Why does eBay allow fraudulent error coins to be listed for sale?

[jandjvenckus]

I see hundreds of eBay auctions selling US "error" coins that are clearly fraudulent. Why do they allow this? I have been an eBay member since 1998 and remember them removing auctions for counterfeit items like purses and fragrances that were labeled as genuine.

[soh.maryl]

In the case of most items, such as coins, eBay has no way to ascertain whether or not the item is as described or counterfeit and I am sure you know that.  

My eBay membership has been from about the same time as yours and I do not recall being aware of any removal of auctions for that reason, but I could have missed it.  

And I'm pretty sure that most buyers should know about the Money Back Guarantee if they should receive something that is not as described.  

[maxine*j]

Coin listings do get removed all the time, along with those in the categories you mentioned and many more.  But with about 1,500,000,000 listings up every day, only a fraction of violations can be caught.  And it's a bit like playing whack-a-mole:  Smack down one and up pops another.

Buyers must educate themselves, learn to buy from reliable sellers, file INAD claims when they receive misrepresented items, and get over the notions that there are free lunches and deals too good to be true.

As for reporting items, there is not enough staff, expertise, or time in the world to investigate every such report, and eBay cannot merely accept anything they were told by anyone and start pulling listings.  What if the report is from a rival seller trying to kill the competition, or from someone unqualified to make a determination, or from someone with a personal grudge?  The list of spurious reasons for reporting is long.  If you were a seller, how you would react if you had listings pulled by eBay based on nothing more than a report by an anonymous person, whose knowledge or motives remain unknown to eBay and to you?

Finally, read the eBay Terms of Use, which you agreed to when you created an account here: "... while we may help facilitate the resolution of disputes through various programs, eBay has no control over and does not guarantee the existence, quality, safety or legality of items advertised; the truth or accuracy of users' content or listings; the ability of sellers to sell items; the ability of buyers to pay for items; or that a buyer or seller will actually complete a transaction or return an item."
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/user-agreement.html

Truly, as in all marketplaces, caveat emptor.

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[dogchow747]

I know this one is a little old, but I understand the complaint.

Most have "mechanical" or "environmental" damage and are listed as mint errors at silly prices.

Pennies cut in half with tin snips listed as die clips.

Ebay may be making money in fees over these, but it does tarnish any reputation keeping obvious fakes up.

I have been reading coin stuff since I was around 10, some errors are hard to ID even with experience.

"Caveat emptor" should not be a way of life.. Folks make mistakes, but some are just dishonest.

I do report folks that claim their coins are PCGS / NGC graded to get better views.

They do seem to remove those.

I guess you could say similar things about the $6300 Corning Ware Blue Cornflower Casserole Dish....

I twice reported a piece of "pottery" claimed to have been removed from the Tulum Mayan ruins in Mexico. The most basic research screamed of illegality.  Nothing happened... Because it was more likely a scam rather than a real looted artifact?

Sad face...

[worldcoinauctions]

Beats me, on these boards I'm always hearing about folks who got shut down for selling one thing or another. Myself I once listed an error coin hand had it taken down by ebay (this was a decade ago on one of my other accounts) they informed me that it had been identified as a vice job by a team of volunteers.  I investigated, agreed and actually chucked it in the garbage. 

That said tons of absolutely wrong stuff is sold and it gives ebay a reputation at least in coins and collectibles of a market that you don't want to be in if you are not pretty competent. I do wish it were otherwise but I don't have a lot of faith that it will change.

I still sell quite a few coins here. Still on my best ebay year they were only 10% of my sales. 

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

If the coin isn't counterfeit, it's kind of like calling a common coin "rare". Where do you draw the line between counterfeit and "questionable" marketing.

Someone could theoretically be "overstating" the "defect" as an error.

I have a few mint sets with *packaging errors* ... those are "errors", not errors in the minting process but simply how they got packaged with an extra coin stuck in before being OGP sealed.

This comes down somewhere between EBay needing to crack down on counterfeits & buyers needing to do their own due diligence. EBay isn't a site full of professional sellers, every day Joe's Bob's and Sally's can sell on here. This is just part of the deal, if you want to let non-pro's sell, then you need to accept some of these things... as long as it isn't entering the realm of true counterfeits.

[selsa84]

I hear ya. I see a regular seller who it is obvious he is altering them to look like error coins.  His feedback even reflects it but he is still selling hundreds of coins a month and some are so obviously altered it's bad. I've reported it and nada. I collect errors also but wouldn't touch an eBay "error" coin. 99% are either altered by seller or just wear and tear and they call it an error.