1,000 baseball, football cards lost in mail
More than seven months after a Platteville woman mailed 1,000 of her son’s baseball and football cards to him in Seattle, they still have not arrived and neither has the insurance payment she took out on the package.
The cards from the 1970s and 80s held both financial and sentimental value to Marilyn Brugger’s son, who hoped to pass them on to his son.
“He had a paper route (growing up) and everything he made, he spent on baseball cards,” Brugger said. “It’s the emotional attachment.”
Brugger said she placed the cards, which had been in her attic for the last 30 years, into a taped box that she sent to Seattle at the end of April. It included rookie cards of football Hall of Famers Walter Payton and Steve Largent and baseball Hall of Famers Paul Molitor and Ken Griffey, Jr.
She took out $500 in insurance on the package, which was eventually sent to the U.S. Postal Service’s recovery center in Atlanta.
“They don’t want to pay the insurance because they want proof of value of what he paid for them,” Brugger said. “These were purchased in the late ’70s, mid-80s. I mean, there’s no way you keep those receipts. No way.”
On the back of the insurance form at the Post Office, it specifically states that consumers insuring goods worth more than $200 could be required to produce “evidence of value.” After numerous phone calls to address the problem, Brugger wrote a letter to the Postal Service in early September to articulate her concerns. She received a response two weeks ago.
“The Postal Service is aware of the frustration and disappointment caused when we do not live up to our commitment to safe and reliable mail service,” wrote Renate Trust, a U.S. Postal Service Consumer Affairs representative. “Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience you have experienced.”
Still, she has not received any explanation for what happened to the cards nor whether she’ll receive her insurance payment. Her last correspondence with the Postal Service included a detailed list of some of the cards and their worth.
“If writing all these letters in the end doesn’t do it, I’m going to get an attorney,” she said. “Because it’s not right that you purchase insurance and they’re not going to pay it.”
