A late pastor’s grandson sold his watch on eBay. The buyer gave it back — along with a lesson
A pocket watch that once belonged to a prominent Southern Baptist pastor is back with the man’s children after an unusual eBay saga.
The watch, which was owned by the Rev. Charles Stanley until his death last month, was sold on the auction site for $2,375 on May 1. But the successful bidder chose not to claim it and, instead, convinced the seller, the Rev. Stanley’s grandson, that it never should have been put up for sale.
“I talked to him on the phone for like 30 minutes today, and we had a great conversation and it was a little jaw-dropping,” said the seller, Matt Brodersen, in a YouTube video about the exchange, according to the Christian Post.
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Brodersen shared that the potential buyer had lost many of his own grandfather’s possessions in an estate sale after his death. He didn’t want Brodersen to cause his family the same kind of pain.
“When he told me his story, I just died inside,” Brodersen said. “And I realized how selfish I was being.”
Apology from the Rev. Charles Stanley’s grandson
Even before the conversation with the eBay bidder, Brodersen was facing pushback for how he was handling his late grandfather’s possessions, as the Deseret News previously reported.
The comment sections of his earlier videos about auctioning off the Rev. Stanley’s belongings were filled with pleas for him to rethink his plans.
The uproar was so intense that Brodersen published a YouTube video in late April apologizing for his actions. But he said at the time that he was still moving forward with the eBay auctions, since he didn’t want to disappoint potential buyers.
“People already started bidding on the items and I don’t want to take that opportunity away from them to get those items,” he said, as the Deseret News reported.
After the conversation with the man who could have purchased the pocket watch, Brodersen finally decided to forget about eBay. He canceled the ongoing auctions for other items, like a picture frame and some old coins, and sent them to his uncle.
“Technically, nothing has gotten sold on eBay. Everything is going back,” he said on YouTube, according to the Christian Post.
Who is the Rev. Charles Stanley?
Brodersen’s eBay listings were national news due to the Rev. Stanley’s impressive career.
Before his death in April, the pastor rose to prominence as the host of a show on the Christian Broadcasting Network and the author of dozens of religious books.
“As recently as 2010, Stanley ranked among the most influential preachers, behind evangelist Billy Graham and pastor and author Charles Swindoll,” Religion News Service reported after his death.
The Rev. Stanley also previously served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
In an interview with the Christian Post, Brodersen said his grandfather had helped him through many of the most difficult moments of his life.
“Whenever I was down in the dumps, my grandpa would call me,” he said. “He’d give me words of encouragement and pray for me over the phone.”
