Yeah, I suppose. But eBay's rules say if it's a replica (copy or whatever) it must say it prominently in the title, and the auction must have pictures of the required markings to make it a 'legal' copy, and that the main pic must clearly show the marking. I have seen auctions pulled because the 'copy' mark wasn't visible enough or fuzzy. I know the one seller doesn't have any active auctions, but I still reported a few complete auctions and put notes like "you'll be buying this 14-D back when it gets resold as real" or "unmarked copies sold by this seller an ongoing problem as they are getting resold as real". That should get their attention.
4) Since he tried to get me to settle for a partial refund, offer him a partial return. "I'll send you a plastic dime." Read more: http://www.cointalk.com/t175499/#ixzz1NtAztllaI like #4!
Well, I've cooled off, but the heated response I wrote last night still looks appropriate this evening, so I guess I'll send it.
That was a good response, but before I read it, I thought 'now is the time to just ignore the guy' instead of getting into urinary olympics.
I really don't know why he's so adamant about his coin being returned... heck, he can just buy another for 99c: http://cgi.ebay.com/Replica-1920-S-...69?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item2c5d0f798d And, of course, the "copy" stamp will NOT be there...
That Morgan dollar looks very suspicious-- the "wear" looks artificial, and the numbers in the date don't match up to a real specimen. http://coinauctionshelp.com/1879_cc_carson_city_morgan_silver_dollar.html
Check this thread: http://www.cointalk.com/t178216/ It has gotten very little response, and the main responder has confused the heck out of me with verbal gymnastics.
Oh, sweet! If it wouldn't be supporting the counterf***ers, I'd be tempted to buy a few pieces as examples. Actually, it might not be a bad idea to buy a few examples, then rat the seller out to eBay. But 99 cents, with free shipping, from China? I'm wondering about the seller's real motive. Oh, 99 cents starting bid. Maybe I'll check back in a few days and see about sniping a couple.
Jeff, if you look at the feed back from the chinese sources, you can view all the auctions with "copy" on the coins. However, there are a great many where the auction has been seller sealed as "PRIVATE". The buyers are leaving comments like "great coin" and such. I have a suspicion that if a buyer requests, they will sell a coin without 'copy' on it, and mark the auction as 'private' in order to keep busy-bodies like us from knowing. You might be able to 'sting' them by contacting the seller and asking him if he has any unmarked replicas, and see if he does a 'private' auction for you.
Most of the coins I've purchased off of ebay have been delivered through the United States Postal Service. If this coin was received via the USPS and/or payment was made through the USPS (even thought it wasn't shipped through them) this constitutes mail fraud. If this happens then this act is a federal offense. I would contact others who were scammed and put all the information together. Then contact your local office. Here is a link to look at: https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/investigations/MailFraud/MailFraud.aspx This can be a pretty expensive issue for this person if it is determined he was scamming people. KC
Well, that's the key... "if it is determined". The seller claims he didn't know the coin was fake, therefore "intent to defraud" would be somewhat difficult to prove. Oh, and ratio411, very few (if any) Chinese sellers stamp their coins "copy". In fact, unless you specifically ask for the stamp, the coins you receive will be unmarked.
I was under the impression that (a) you have to designate an auction as "private" at listing time, and (b) the linked seller is running all auctions as private. (On the other hand, I thought you could see whether an auction was private before you bid, and I'm not seeing any indication on the active auctions.) Making the auctions private is certainly a no-brainer if you're selling questionable merchandise. In fact, I wish more coin sellers would do it -- it's not too hard to get my identity given my eBay ID, and I don't like my own buying history (showing a lot of coins being delivered through the mail) being public via my feedback history. From the comments of others, it sounds like it wouldn't even be necessary to ask. But throwaway eBay accounts are awfully easy to generate. The linked seller has only 178 feedbacks, low for a Chinese junk vendor, and a six-month history; I suspect this isn't his first or only account.
Maybe or then again maybe not. E-mails set the baseline. If he (seller) was notified before an auction ended that coins were fake the seller should pull the auction. Notify ebay as to why. But if he continues to sell after being notified it becomes evident quickly. Then again I'm not too concerned. Turn it over to the postal service and let them make a call. It just might scare them enough and make them realize it's not worth it. KC
Verbal Gymnastics? What response are you looking for? Almost everyone has stated in the thread, and correctly so I might add, that the first coin that you posted is obviously fake. Was there another question that I missed, because I read the thread and didn't reply mostly because I thought that the question had been answered. I'd be happy to offer an opinion.
Okay... I posted that comment BEFORE all those others that you mention jumped into that thread. There were only 2 posters when I made that comment, so you can't really make the comparison between past and present. The "verbal gymnastics" part was me just being smart alec about someone posting about jibberish like "the picture was stolen for the auction" (they were 2 different pics from 2 different sources) and "the 2 coins look identical" (when they obviously didn't). That along with other run on sentences and lack of punctuation that drove me nuts, as well as made the post painful to read.
While looking for something else, I ran across this; It does not say what must happen, but it sure lends a lot of credence to what -jeffB is doing.
It looks similar in some ways -- mostly, "don't return a counterfeit item to someone who's selling counterfeit items". I'm not sure "sending the item to the manufacturer" applies, though, unless you count the Secret Service as just another department of the manufacturer. I think his bladder may finally be empty -- I've still received no response to my last message.