I saw a raw coin on eBay that looked about VF20 or so but the seller listed it as BU. I passed it by of course but just couldn't get it out of my mind. Surely no one would by it, or would they? I finally called eBay and pointed out the situation. They said they don't address that type thing unless a buyer complains. I gave them my two cents worth. Several days later the coin was not among current or sold listings, so perhaps they took it down. What would you all have done?
I once messages this guy who was selling standing liberty quarters, tons of them individually. The problem wad they all were polished and looked the same. He was hyping them up too. I gave him my two cents and he called it harassment. I don't know what ebay can or will do. i just vote with my pocketbook now
With questions like this, the first thing I want is to see the actual listing. Not that I don't believe you, but I have been around long enough to have seen countless examples of people sticking their noses into other people's business when they, in fact, were wrong. Again, you may be dead on with your assessment, I don't know, but I'm certainly not going to pat you on the back without first seeing for myself. With that said, I do think it just a little (lot) much for someone, so worried about what someone else is doing, to go out of their way to call the great and mighty overlord. Sure, it's nice to think that "maybe" you're helping your fellow collector, and you're certainly not alone in this, but maybe, just maybe, if people concerned themselves more with what they're doing over what someone else is, there wouldn't so much to worry about. The fact is that an idiot, set on being an idiot, is going to be, well, an idiot. If someone cannot tell VF from BU, they shouldn't be buying coins. You can't fix stupid.
Nothing. Not more than 20% of coins listed on Ebay are described accurately in terms of grade, and given enough time I could probably find five thousand just like the one you mention - VF coins described as "BU." I don't have the capacity for stress to let that stuff get to me.
Nothing and gone about my day. Attempting to police ebay listings is more than a full time job and like trying to teach a kitten to fly, no matter what you do it won't make a bit of difference. Don't subject yourself to the stress of worrying about it
There are not enough hours in the day for Ebay to get into stuff like this. They just wait for it to hit the fan.
I report fakes/counterfeits to eBay. Grading is subjective, and if you can't tell a BU from a Fine, MS from Good, etc., that is totally on you... As always - if you don't know what you're doing, DON'T DO IT!!!!!
I've been looking at Buffaloes on ebay lately, which IMO are tough coins to grade in the best of circumstances, and it's appalling. Without some grading knowledge, be prepared to be ripped off. Why bother contacting anyone about it? You would need an army and accomplish next to nothing. Remember the good old days when ebay first hit the net? Lots of good trading back then when a large percentage of buyers/sellers were collectors.
We discuss it. Incessantly, we've been discussing it for as long as there have been two coin collectors communicating anywhere, and we will continue discussing it into the future because human nature cannot be changed. Believing there's a solution which will stop it proves a lack of perspective as to just_how_widespread a problem it is. When the ants march, you just get out of the way and tell the neighbors. All we can hope for is to ensure the worst practitioners receive enough publicity so that those who are actually reading can avoid them.
Grading, or shall I say 'misgrading,' is the least of the problems with eBay. Through the years I've reported many OBVIOUS COUNTERFEITS/FAKES and eBay does absolutely nothing. Maybe there are just too many listings to police, maybe there aren't that many coin specialists on staff, who knows? And then a few years ago they made it impossible to contact buyers, or even bidders, which I sometimes did to alert potential victims. Ebay took the position, in their infinite (lack of) wisdom, that that was 'interfering' in an auction. So I just gave up, still feeling sorry for the victims of these various scams. All eBay cares about is collecting their ever-rising fees. 10% commission? Oh, pardon me, 'final buyer's fee.' Get the [expletive] out of here !!
It is amazing to me that Alibaba is getting slammed for its fake merchandise by the financial media in this country while little is said about the homegrown eBay.
This is actually one of the few changes they have made that I agree with. It was without a doubt interfering with auctions. People could just make stuff up to make other bidders gun shy to try and get a better price for themselves or get them a better price for themselves or try and direct them to their competing listings ect. That caused more problems then it fixed.
They're all pieces in the logistical chain, and HPA authorizes action against Ebay for what they're doing. At this point, one is forced to assume the "fix is in" because Ebay is violating the law without being penalized.
