I'm not one to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Yes, eBay is problematic. But there are some wonderful sellers and buyers out there who are 100% honest and above board. And there are many good deals on genuine ancient coins. (As in all things: Caveat Emptor.) However... my goodness! Look at this supposedly "Authentic Widows Mite": This is NOT an "Authentic" coin at all. It is obviously a ridiculously blatant modern replica. It is beyond laughable to think an authentic widow's mite type of coin would actually say "The Widows Mite" on it -- especially in the modern English language. So, I reported it to eBay. This was the reply eBay sent me:
Lol! Gotta' laugh when we can, eh? Sadly, some people really do twist the meaning of words in order to get around rules. And not for a chuckle, but to deceive. But all humor aside, the seller didn't claim it was an "authentic replica of a widows mite". The listing's clearly stated claim (now amazingly affirmed by eBay) is that it is an "authentic widows mite". Also note that I included a 'snip' showing the category under which it is listed is specifically the category for genuine "ancient" coins. This 'thing' being sold is assuredly neither ancient nor an "authentic widow's mite".
Absolutely, there's no question that listing is deceptive. I guess it just goes to show that eBay's method of checking listings is totally and completely useless.
The last few fakes i reported "didn't violate eBay listing policy" according to their AI. I deleted my payment methods a week ago, not going use their platform anymore.
It's all a matter of semantics. "Authentic" here is defined as, "vaguely resembling the real thing at least on one side."
