Ann Getsla of San Jose showed us some of her favorite dolls from her dad's collection. Her father continued the collection to honor the memory of Ann's mother.
"My mother collected dolls until she died in 1984 and dad had just bought a collection for her as a present and that's the nucleus of his collection which he continued," Getsla said.
Edwin Meyers died in February 2010. His wish was for his children to sell his dolls so that they could inherit the proceeds.
"My task was [a] very short [amount of] time to clear out these dolls and identify the ones that were of value and liquidate it," she said.
Getsla sent 83 of the dolls to Theriault's auction house in May 2010. The agreement was she would not receive proceeds from the sale until all 83 were sold. Seven months after putting the dolls up for auction, she was still waiting. She contacted Theriault's.
"I got two responses where it was always the same -- we're having these big auctions, we're preparing the dolls we want to take the time so that these dolls can be properly categorized," she said.
The calendar page turned well into 2011. Getsla found her efforts to get updates on the sale of the dolls frustrating.
"I called in November, I called in December, I called in October and I was not getting any returns to my calls," she said. "And I said, 'OK, I've had it.' I called 7 On Your Side."
Theriault's declined to be interviewed on camera, but by email told us Getsla's dolls were of lesser quality and her father's collection was spread out over several auctions so they wouldn't compete with each other. They said all her dolls have now been sold and she would be getting a check for $12,000.
"Oh, thank you so much," Getsla said. "I'm just thrilled with the result."
Theriault's denied not keeping Getsla updated on the status of her sale.
