It appears that the blocks eBay once had in place to discourage counterfeit coins from being sold as genuine are rapidly disappearing... and eBay will once again regain its competitive edge as the world's leading distributor of unmarked replicas. http://community.ebay.com/t5/Coins-...-another-collector-burned/m-p/21389320#M57850
Coveat emptor. If you can't tell for yourself whether something is real or fake, DON'T BUY IT. No more or less true for eBay than it is anywhere else. Yeah I think it's sad that there's nobody policing this in eBay anymore, but to be fair, they're not any worse than anywhere else either. Only ever ended up with one fake coin on eBay (that would have been only worth about $15, if real. I mistakenly assumed nobody would bother to fake a coin that wouldn't be worth much anyway lol.). I tend to be cautious and stay away from anything questionable unless it's graded by a reputable TPG or is being sold by someone with an well-established good reputation, unless it's just something of too low value to bother faking (and even then that's not a guarantee lol). If a decent amount of money is on the line I hesitate to buy off eBay in the first place without assurances better than eBay can provide. I think the lesson to be learned here is look out for yourself and don't count on someone else to do it for you. Harsh but true.
There could be fakes in every category, not only coins. Do you expect ebay to hire experts to tell fake shoes, bags, perfumes or other merchandise from real ones? Know what you're buying or stay away, or at least check for authenticity after you receive the item so that you can return it within paypal protection time limit.
Jim, Not trying to stir the pot, but wasn't you one of the ones always complaining about the CFE on ebay? Now that it's been disbanded from to many complaints this is what we get.
In order to limit payouts under the current buyer protection program, eBay can depend on the length of time it often takes to learn / confirm a coin is fake. We (the market) should pressure eBay to grant perpetual buyer protection against counterfeits, forgeries, etc. That way, because an item might well come back and bite them 3 years hence when they may not even be able to locate the seller, they would feel greater incentive to properly police the listings. Unrealistic? . . . Any better ideas?
You have a good memory... and yes, I believe the CFe Group was (and is) a bunch of power hungry, paranoid, gestapo-like glory seekers who believe their one goal in life is protecting us all from our own inability to make a determination as to whether a coin is genuine or not. The problem with this group (and why they got in trouble initially) is reporting auctions they believed questionable... and some years back (before eBay changed the rules) they were able to email bidders with their concerns. Well, some of the listings they targeted were not fakes... and eBay came down hard on them. Auction "interference" is a big no-no, and it got the founder banned from the group. Later, they made this group private, believing the forgers were utilizing information posted to improve the quality of their fakes. I also stated that, in theory, this group could be beneficial to the numismatic community and to the buyers that utilize eBay as their main source of coins. However (and I believe eBay now agrees), the approach they took was wrong... so now they pay the price. There is little if anything eBay can do as a venue to prevent the spread of counterfeits... they have neither the personnel nor the knowledge to review every listing and attempt a determination from photos that often lacks quality. The best they can do is look at the listings that are reported and pull the obvious ones. And as suggested above, possibly extend the timeframe on buyer protection to allow a buyer an adequate amount of time for verification (which often exceeds the 30 day period).
I've seen a lot of changes in ebay over the years, some good, some not so good................... I feel this one goes in the not so good category.
It's hard to say what if any effect this will have because it's not known if they were pulling tens, hundreds, or thousands of counterfeit coin listings per week. If they only found a few bad listings per week, then this move will have no effect.
