fishy e-bay auction(s)

I came across the following auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=73465&item=3747998553&rd=1

Looks like the same scammer from China? S/he has seven coins on auction right now, all of which are titled "us one dollar silver coin year xxxx". They are probably all fake, and many of them are not even U.S. currency! Funny, but incredibly sad and irritating.

Did I hear someone mention that you can block selected eBay sellers? Is there an easy way to do so? I'll check it out in the eBay help section...

~neuron

 

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No need to check the "help" section. EBay doesn't have any such feature to help bidders. Blocking is for sellers only.

Your "blocked seller list" is your responsibility. You will have to keep a written list of those you don't want to do business with.

I have a little address/phone number book that I use to keep my blocked sellers in. When I'm thinking about bidding on someone's auction, whom I'm not familiar with, I always go back and check my list to make sure I haven't had them blocked.

 

I've reported about a dozen phony Japanese coin auctions today, but I can't spend enough time to even think about spotting all the fakes on EBay.

When you are sure you have found a fake, go to the EBay Fraud Report site, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the "Report listing violations or problems with another eBay member in the Coins category" link, and make a report. Don't bet on it doing any good, but as my sainted Grandmother used to say about chicken soup - "It couldn't hurt."

 

I like the fact that they include both length and width measurements ( 1.5 inches) It is a round coin for crying out loud!!

 

$28 for shipping?

And an 1872 Trade Dollar is surely a fake, even if it weren't obvious by looking at it (and seeing that it's coming from China).

 

I reported this one too. He has negative feedback from selling fake coins and still eBay lets him continue. The interesting thing is, these auctions are remarkably similar to the ones from that new seller virtuoso-8899 (the one with the 1828 Peace Dollar).

 

Guess what? All of the auctions from virtuoso (the one with the 1828 Peace) got pulled just a few minutes ago! Chalk up another one for us!!!

 

I came across the following auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...3747998553&rd=1

This and all of the other coin auctions for east_antiques668 are gone!!

Yet another one on the great score card for us!! There must have been others that reported it because they were gone within 30 minutes of my reporting. Way to go guys!!

 

Wow- way cool! This pleases me.

 

Now if only they'd do something about this guy. I just reported him for the FOURTH time and I've NEVER seen anything done to him or his auctions.

 

Quite apart from CFDL, the people who frequent the newsgroup rec.collection.coins do a pretty neat job of watching what goes on at ebay (coin wise). Again, some pretty knowledgeable folk frequent r.c.c and many have indeed been speaking out against the shysters in numismatics who abuse of ordinary people's trust whether it be ebay sellers or 3rd party grading shysters.

It can get a little rowdy on occasions in r.c.c, but it is a `must' for collectors who want to keep up with what's going on in the world of numismatics. It has a spirit, identity, and sense of `community' all of its own. It can become addictive.

Ian

 

Since we're on a roll today, I just reported him. Maybe we'll get a third today. I looked at his feedback and even out of the positives he has, a lot of them mention replica and copy. Ebay may actually pull these for the simple fact that the feedback is reflecting that he's selling copies but he is not stating it in any of the auctions (including past ones). We can hope for the best.

Ian, I tried to look at the newsgroup that you mentioned but I either can't get to the posts or I'm missing something.

 

How about a little education for us non-US collectors Ziggy? His pictures match the ones in the Red Book, the coloration looks reasonable, and the only suspicious thing I see is the ridiculously low BIN price on the 1875cc. What am I (and probably any bidders he gets) missing?

 

For one thing, these coins lack the sharp detail of a genuine coin. Most of these fakes are likely cast copies of one sort or another, or made from transfer dies such as spark erosion fakes.

You often get a dull, granular surface with relatively little detail visible. The finer details rarely transfer fully. If you have the coin in hand, of course, you could also weigh it, make specific gravity tests and listen for a "bell-like tonal quality" if you tap the rim with a pencil. Cast copies will tend to sound like a thud.

(By the way, to tie it into another thread, this is stuff I learned from one of the ANA correspondence courses toward the diploma.)

 

I thought you might have

Getting back to the coin in question. This is what I observed from looking at a scan of a genuine 1875 Trade Dollar and the one for sale. The facial detail looks like another person. It's not just wear, the detail is wrong. The shoulder drapery is different on the fake. The points on the stars of the fake are not as defined - not just wear, but strike. These are the couple of things that I noticed. I'm sure there are many others.

And once I take those courses, I'll be able to identify more of them

 

Thanks guys. As I suspected, it's a case of strong familiarity with how it should look. Those are all details I simply didn't pick up on by comparing the auction photos to the Red Book, but they are exactly the kind of details I instantly pick up looking at the auction photos of fake early Meiji silver.

 

Thanks for asking that question, I had the same one.

I can see the difference in the drape over the shoulder as compared to the picture of this coin in the redbook.

Why does Photograde not have pictures of this coin?

 

Susan,

Your options for r.c.c are either subscribing to the newsgroup via your ISP's news server (if they provide the service) or go to google / groups and type in rec.collecting.coins It should bring up the complete archive and current threads. of course, to post via google, you'll need to open an account (free0 with them. I prefer the ISP route myself, although Google is real neat for a quick search of the archives.

Ian

 

Besides trade dollars and coins coming out of China, what other coins are routinely counterfeited?

Had I seen that 1875cc coin, more than likely I would have bid on it. The BIN price was low, but I figured this person did not realize what they had.

Thanks everybody for keeping an eye on Ebay and posting scams here !!

 

I'm fairly certain this is another craptacular auction, but I don't anything about legitimate Chinese coins. Could someone take a look?

Chinese Coins

~neuron