Fee-bay . . . the Rest of the Story!

Howdy peeps,

In the past year or so, Ebay has made a lot of changes to their auction formats and one is being able to hide the bidder's usernames (Private Auction format) and another is witholding feedback (Private Feedback). One of the interesting things about Private Feedback is you cannot set your feedback to private and sell but the catch is, it's only that way while you have ongoing auctions. Case in point - windy-cove-antiques:

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...FeedbackAsSeller&sspagename=VIP:feedback:3:us

They were recently discussed on the CFE (Coin Forgery Ebay) Group and the counterfeits they were selling as authentic, were removed by Ebay but Ebay didn't NARU the seller. Somehow, the seller figured out what we were doing to contact the buyers of the counterfeits (feedback) so they made their feedback private but whenever they want to sell, all they have to do is turn their feedback on and sell and since they use a 24 hour auction format, they turn their feedback off 24 hours later. Here are the last four they just sold:

http://search-completed.ebay.com/_W...oveQ2dantiquesQQsaslcZ0QQsaslopZ1QQsofocusZbs

The farthing is the only one we can't tell authenticty on but these three are without a doubt fake:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1796-Old-Bust-Dollar_W0QQitemZ230327531133

http://cgi.ebay.com/1877-20-Dollar-Coin_W0QQitemZ230327528968

http://cgi.ebay.com/1884-Morgan-Dollar_W0QQitemZ230327526039

That's almost $1,600.00 that seller has now swindled from 3 unsuspecting Ebay'rs and Ebay is and was fully aware of this seller's MO, since we proved to them that this seller bought counterfeits from coins.hk, a seller that openly deals in counterfeits only:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=320307818727&btnG=Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=380070100620

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=320307818658&btnG=Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=380070100577

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=320307818620&btnG=Search

What this seller has done is to abuse a loophole in the Ebay system, to get away with knowingly selling counterfeits as authentic (you either sell as a counterfeit or you don't, and the seller never said it was a counterfeit and authenticity disclaimers are not allowed on Ebay).

You need to be aware of this situation and more peeps need to complain to Ebay about this loophole. There needs to be at least a 90 day period between selling something and being able to make your feedback private or this loophole will be abused by all the scammers and Ebay will be even worse than it already is. :hatch:

Ribbit

Ps: Feel free to report windy-cove-antiques for selling counterfeits.

 

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ebay needs to stop selling non ngc/pcgs coins period

 

I will reply to your statement with an equally complicated one - That is dumb.

The farthing is genuine, but only worth about $0.25

 

That's a selling technique used by many counterfeit sellers. They will pepper their auctions with authentic coins, but the authentic ones will all be low value coins and most of the counterfeits, if not all, will be key date expensive ones.

Ribbit

 

Where's the best place to report them , I used to use httb://ebay.com/ccw is that the best place , plus you need item nos.
Also where would I ask them to have at least 90 days before they can make their feedback private .
Rusty

 

I'm so sick of eBay scams. I hope the government comes down on them hard. Not just an antitrust suit, but I think they're also complicit in the fraud. They offer a venue, profit from the transactions, yet do nothing to stop the fraud.

 

I totally agree! The problem of Ebay being the fox that guards the hen house, will only be solved thru legislation, since Ebay has repeatedly proven themselves incapable of fighting the fraud that's rampant on Ebay and it's time that they no longer profit from the crime they turn a blind eye to! :thumb:

Ribbit

 

I agree with you toad.. to a point. I know there is a problem, but nothing i have heard sounds 'right' as a fix ... but i also cannot offer any alternative solution that i think would work...

It really is a sticky road they (Ebay) travel!

 

That statement would stop me from buying right there, the pictures are very small and suck.

 

Gonna play Devil's advocate here folks.

We all, or at least a majority of us, feel that ebay knowingly allows fraud and decetption to occur on the site. It makes money for them and they can hide behind ignorance.

So if the "government" was to crack down and ebay AND the fraudulent sellers they'd be opening an even bigger can of worms.

What about all of the junk sold on TV? Hoards of Morgan Dollars, "rare" state quarters, things offered by "mints" that have absolutely no affiliation with the "real" mint?

Case in point is my purchase at work yesterday. A guy walks in with basically state quarters. His aunt had passed away and left him as executor. Nice guy actually and said his aunt had LOTS of "stuff" laying around that he needed to get rid of.
We bought the U.S. Mint quarter proof sets but the boss had NO interest in the nicely framed (for hanging) quarter set put out by who knows who.

