As my sad tale in this thread showed, there are still sellers offering unmarked replicas on eBay. I see this morning that someone is offering a bunch of nice CC Morgans for $40 BIN, shipped free. Now, I face an interesting temptation. Do I buy several of these for my instructional collection, knowing that Buyer Protection will get me my money back? It seems like an abuse of process, but it takes fakes out of the hands of a scammer, and shuts down his eBay account to boot. What to do, what to do...
There are better ways to learn than from buying counterfeit coins. I see no benefit in helping his business. Just move along and avoid the temptation. Really, to prove your point will cost grading fees and delays that might jeopardize your refund. Report these auctions to ebay. And/or tell this board. Some members here have special status with ebay and can shut down auctions for counterfeit coins simply by their say-so. Lance.
I'm not sure I follow. It's not really "helping his business" if I buy the coins, file Buyer Protection, get the money right back, and neg him. And for the counterfeit I got earlier, grading fees and delays weren't necessary at all -- these counterfeits aren't that good. Please elaborate about the "members with special status", if you can.
Are you returning the coin under a seller guarantee? If so, no buyer protection is needed. If there's no guarantee then are you returning his coin as SNAD (significantly not as described)? You may win the debate but it is not assured. ebay/PayPal often side with the buyer but not always. If you are returning the coin because it is counterfeit then you need an authority on your side (or a bulletproof argument, I suppose). TPG grading takes longer than a customary guarantee. I am not saying you will lose in the end but I don't see how you are hurting him by buying and returning. Unless you prove a patter of deceit or intentional sales of known counterfeit coins and hope to shut him down. So I was just suggesting you avoid the drama and simply report the counterfeit to ebay. If you go public with it here, then perhaps one of the ebay community watch members...those who have special relationships with ebay as experts in their field...will see your post and report the problem auction to ebay and get it shut down post haste. ebay trusts such established member reports and does not need to do further investigation before killing the auction and, we hope, the seller's ebay account. Lance.
