What to do about eBay Card Counterfeiter With ~3,000 Reviews?
Shooby_Dooby
Posts: 6 ✭
There is a seller on eBay who over multiple years I bought a bunch of Mexican Pele cards from. The cards were always poor quality (i.e., paper, printing, etc.) which I attributed to just the printing process in Mexico in the 1970s. However, I have since found fairly definitive proof that he had been selling me fakes all along.
Attached is an Aurrera Card that I bought from the seller along with a card sold by a reputable dealer - you can see my card has a blurry logo and is fairly transparent in the scan:
I had also previously bought a Milo Novdades Pele card as well. After I realized mine might be a fake, I bought a Novedades 'common' from a dealer breaking up a legitimate album. You can see in the comparison that my card is the wrong size and the quality of the image on front is poor.
Also, in searching the web for more information about this eBay seller I found complaints that he is also selling records with fake covers, so it isn't just cards he is doing.
So I am curious, if I bought these cards years ago, do I have any recourse? I spent more than $1,000 on 15 different Pele counterfeit cards from this seller - is there anything I can do via PayPal or eBay?
Even more importantly, is there a way to stop him going forward? He currently has a Pele card listed on eBay that I am 99% certain is fake, but I can't actually prove it. Is there a way to get this delisted?
Comments
Give us seller ebay ID so we can avoid.
Thx.
Am I allowed to out the seller on this forum without the thread going 'poof.' As a long-time reader I know PSA is strict about thread liability. And this is my first post and I don't want them to think I'm doing something shady.
But I did post this in large part as a warning to others as well.
(note: I have actually left a lot of hints in the original post so that any other Pele card collectors out there will hopefully be able to read between the lines to know who it is)
There is a “Report this item” button on every eBay listing. You can report the item as fraudulent there.
OK, so I reported this to eBay and they didn't do anything.
Here is the auction that I am fairly sure is fake that is ending soon:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/PELE-Santos-FC-OSVALDO-TORIANI-Independiente-1960s-Lot-of-2-MEXICO-CARDS-Soccer/174702403353
Do you see how the Pele card is such bad printing on back and he is selling with a legit common to distract it and make the lot seem more authentic.
What do I do if eBay won't believe it when I report it?
If eBay policy is as it was during my time in the EMR program I can tell you because the seller is in a different country that the U. S. site won't pull it at all.
Just dug through my emails and here's an example. Item listed on U.S. site but seller was in Canada. Response when listing wasn't removed for a violation was:
One of them is on the Canada French site and I have referred that listing over to our policy team for review and removal.
I was told when finding policy violations with people in other countries but listed on the U.S. site was to file the report from that countries site. By the way, that never worked.
What do I do if eBay won't believe it when I report it?
Nothing much you can do. I suppose you could always give them a call but willing to bet the same outcome of nothing will happen.
Jeff
Miscut Museum
My Mess
have you contacted the seller and informed him or her that another dealer has questioned the authenticity? The dealer may be unaware if any possible fraud. A reputable seller would appreciate knowing if they are inadvertently selling something that isn’t what they think it is. Some will take down their postings voluntarily. I know nothing about these cards nor whether they might be fakes but you should talk to an attorney and find out what recourse you may have. Good luck.
Agreed, it is hard to stop this. I have noticed those as well. I tried to get somewhere a couple years ago with a French seller that was producing fake Platini RC's, as well as an Italian seller who had moved a ton of fake '60's Panini and Mira cards. Unfortunately, nothing came of it. Even worse, several of the Platini cards have been graded by PSA...
Oh, the seller (eBay user ID: barbacoa2015 ) knows they are fake. He is printing them himself. Once I realized I had bought fake cards from him I contacted barcbacoa 2015 and he ghosted me.
He does the same for Vinyl albums - here is someone exposing him here:
"This is actually a fake home made fantasy sleeve created by eBay seller barbacoa2015, often sold with a fake promo label (usually glued on top of original label)."
https://www.discogs.com/Jethro-Tull-Viviendo-En-El-Pasado/release/14808530
And there are other places as well noting this.
But even though lots of us have figured it out, we can't get eBay to stop him. UGH!!!!
Do you have any info on how to spot the fake 60s Panini and Mira cards? I buy a lot of Pele cards from that time frame and would love to double check mine.
Feebay doesn’t care they get their money either way.
The majority of the fake '60's Panini ones in regular circulation are from the 1967-68 Calciatori set with the pink border. The fakes have a slightly more dot-matrix-y look to them if you zoom, but it is easiest to tell on the back side, since the green shade does not match up with what the real one is if you compare them.