Pickett George Pickett Descendent Ripped Off?

O' Be Joyful

Sergeant Major
I'm a newbie so if this has been covered before please forgive me. Also my first thread.:unsure:

I like to watch a show on Fox Business Ch. called Strange Inheritance. The title of this one was PICKETT'S CHARGE. The upshot was descendent George E. Pickett V had personal items of the General(kepi, jacket,etc) that were handed down to him.

He had taken no interest in them & sold them. Soon after the buyer re-sold to the Harrisburg CW Museum reaping ten times the amount he paid. G.P. V insists he was ripped-off, IMO it is not only buyer but seller beware! What do you think?

The episodes of the show are regularly repeated.
 
I'm a newbie so if this has been covered before please forgive me. Also my first thread.:unsure:

I like to watch a show on Fox Business Ch. called Strange Inheritance. The title of this one was PICKETT'S CHARGE. The upshot was descendent George E. Pickett V had personal items of the General(kepi, jacket,etc) that were handed down to him.

He had taken no interest in them & sold them. Soon after the buyer re-sold to the Harrisburg CW Museum reaping ten times the amount he paid. G.P. V insists he was ripped-off, IMO it is not only buyer but seller beware! What do you think?

The episodes of the show are regularly repeated.
There's nothing wrong with buying something at a good price and reselling it. Pickett could have contacted the museum himself but didn't bother. Someone else did bother. He sold his own history for a price he agreed to, and now he wants to complain that someone else was smarter than he is? Cry me a river.

Every day thousands of people buy "trash" from people at yard sales who don't realize what they have and sell it on ebay for a hundred times the price. Not so much as they used to, since these days most people know to look online for a value before selling anything old.

Edit: posted without the information that the buyer misrepresented himself as a buyer for the museum. Which is fraud.
 
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Happens all the time. You trade your car in for $1500 and the dealer re-sells it for $5000. Mr Pickett the 5th should had done his homework and connect with a place like Heritage Auctions or Sotherby's for consignment...

Some more details(I didn't want to be too wordy above) SPOILER ALERT if you want to watch the show.

The buyer posed as an appraiser & rep. for the museum. He also used this tactic on others. He was investigated by the F.B.I. & did some time.
 
I thought it was very weird of him to throw this prized suitcase into his closet with the rest of the junk in the first place! He didn't offer it to any other family members, either, who probably would have loved to had it. The buyer was a dealer who often appears on Antique Roadshow, and the court did decide against him. However, Pickett the Fifth can't get his granddad's stuff back - the city of Harrisburg did nothing wrong and paid 870,000 to put it in their museum. Good job, city of Harrisburg! Among the items sold was Gen Pickett's kepi, worn on the day of the charge. That alone should have told his grandson there was a heap more in that thar suitcase than what he was being offered.
 
He was paid 87,000 dollars and then the collector turned around and the Harrisburg Museum gave him $887,000.
After he obtained a lawyer, for being Swindled he recouped only about $100,000 after payment to the Lawyer.
They were still on display in the Harrisburg Museum.....His Kepie a hand drawn map of G/B Battlefield
and his Officers Coat....
 
Some more details(I didn't want to be too wordy above) SPOILER ALERT if you want to watch the show.

The buyer posed as an appraiser & rep. for the museum. He also used this tactic on others. He was investigated by the F.B.I. & did some time.
Oh, well, that's fraud then.
 
I thought it was very weird of him to throw this prized suitcase into his closet with the rest of the junk in the first place! He didn't offer it to any other family members, either, who probably would have loved to had it. The buyer was a dealer who often appears on Antique Roadshow, and the court did decide against him. However, Pickett the Fifth can't get his granddad's stuff back - the city of Harrisburg did nothing wrong and paid 870,000 to put it in their museum. Good job, city of Harrisburg! Among the items sold was Gen Pickett's kepi, worn on the day of the charge. That alone should have told his grandson there was a heap more in that thar suitcase than what he was being offered.
He thought he was agreeing to sell it to the museum in the first place, why does he suddenly want it back?
 
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Read another thread here discussing this sale. Appalling that these items would be sold irregardless of price. If I was lucky to have anything directly related to my CW ancestors, it would not be for sale at any price. If I had something else CW related that I wished to sell, you bet I would drive myself crazy with research and pricing. (Then after all that may not sell the item anyway.) That's just me. I have sensitivities that run much deeper than pockets lined with five pieces of silver.
 
Well, it's always good to get the rest of the story! They were crooks, no doubt about it. Still think Pickett should have kept it or let other family members have it. But, as he said, he was offered what he thought was a big piece of money. It doesn't give him back his money or heirlooms but at least these guys won't be swindling anybody else.

Look at things bought cheaply at a car-port sale, then they take the item to Antique Roadshow and it is worth thousands.

:D Never underestimate yard sales! I always think about the gal who bought a paint splattered tarp for five bucks at a garage sale to tease her friend, an art expert. Turned out to be an unknown Jackson Pollock worth 5 million! The people she bought it from were cleaning out their grandpa's house after his death and had found it rolled up and stuck in the loft of the garage - Pollock had rented the garage from grandpa but came up short one month and gave him the painting for the rent. It wasn't signed but it had his thumbprint on the back. Then there was the guy who bought a cheesy painting for the neat frame, about a buck, and an art buddy thought another painting was under it - somebody had painted over a Red Skelton clown and once it was cleaned off it was worth a lot more than a buck! I bought a box of junk for four bits and there was an original pencil drawing of Capt. Morton's artillery charge at Brice's Crossroads from Wyeth's That Devil Forrest. I have no idea how it came to be in that box of junk but it's the real deal!
 
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