don't even know why I'm smiling because this is a really embarrassing video. I've been done. I've had an antique item pretty much, well it's been stolen from me and bearing in mind I've been talking about antiques and how to buy and how to sell them not just on YouTube for the last six months but on BBC TV for about 20 years. I should be the last person on the planet that gets done but I've been done and in this video I'm going to explain how it happened. It was absolutely my fault apart from the fact that there are criminals out there in the world. It was my fault I allowed them to steal this item from me and it really is embarrassing but I'm going to share it with you and I'll tell you, you know, what I did wrong in a moment. But this is the object. It's an interesting thing. I bought it for a fiver. I thought I was being clever because it's worth, as I will show you, substantially more than that because it's sold it on eBay. I just haven't got the money for it because it's been nicked but anyway I'll get to that. So yeah it looks like a Victorian perfume bottle and that's how I bought it from a dealer at a fair in London for a fiver. They thought it was a Victorian glass perfume bottle but it absolutely isn't. Those of you that know about these things will know that this is in fact a Chinese glass or rock crystal snuff bottle. Yeah not for perfume, holding something aromatic, yes, but it's powdered tobacco and during the 19th century these things were very popular because snuff was very popular. The Chinese loved stuffing snuff up their nostrils and there was even a time in Chinese history when smoking cigarettes was illegal but taking snuff was legal so everybody took snuff and they thought it acted as a decongestant, something that would help get it would fire up the brain. They even took it as an aphrodisiac. Yes baby, snuff was thought to be an aphrodisiac. Don't try it, it isn't. Right so it's a really interesting thing so I was going to make a YouTube video showing how clever I was at buying this for just the fiver and selling it for substantially more on eBay and showing you how to do it. However, you know, as with many things in life, things don't quite work out how you expect it. I did sell it and this is me selling it. Here we go, watch this. And there is the rock crystal 19th century Chinese absolutely gorgeous snuff bottle on eBay. Only a few moments to go until it finally sells. I was saying in the YouTube vid, look there's 12 pictures here. This is how you do it. Give all the information, measurements, give the buyer everything they need to know. I was being really clever and look at this. It's 60 odd quid. Is it going to make more? I thought it was. I thought it's worth maybe 100. This is what happened. This is how much it sold for. Those of you that have sold on eBay before know that it can all happen in the final 10 seconds. So I was very excited. It was going to take off. Was it? Is it? Oh no. Well, still doesn't matter. £67. That's a cracking result and what a great YouTube video this would have made. That is until I made the big mistake or rather in actual fact embarrassingly two mistakes. Mistake number one wasn't so bad. I just charged the buyer £5 postage and packaging. It's just I didn't fill in the form correctly. It kind of came up as a standard charge. The problem was the buyer was from California so I knew it was going to cost me a bit more than a fiver but it was no big deal. I can swallow that. The profit was pretty good and the buyer paid really quickly which I was very grateful for because with eBay auctions often buyers actually don't. They kind of get a bit of buyer's remorse and it can be a total nightmare but this buyer was straight in there. Gave me the funds. Now what was unusual was this. He asked for a proof of postage very quickly. Wanted to analyse the receipt as if he didn't trust me. Well you know I've got great feedback on eBay. I think he knows it was going to arrive with him but that's fine okay. I didn't really think too much about that. I went to the post office the following day with the wrapped up lovely Chinese snuff bottle along with four of my books A Romp with the Georgians. So I sell them online and I sell quite a few in America and on this particular day I had four books going to the States and one snuff bottle going to the States. So when I got to the post office I always send my books by just standard international delivery. So I was on kind of automatic pilot that cost about nine pounds each something like that and guess what they always get there. I've been sending these books to America for a year not once has one book disappeared. So when it came to the snuff bottle because I charged him a fiver I thought well I'll just go with standard international deliveries just like a book. It'll get there no worries at all. I got the receipt and I sent a copy of the receipt through eBay to the buyer confirming indeed that the item had left and it was on its way to the States and he'd have it in no time. I didn't think any more of it I just asked him to let me know when it arrived. Sometimes they do sometimes they don't. I was pretty confident pretty sure it was going to get there. This was my big mistake because I only sent it standard international parcel delivery. It didn't go signed for and tracked so when I sent the buyer the receipt of course there was no tracking number on there. He couldn't track it I couldn't track it. I stupidly relied on the fact that all my books get there I assume this would get there. I should have spent another fiver and paid for tracked and signed for so I could categorically prove it was delivered. A week later the buyer got in touch saying the item hasn't arrived. I said well that's unusual but give it a little longer I'm sure it'll get there. I don't normally have problems although with Covid there's a few delays with deliveries but you know it'll get there. Then I had another email saying no it hasn't arrived. Right okay same sort of response please give it a few more days do let me know you're happy with it all of that you know good customer services. Then bolt out of the blue I get an email from eBay saying the client has reported that the item has not been delivered and he wants his money back. What am I going to do about it? So I contact the buyer and I said look I did send you the proof of postage I'm sure it'll get there. I didn't hear from him. A few days later I hear from eBay saying they're looking into the matter and they will come back to me within a day or so with their response their judgment on whether the buyer should actually be given a refund. A day later eBay contact me and say they've looked into the situation because I didn't show a tracking number they have to believe that the item hasn't arrived and the buyer received all of his money. So now at this point I don't have the Chinese 19th century snuff bottle and I don't have the money but somebody does and just by watching this video wouldn't it be great with some shares comments and likes to find the blighter that has stolen this item and it can only be one of three possibilities here people. Let me know what you think happened to this Chinese snuff bottle. I have my suspicions but I'd love to hear what you think. It was either stolen by somebody in Britain in the post office, stolen by somebody in America in their post office or stolen by the buyer knowing that I couldn't prove it had been delivered. Over to you let's find the dirty rotten scoundrel who's nicked this thing from eBay and if we do and I get it back or my money I'll donate the item or the money to a charity of your choice. Let's just nab the criminal and listen if you're going to take anything from this apart from my utter embarrassment take this never send anything to anybody on eBay of any value whatsoever without sending it signed for and tracked so you can prove it's been delivered. Well there you have it David Harper international antiques expert extraordinaire been doing this on the BBC forever signing off until next time cheerio