eBay

lichtpriester · ‎07-24-2021

I collect reproduction medieval armor. There are a gazillion sellers on eBay who sell this stuff, most are from India. A lot of these sellers say they're in the US (they aren't and no, they don't have US reps) and the photos they use are NOT photos of what they're selling. They use museum photos or photos from other websites, so you'll see (I'm using made up names here) a photo of a 13th century helmet with "Happy Shiva Nautical Mart" across it, and under that, "Black Eagle Armourer UK". I'm not knocking good and legitimate sellers of armor from India, they exist, but the sheer number of bad sellers who like about their location and use fraudulent photos (from which they make knock off garbage replicas that look nothing like the images) is astounding. If you tell eBay about it you get, "I see what you mean, let me pass that along" and of course nothing happens. I now know what to look for and who to avoid but new buyers won't, and they'll get screwed.

lichtpriester · ‎07-24-2021

I'm replying to my own comment because the edit button has disappeared. If you search for medieval armor using the refined search option and choose USA only, you STILL get the gazillion lists from India.

lichtpriester · ‎07-24-2021

Okay, now I'm replying to my own comment a second time. The edit button is gone! So if the delete button. I just realized that I have left comments about this issue three times n the past few years. I tried to delete the newest one and can't. I apologize for being repetitious but this fake location/knock off junk thing - in violation of eBay policies - never gets old.

donsdetour · ‎07-24-2021

ebay has no idea who is or is not a professional who can say fake or not.

They also do not now what is fake or not.

Dont waist your time on this; You wont get anywhere....

Do your own thing and as you rep builds, it will only in the long run help you over all.

jack-falstaff · ‎07-24-2021

I feel you, but how would this be realistically done without hiring a legion of subject matter experts (which would make selling costs skyrocket as eBay would have to have a licensed expert in... well... everything). The eBay Money Back Guarantee would and is the most logical solution at this point, as the seller would be on the hook for a return.

eBay has tried to address this in the past, but sellers hated it. It had sellers ship items to a 3rd party reseller who verified it but took a cut for their troubles. The average seller is already trying hard to stay profitable and having expert verification cut into that, a lot.

lacemaker3 · ‎07-24-2021

@lichtpriester wrote:
Okay, now I'm replying to my own comment a second time. The edit button is gone! So if the delete button. I just realized that I have left comments about this issue three times n the past few years. I tried to delete the newest one and can't. I apologize for being repetitious but this fake location/knock off junk thing - in violation of eBay policies - never gets old.

FYI, on this discussion board, you can only edit your posts for 5 minutes, and you can't delete them at all. The closest thing to deleting a post is to edit it and remove the text, but of course you only have 5 minutes to do that.

fashunu4eeuh · ‎07-24-2021

It is against policy to misrepresent the location of the item, and to sell an item that does not match the description. Both these violations carry heavy penalties for the seller. It is up to the buyers to report such fraud to eBay through the Report This Item button on every listing, or contact customer service.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to protect everyone. Each buyer must be responsible for their own interests. Reporting the instances of fraud when encountered is all you can do, then hope for the best.