Should I complete a sale if I believe the buyer intends to reproduce and sell as vintage NOS?

[kdiego]

Should I sell a very old and uncommon decal to a buyer that intends to mass produce them and sell them as vintage old stock?  Failing to inform buyers that they are purchasing a reproduction of an original seems relatively harmless but I am offended by the blatant deception. 

[soh.maryl]

How do you know what the buyer plans to do with the item?

If you are uncomfortable with selling to him, what do you plan to use as your reason for cancellation?

All buyers have the Money Back Guarantee if they buy from someone who is passing off copies as vintage.

And, generally speaking, copies, reproductions or counterfeits are forbidden on ebay.  

[heckofagame]

Failing to inform that they are buying a reproduction is against the rules, no matter how harmless it may seem. It's called fraud. Pretty sure that is illegal.

[richard1rst · Accepted solution]

The first question would be how do you that is the intent?

If you cancel for any reason you will get a defect since there is no legitimate reason to cancel. How badly, if at all, will a defect affect your account?

And most likely you will also get a negative feedback.

We are all offended by many of things that happen in this world. Is your offense sufficient to suffer the negative consequences eBay will lay on you?

[7606dennis]

Do you own the copyright to the material that you are selling?  If not, it really isn't your call as to what the buyer does with the item after you legally sell your item to them.  It would be the rights owner that would have cause if the new owner of the physical copy of the item that you legally sold were to infringe upon their rights by illegally reproducing the item.

[kdiego]

I was curious to see who purchased b/c I have other items that are related and saw that they were selling a large number of NOS Vintage decals and had multiple copies.  A further check of their sold items revealed an ongoing and seemingly unlimited supply of the vintage NOS decals...

[inhawaii]

Don't be concerned about what your buyer MIGHT do with it.

Your job is to sell it. 

The new owner can do anything he/she wants with it.

[heckofagame]

Someone should check into that guy. Seems susupicious.

[kdiego]

thank you for your advice....

[coolections]

There is no drop down menu that says you want to cancel because someone might counterfeit your product. Sell it and move on. If you are that concerned about the person you can go to their listings and report them.

[slippinjimmy]

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@heckofagame wrote:

Someone should check into that guy. Seems susupicious.

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Suspicious in what way?

Most of what I sell is NOS, some I only have a single, some I have 10 and quite a few I have hundreds.

[a_c_green]

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@kdiego wrote:

Should I sell a very old and uncommon decal to a buyer that intends to mass produce them and sell them as vintage old stock?  Failing to inform buyers that they are purchasing a reproduction of an original seems relatively harmless but I am offended by the blatant deception. 

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In general, I have no interest in what a buyer plans to do with their purchase from me. They can set fire to it or throw it out the window if they like. More to the point, I don't think it's too likely that he's going to fool anyone if he does go reprinting them. Buyers can probably tell the difference between a somewhat aged original and a copy in new condition on fresh backing paper. 

You might want to consider either raising your price or selling it at auction, given that it's a vintage original and might actually sell for more than what you expect to get for it. I mean, if someone's going to copy your original item, at least make them work a bit harder to get it in the first place.

[this*old*attic]

Unlimited supply is not evidence. Some items really were never used and the stock is available to lucky searchers/sources.

Also, some older items aren’t even copyrighted 

[chapeau-noir]

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@heckofagame wrote:

Someone should check into that guy. Seems susupicious.

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Reproduction aside, there's a lot of dead stock around, particularly small replicate items like ephemera.  If the design is still copyrighted, then the copyright owner needs to deal with it. And as @a_c_green says, most people can tell if something is actually old or just a repro.

I guess what I'm saying is all of these unknowns are going to be the buyer's problem, not mine.

[redmodelt]

There are lots of "vintage" signs on eBay, that are reproduction. I don't recall seeing too many listings that say they are new/aged to look old.