Got This Email Today About Ebay....Interesting Idea But Not Sure It Would Work

Anybody else get this today?

Hello My Dear Fellow eBayer. I am a buyer that purchased a Morgan Dollar from you on eBay (this message is NOT about the coin I bought from you)

I am spear-heading an effort to create a new rule on eBay; where it would considered a "Listing Violating" equal to that of eBay's current standing "Raw and Uncertified Coins Policy" (which prevents all sellers from using an MS# for coins that have NOT been designated as such by a Professional Service)

The letters DMPL, PL, DPL, SPL, ULTRA, DCAM or any other letter sequence which describes coins as being any specific variety of Proof Like. The main reason for this essential new rule (for it to become a standard policy) is 90% of the current sellers which have listings describing RAW coins, using the aforementioned lettered sequences, are buying certified coins (on eBay mind you) that were designated as PL by NGC and PCGS. This clear and defining proof can be found in the "feedback as a buyer" for each seller. It is there for all members to view, if one knows how to see it.

How this scam works is as follows; after purchase these coins are liberated (by the buyer) from their certified holders. At that point the buyer becomes a seller, where they implement a very deceptive tactic to list/sell as RAW (un-certified) DMPL's (and by describing the coin as a "Monster" of some variety when it was already determined NOT to be a DMPL by a Professional Numismatist).

The seller will also provide multiple doctored/enhanced photos to make the coin appear as a high grade/quality specimen. Just because a coin has a reflective surface does NOT make it a Mirrored surface. The coin must meet or exceed a list of standards defined by all professional grading services to be designated a lettered sequence Proof-Like Variety. If you think about it and look closely, just about every metal, in whatever form, will reflect light (especially coins).

The only things you can do to help implement this new rule is by sending eBay an email (using their format or your own personal email account) and by calling their customer service where you can speak directly to a CS Support Leader/Manager and express your concern regarding this problem. I am not asking for your assistance, but for you cooperation, and together we can make eBay safer for us all where to buy the coins we love so much that are authentic and graded properly for which they truly are.

This same letter is being sent to PCGS and NGC so they can help stop this deceptive selling tactic (which is a direct insult to them for who they are and what they do). I personally feel and do consider this behavior to be "Theft by Deception" and have been subjected to it many times and if you purchased a RAW DMPL on eBay you were definitely subject to it as well.

Sincerely,
Clarence Cole
EDITED

 

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You do realized you just posted a random persons phone number without their permission.... right? Not sure that's the best idea.

 

Thanks for the edit!!

 

Yeah that was not such a great idea with the phone number. But this guy has some good intentions however it would be hard for eBay to enforce it... even if they did listen to their customers.

 

Personally, I think that such a rule would put too much power into the hands of a supposedly "professional" numismatist (i.e. TPG).

 

So in order to apply this "rule", you would have to track down where he bought the coin, then contact ebay and somehow prove to the numismatically unknowledgeable person there that the raw coin he is selling is the exact same coin as the one he bought. Then you have to somehow convince them that the coin that neither one of you has in hand and can not examine does not possess the required depth of mirrors to qualify for the designation he is applying. Even though the ebay employee has no idea what prooflike mean, how to identify it, or how much depth of mirrors are required for each designation. And as I said he then has to judge that without having the coin in hand.

Good luck with that.

 

I don't think this would be any more difficult to enforce than their policy on numerical grades on uncertified coins, assuming they would want to do this.

My position on this is similar to 19Lyds: It favors the TPG's too much. No thanks.

 

With the no numerical grade rule they don't have to know anything about coins. Look at the image, is it is an approved slab? (I'm sure they have a list of approved ones, and it is only four companies long after all.) No. Is a numerical grade posted Yes, Pull it. Enforcement is easy.

 

Isn't that similar to what the letter received by the OP is suggesting? To only allow the following acronyms: DMPL, PL, DPL, SPL, ULTRA, DCAM to be used if a coin is designated as such by a TPG?

I think they've even automated this. If you attempt to list a coin that falls within the TPG requirement, then you have to classify it as a such in the item specifics and provide the certification number. Some people abuse this by putting the same cert number in all their listing and when confronted, blame it on their template.

 

If it is he didn't make it clear. Or at least it wasn't clear to me.

Seems like it could rapidly develop into now being able to say anything about a coin unless it is printed on a major TPG slab label. (Of course ebay is rapidly heading in that direction anyway. It seems more and more like the "descriptions" are little more than "Look at the picture" and then two pages of self promotion, return policy, and other nonsense. But nothing about the coin.

 

Speaking of silly rules, why don't they forbid the use of nonsensical gibberish in titles? What good does it do to put "L@@K!" in a title? When I see it, I usually do the opposite.