That's nuts! I wanted to say thank you for always letting us know the evolvement of the fake industry. 8G's for that.
Which is also a federal offence as KBBPLL pointed out. Probably since you made the point that someone was going to get ripped off for a lot of money, Ebay decided to "protect" him by removing the last guys bid, Doesn't matter that no one else was "protected" and some one still got ripped off. Frankly there is only one way to get Ebays attention and get them to move on this and that is publicity that hurts their bottom line. It is easy for us to publicize this in the hobby, but frankly we are small potatoes as far as Ebay is concerned. No these stories of how people are being ripped of by being sold worthless counterfeits for big money, AND Ebay facilitating the fraud need to be published in the more mainstream press. Inform the general public that Ebay has no problem helping thieves steal money from buyers. MILLIONS of people use eBay. If you can get the general public thinking that ebay is helping crooks it will start affecting their bottom line and just might convince eBay that they need to be more proactive against fraud. Fraud like what we are seeing is going on in areas all over ebay, but most people only think about their own small area of interest. If they can be made to see that it is a widespread problem across all of eBay, you have a chance of making ebay take action. Of course their first action will be to go after the person spreading the information, with lawyers.
I remember that case. Horrifying. Same seller now has a raw 1895-S Morgan listed (again his only listing). Clearly counterfeit. 5 bids, $280 for now. He seems to be doling these out one at a time. https://www.ebay.com/itm/157058840633
My latest report to eBay for Item 396701577261, word for word: "Get your crap together, eBay. You're employing people who know next to nothing about authenticating coins, and pretending that they do. This seller and many others like him / her are victimizing unwary buyers on your platform. Sometimes the losses are much more serious than on coins like this one I'm reporting now, but that's not my point. You should be catching all of them before your buyers become victims, but you just look the other way and let them continue advertising this garbage. Since you are so bad at authenticating, let alone detecting fakes on your own, I'll lead you by the nose to the easiest of the easy to confirm as a fake . . . This supposed 1846-O Half Dime cannot exist, as the New Orleans Mint did not make any half dimes. You need to smarten up, eBay. We want more than just lip service from you. We want bona fide protection for buyers on your platform. That doesn't mean removing only the most painfully obvious fakes. It means removing them all, proactively!" Obviously, I forgot to completely qualify my claim by saying the New Orleans Mint did not make any half dimes that year. Still, let's see how they respond. Images posted below for posterity after the eBay listing expires or gets removed.
Well, now . . . that took them no time at all! Not only can they not authenticate, I guess they can't read either.