Regarding the 1864 two cent on ebay which was being offered as a small motto when it was clearly a large motto. I emailed my thoughts to ebay and sent a copy to the seller. I got no reply from the seller but got this response from ebay. Dear eBay Member, Thank you for writing eBay in regard to suspicious coin listings. Because eBay does not employ or train its Trust & Safety Customer Support Representatives to be experts in the area of coins and currency, we rely on expert opinions from knowledgeable people as well as reliable third party organizations, such as the American Numismatic Association (ANA). Your report will be reviewed by a group of members that comprise a community watch group for coin auctions. They then confer amongst themselves and either agree or disagree that the listings are problematic. If it is agreed that a listing(s) is fraudulent or improperly described, the listing(s) is then forwarded to eBay Trust and Safety for removal. Please be sure to check our Prohibited, Questionable & Infringing Items pages for information on eBay listing policies and guidelines: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/items-ov.html If you received an informational alert or warning, and you have additional questions, or you have another listing to report, please contact us at the following link: http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/select-RS.html In order for us to get to you in a timely manner, please do not respond to this email. If you reply to this message we will not receive your email. All communications should be sent to the link provided above. Again, thank you for your report. We appreciate your help in keeping eBay a safe and reputable forum to conduct business. Sincerely, eBay Customer Support I note that the auction continued to its end and the coin sold. My email may have been sent too late for them to take action. I did contact the winner and suggested that payment be held until he was sure he was getting what he expected.
That's fine, after the auction is over. But it doesn't address the problem of the seller making incorrect claims about his product. If he isn't paid then he just relists the item and sells it to someone else. My point is to be proactive, not reactive.
I wish they'd add a feature to e-Bay. Something to the effect of "Read what others say about this item" where someone with a sharp eye would be able to add a comment if he/she sees that something is awry with the auction.
This would not work - people that had a gripe with seller would trash all their auctions. Ebay can't(or won't) police the auctions, much less comments on an auction.
The best way to have a bogus listing removed is to have more than one person report it. Sending an email to the seller works if it was an honest mistake but if he's a scammer a waste of time. Sending an email to the buyer even after the auction has ended is auction interference and it will get you a badboy slap from ebay. (I did this a few years ago and found that the buyer I was trying to help was a shill bidder for the seller.) A couple things you can do is post it to the CFE (coin forgery ebay group) or you can post it on ebay's coin discussion board. You can't mention the seller or post the item number but you can ask members to search "1864 2cent small motto" for example. When these listings are reported by more than one person they disappear faster.
Got an email from the buyer of the 1864 two cent. She and the seller have come to an agreement (unstated) agreeable to both. Our (my) interference has had a positive effect in this case.
I have made similar posting to Ebay and they always go unnoticed. Once a guy had average Unc. Morgans listed with a hidden shipping fee of $35. Ebay never removed the links and the buyers seemed to not even notice. I first emailed the seller asking if shipping was suppose to be $3.50 and received a smart answer. Maybe Ebay is easy on power sellers as this guy was one, but they do a lousily job of enforcing their rules if it may cost them money.
about the CFE- general message The CFE is now a closed group, meaning you need to be invited to post there. This was done because the membership rolls were clogged with inactive members, and because some of the nonposting members appeared to be "lurkers" watching group activities on behalf of scammers. If you are interested in joining, you may email me at my ebay id, cksfp85. I might ask a few questions about your field of interest, and verify that you are a regular poster here. I don't plan to invite anyone with 0 fb, or whose purchases or sales don't seem to reflect an interest in coin collecting. The more active members we have, the more scams we can report. I'm no expert myself, and always interested in learning. Thanks.
So what? If you're a seller and you have customers that are so unsatisfied with their previous transactions that they're driven to trash your other auctions then you deserve it. Frankly, as a potential buyer, I would like to hear from past, unhappy patrons so as to better aid me in deciding whether or not it's worth the risk to deal with the seller in question.
So you're a seller and your got a great record and lots of happy buyers. But say I was less than thrilled with what I got. Yes, maybe it was exactly what you said it was but I was hoping for a rip. Now for some unknown reason I just don't like you I just don't like you so I start bad mouthing all of your auctions and making unfounded accusations. You say that's fine with you?
