What happened to my trade goods?

[AstonMartin]

Searching through trade I found an offer I liked. I clicked Send Trade Request, the request was accepted by the other person and the goods arrived in my mail. At the time I did not want the goods in storage so I did not click the accept button in the received mail. After 2 or 3 days I noticed that the mail had gone. So what happened to my goods? Were they return to the sender? if so did I get anything back? or was the goods automatically put into my storage? or were the goods lost?

[DamianG]

if not acepted the trade cancels itself after 8 hours

[AstonMartin]

The thing is here, Another player has posted a trade which I saw and sent a trade request, the other player has accepted my request and an exchange of goods has taken place (my goods would have been deposited into his storehouse and his goods sent to me in the mail). If, as you say the trade cancels itself after 8 hours, what if the other player does not any longer have the goods I traded with him. I can understand the trade being cancelled if I sent a trade request and he does not accept but not if I send the request, he accepts, the goods are transferred and I leave mine in the mail.