The guy is not an idiot he just wants to dump it and my boss even refuses it when he offers it at face value of the quarters. Now, I'M intererested - I can't lose. Boss asks me if I want it and I buy it at face value of the quarters, get a nice frame, BU coins in individual holders and even the paperwork.
Have no clue what I'll do with it at this point but sure I can get more than I paid and if not I"ll crack them out and spend the darn things.

I digress here though. Point is the guy that sold it was in his late 60s. Figure his aunt was probably at least in the late 70's or 80's. Watching TV and paying WAY too much for this "rare garbage".
"Rare garbage" sellers sell more than coins. Just watch HSN or any other show. Sure there is the occasional deal but most of it is nothing more than overpriced junk with a bunch of hype. Perhaps not blatantly fake but the "values" quoted certainly are.

There will always be "snake oil salesman" and they are not just on ebay.

Personally I'd LOVE to see ebay take a huge hit and all of the garbage dealers either put out of business, face criminal charges or both. If that ever happened I'd love to see it spill over to TV as well.


I'm not holding my breath though.

clembo

 

Here's another fake:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=320344592261

 

I totally agree with you Clembo! :thumb: The sticker Obama dollars have me pee'd off! Sticking a sticker on a dollar and selling it for $20, is an outright scam but someone is making a killing off the ignorant and the laws should protect the ignorant, as well as the educated.

Now, back to the subject. Take a look at these 2:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150312345070

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350154818493

See if you can tell if they are one-in-the-same? :kewl:

Ribbit

Ps: Seller of 2nd coin, bought the first coin.

 

Glad we're in agreement on that one Toad. Now wanna really get peeved? (You may remember this from another thread actually).
We had nearly 3,000 Washington Dollars at the shop. The boss was just spending them. Then we check on the "dealer lines" and someone is paying $1.20 for quantities. We couldn't ship them out FAST enough. Anyone want to bet how many are now "Obama" dollars?
From our view we have to look at it this way. If we don't sell them they'll still find them. So we dump a bunch of dollars at 20% over face.
It can be a vicious business behind the doors as it were. I have put together rolls of mixed date Silver Eagles to sell to Abon/SGS at a hefty dealer premium. Like I don't know what will happen to those.
Dip and instant MS70!

Even "legit" dealers are tainting it for legit dealers I'm afraid.
We recently sold a 1909-S Indian Cent on ebay in an ANACS holder. Nice looking coin but cleaned.
I noticed who the winner was and think I've seen his name mentioned on CT in the past. Apparently NOT the first time he's bought from us. That coin will most likely be cracked out and sold as raw at a higher grade.

How does one stop it?

 

I have been paying very close attention to the 09-S Indian guy. (The 14-
D guy, the SVDB guy, the 16-D guy.) There is some serious funny biz going on there.

To say I am totally bummed at the antics is an understatement. I never paid attention as long as the checks were good. WOW, there are some snakes out there.

 

Just so no one misses the one above, the first link is to a 1898-O and the second link is to a 1893-O. :kewl: So how can they be the same coin? :whistle:

Ribbit

 

x2
It looks like he added "toning" around the edge with a expo marker after he removed part of the 8 to make it a 3. :goof: :computer: :vanish:

 

That is the worst Idea I have ever heard on how to clean up ebay.

 

Clembo: The big difference between eBay and the television/telephone scam artists is that the TV people are just charging too much money, while eBay is complicit in fraud.

On TV, you might pay $100 or $150 for a $50 set of state quarters. But on eBay, you're getting counterfeit coins! Setting a price that some consider too high is not illegal for coins. If I'm a dealer and want $1,000 for my coin, and the guy at the next table wants $100, it's up to you whether you want to buy mine or not. You'd be a fool if you did, but it's legal.

eBay knows that counterfeit coins are being sold on their site, and they have done nothing about it. Since they are profiting from the crime, they are accomplices.

The difference is all in the law.

 

It's not how I'd do it, but what's wrong with the idea? Teletrade only auctions PCGS, NGC, ANACS, and NCS, and they seem to do just fine.

 

What they have to do is take the reports we send them seriously , or we could just stop using ebay and tell them why , not that it would stop anything , but it may get someone in the medias attention , and with enough attention they might at least try to get rid of the worst scammers .
rzage