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My French horn (along with a bunch of other stuff) was stolen from my car on Sept. 25th. I was looking on eBay Sunday night and found it!! The serial number (what they listed) matches mine, they include pictures of two mouthpieces (a Giardinelli C4 and a UMI 7BW) which I recognize, the case has the same broken strap that keeps it from opening all the way, and it is being sold in Houston, where it was stolen.
Praise God!
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Dude, that is so awesome! Yes Praise God!!!
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Do you have to buy it off the person, or can you get it back for free?
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Originally Posted by Xkcer Man My French horn (along with a bunch of other stuff) was stolen from my car on Sept. 25th. I was looking on eBay Sunday night and found it!! The serial number (what they listed) matches mine, they include pictures of two mouthpieces (a Giardinelli C4 and a UMI 7BW) which I recognize, the case has the same broken strap that keeps it from opening all the way, and it is being sold in Houston, where it was stolen.
Praise God! I think you should buy it on eBay and then notify the police after you get his address.
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I'm not sure if this is the guy. He might've bought it from the thief and is selling it unaware that it was stolen. I checked his other auctions and none of my other stuff is on there. I guess I should hold the high bid on there, but since the auction has over 3 days left, I think it'll be resolved before it is over.
One of the other French horn players at University of Houston had this same thing happen to her. She found it on eBay and got her horn back.
I think this whole thing is a testament to God's goodness. I prayed for comfort with the whole theft thing and a lot of people reached out to me. Then last night, even though I hadn't even looked for the horn in 3 weeks, I "happened" across my horn with just enough time to get the whole thing resolved. God is so good to me.
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God is always Good! If you just remember to go to Him for everything, He will provide for you. I think this is great!
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Originally Posted by adamwagg Do you have to buy it off the person, or can you get it back for free? eBay has policies against selling stolen items, much like what pawn shops have to deal with, so if someone lists something even though they didn't steal it, they're out the money.
This whole incident will leave me the option of choosing between two horns since insurance already bought me a replacement. I think I'll go with my old one since the seller had it cleaned and since it had better response on my high A flats. Then I'll probably give the insurance company back the money they gave me and sell the new horn to see if I can at least get enough extra to cover the $500 deductible on my car insurance.
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Doug, are French horns significantly different in price from other brass instruments? It just seems strange that you would know someone else who had the same thing happen.
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I assume that you have notified the police, as well?
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I'm so glad you found it, Doug. Now, how are you going to get it back..I assume you would like to do so?
At any rate, praise God!
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That's awesome news! Being the new owner of a tuba myself, I can only imagine the stress of having my horn stolen. Last year there was a girl going through the school of music cutting the locks off instrument lockers, but thankfully the horn I was borrowing at the time wasn't touched.

Originally Posted by Aaron Adams Doug, are French horns significantly different in price from other brass instruments? Decent trumpets and trombones can be found relatively cheap I think (under a thousand) whereas decent tubas are pretty expensive (mine was about five grand). I would assume horns would run higher too because they have a lot more tubing then trumpets and trombones, though that might just be a misconception that this theif was thinking at the time.

Have you had to miss much practice time in this whole thing?
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I'm really curious -- how do you plan on getting it back, practically speaking? It seems like a non-trivial dilemma to me.
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"eBay has policies against selling stolen items, much like what pawn shops have to deal with, so if someone lists something even though they didn't steal it, they're out the money."
Sucks for the guy selling it (if he isn't the thief).
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Originally Posted by Insane Drummer "eBay has policies against selling stolen items, much like what pawn shops have to deal with, so if someone lists something even though they didn't steal it, they're out the money."
Sucks for the guy selling it (if he isn't the thief). Yeah, but that sounds to me like Xkcer Man will somehow have to get the French Horn shipped to him without sending any (real) money to the seller. The only thing eBay can do is cancel the auction, right? I've heard local police are notoriously unhelpful in eBay scams like this.
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Thats Awesome,you found it! I live out of Houston,I live in Dayton