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What to do about COUNTERFIT coins on eBay
This is the second time this has happened. Frankly now I am more interested in solving this problem than I am in avoiding it. I have purchased two obviously counterfeit coins from sellers on eBay. Both times I submitted a report to eBay with the evidence of the counterfeit. Coins were too light, not made out of the medal they were supposed to be made from. On both occasions eBay said that the seller did not violate the listing policy. I can't understand how selling something that is an obvious fake is not a violation of the policy, but it is irritating. As an eBay seller I face frustration at having buyers who don't trust me, it is clear that they don't trust eBay, not that they don't trust me. They KNOW that eBay is happy to sell fake goods and that makes us all look bad. What can we do? There is no one to write to, no one to call, no way to appeal.
Here is the text from their email. Feel free to investigate yourself (I'm talking to you eBay leadership).
What happened:
We looked into your report and didn’t find the listing to be in violation of our policy. This determination was made by a customer service agent.
If you reported content that isn’t listed below, we’ll send a separate email once we’ve made a decision.
Your reference ID:
2-198817380797
Here are the listings you reported that are included in this decision:
Item: 297626453998 1879 O Morgan Silver Dollar
Thank you for being part of the eBay community.
eBay"
dryophelia
Mentor10 months agoRedacted by author.
gosimus
Mentor10 months ago@oldcoinhunter
Read what eBay said. eBay did not find the listing to violate listing policy. It could be a perfectly fine listing for the coin, and the seller could still send you a rock. You tell me, how could eBay protect against this beforehand? eBay provides probably the most buyer-friendly guarantee on the planet, it's very easy to get your money back by filing a "didn't match description" claim. eBay does keep track of those, so when the seller gets enough of them, eBay will sanction him. A single report isn't enough, because it could be some hot head, or a competitor, or a nut cake, and eBay does take this into consideration, but a pattern will evoke severe attention.
eburtonlab
Mentor11 months agoSellers selling counterfeit coins are not a "listing policy" problem, so reporting a listing for policy violations is not the answer.
Counterfeit items are not allowed to be listed on eBay at all. No one is authorized to sell counterfeit items. That fact alone does not stop some people from trying to sell them, however.
The problem is that unscrupulous or uninformed sellers can list genuine items and then deliver counterfeit items. The problem is not the listing; the problem is what is (or is not) delivered.
It is not always possible to look at a listing and know in advance exactly what, if anything, the seller intends to deliver. For one thing, a scammer can simply copy a listing from a genuine seller, using a genuine photo of a genuine item.
Except for a few specific categories of items that go through authentication, eBay never sees what the seller ships or the what the buyer receives, so there is nothing for eBay to check unless someone complains about what was received by invoking eBay's money back guarantee.
Sellers are responsible for the descriptions they provide, and buyers should not assume that eBay screens the listings in advance.
As long as counterfeits exist and there are folks trying to sell them, buyers will still have to be on the lookout for them, and avoid deals that are obviously too-good-to-be-true, whether they are being sold by accounts registered overseas or by domestic sellers wittingly or unwittingly buying counterfeits from overseas to sell here.
Buyers that doubt their ability to distinguish a genuine article from a counterfeit one should only consider purchasing from trustworthy sellers that have an established reputation for delivering exactly what was described, and should avoid deals that are too-good-to-be-true, or deals that are offered by inexperienced sellers that might disappear soon after the transaction is made, or else be prepared to get items authenticated by trusted sources within thirty days to be able to take advantage of eBay's money back guarantee.
monroe67
Mentor11 months ago"What can we do?"
Don't buy from sellers who have an 80% or lower Positive Feedback Score.
Don't buy from sellers whose listings/descriptions do not include those statistics that mark an authentic item: weight, magnetism, etc., etc.
Don't buy from sellers whose prices are too good to be true.
Don't buy from sellers who listings show the Item Location as only "United States."
eBay can only do so much. They cannot monitor the thousands upon thousands of listings added to the platform every hour and every day, without "bigly" raising their fees.
oldcoinhunter
OP10 months agoThank you for that. I was hoping for something to do to force action from eBay, not to protect myself. I know all the things you mentioned. I occasionally like to test and then make a stink in an effort to stop eBay from knowingly allowing sellers to sell fake coins. If we can't trust eBay, they will become a terrible place to shop. Then we all lose.
eburtonlab
Mentor10 months agoI was hoping for something to do to force action from eBay, not to protect myself.
eBay helps those who help themselves. If a buyer files a "not as described" return or a rights owner issues a take-down notice, eBay will take action.
If we can't trust eBay, they will become a terrible place to shop.
Instead of relying on eBay to screen sellers for you, use your own best judgement to screen them yourself.
It's only a terrible place to shop if you are unwilling or unable to tell the difference between an experienced seller and an inexperienced one, or counterfeit item and a genuine one.