eBay counterfeits - Please help ... PLEASE

Compa

They are everywhere ... I've sent eBay lots of messages about specific auctions and I've yet to see even one of them removed let alone the seller sanctioned in anyway. There are lots of US and world coin fakes out there ... counterfeits are supposed to be against eBay rules, yet they take no action even when the auction states the coins are fakes. I can see where it would be harder to get them to take action against something that claims to be real when they know little or nothing about it.

I would like to be able to buy with some confidence - the photos on eBay are very seldom good enough to judge things very well. You have to be able to believe what the seller says and with these scum bags on eBay you can no longer do that.

CAN'T WE DO SOMETHING?

I sell on eBay and I'm sure many of you do as well. Most of the rest of you almost certainly purchase things there.

Can we pick one seller per week and flood eBay with complaints about their auctions? It may be slow but just maybe we can get rid of them one by one.

Any other ideas?

Or doesn't anyone else care?

wybrit

There are many here who care about this issue, including myself. I have tried going through ebay to flag counterfeit coins or phony auctions but they are simply too understaffed to deal with every questionable seller. The common response is "thank you for notifying us" or "you do not have the credentials to justify us canceling the auction." Only one time has a complaint I filed resulted in a NARU for an insidious seller - a guy who was pawning illegal copies of current films on the British coin pages!

Having played the idealist long enough, I no longer waste my time filing a complaint unless it is a serious enough matter to justify my time.

There are many posts here alerting forum members to fakes and frauds being listed on ebay.

"Caveat Emptor" is what they say and that's the best defense we have.

historygeek

<<"you do not have the credentials to justify us canceling the auction.">>

Who does have the "credentials"?

Compa

But maybe, just maybe ... if they get 5-10 complaints against the same auction or bidder all at the same time maybe it will get the attention of their small staff. Make enough noise and they may get annoyed enough to act.

wybrit

Who does have the "credentials"?

I suppose if, say, Bruce Lorich or Karl Stephens were to lodge a complaint about a fraudulent British coin auction that it would pull the necessary weight to have the auction stopped.

Last year I even filed a complaint about an auction that fruadulently used images from a Heritage sale. An open-and-shut case, I thought. Not so, according to ebay.

Compa

I shared my failures with you all ... and I'm sure most of you have failures you can share. But what I really want to know is what are the common denominators of the successes!

historygeek

Lets try the flooding method.

lordmarcovan

<< <i>Having played the idealist long enough, I no longer waste my time filing a complaint unless it is a serious enough matter to justify my time. >>



I am kind of at this point as well, particularly as I seldom am able to log on to eBay much anymore (most of my Internet time is from work, and the server there is taking 5-10 minutes to load eBay pages now, making it functionally impossible to do any surfing there, unless I happen to log on from home).

However, I certainly care, and if you are willing to sound the trumpet now and then, I will heed the call, if the trumpet call seems justified and I happen to be at home where I can log on to eBay and do something about it.

Compa

Great! A couple of people who care.

Now this thread isn't going away so the rest of you need to sound off and give your ideas or support of any ideas already posted.

Let's hear from YOU!

Compa

Ok ... it only takes a few seconds to paste an auction number into eBay's reporting form ... you don't have to type anything except to search help for the report form.

Please reply to this thread with your intent to help make coin collecting and eBay better for everyone.

1jester

Some of us work for a living and don't have time to play with ebay. Sorry Squirrel!

cacheman

Have you tried beating the drum over on the U.S. coins forum? They might listen to you over there....

Compa

<< <i>Some of us work for a living and don't have time to play with ebay. Sorry Squirrel!

Like I don't work! You sure seem to have lots of time to play on these message boards. 9497 Posts!

Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to respond to a message that didn't interest you at all.

spoon

Dude, chill out. Y'see, we're all well aware of the problems on ebay.. counterfeits, misgrading, etc. Thing is, there's just too much of it. Sure, we can throw a fit at every instance we notice, but for each of those there'll be dozens we don't. So you're not going to end the problem.

Only thing you can do is learn about what you're interested in. Know the counterfeits and avoid them. We'd appreciate if you point them out to us if it's something of which folks here might not already be aware. But this problem is not going away, you're not going to put a dent in it. Should eBay NARU someone, what then? The bastard comes back with another name!

To eliminate this problem eBay would have to become so strict that it would hinder legitimate business. So we just have to live with it. I was annoyed when I first came to eBay, too.. but it's not worth worrying about.

1jester

"Like I don't work! You sure seem to have lots of time to play on these message boards. 9497 Posts!

Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to respond to a message that didn't interest you at all." ---Beer Sippin' Squirrel



It's commendable that you can count! And you're welcome for responding to your message.

Aethelred

<< <i>

Now this thread isn't going away so the rest of you need to sound off and give your ideas or support of any ideas already posted. >>



I am as offended by fakes, altered and overgraded coins as anyone, but I don't feel that I "need" to sound off, show support for you or do anything else, unless I select to do so!

I understand you strong feelings on this issue and share them, but eBay has a long track record of not caring! The best tactic might be to build a website and educate the coin buying public.

wybrit

Now, now, Aethelred...I hear that the folks on the testing forum are most responsive to requests such as this.

dougdann

It seems to be rampant.
Check out the crap from from this seller of ancients.

Gold?campgate

After numerous complaints he removed some of his comments, but still insists on continuing most of his lies. But also blocked a few people because of their complaints. Sadly Ebay has done nothing about this.
Such as: How Orichalcum comes from Atlantis and how if you take a coin of Orichalcum to the Fomoria you must trade your coins for theirs.
OKAY! if you are are wondering what Fomoria is, he used a quote from a board game called "Powers and Perils" in the description.
And it goes on and on.

He makes numerous comments about David Sear to try and make himself credible.

Somebody has taken their board games too seriously. A man in a white coat is needed for this person.
Wear your boots before reading this.

Here is a Forum message about it.



ACF....


Doug
P.S. I guess we discovered Atlantis since we are getting Orichalcum imported from there.

Aethelred

Geez Doug, the fella who posted that sure likes to hear himself talk!

What a load of horse droppings!

wybrit

That's got to be the most boring ebay listing I've ever seen! More boring than an aethelred post by a mile!!

Aethelred

<< <i>That's got to be the most boring ebay listing I've ever seen! More boring than an aethelred post by a mile!! >>



The only thing that makes that listing more boring than one of my posts is that it is as long as the Collected Works of Gibbon. Word for word I could "out-bore" that fellow any day!