Letter to eBay [Archive] - Net54baseball.com Forums

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08-08-2003, 08:28 AM

Posted By: TBobDear Sirs: I am very concerned that eBay does not seem to want to take any action against those sellers who are blatantly and knowingly selling counterfeited and reproduced items on ebay, claiming they are original items. I am referring to sellers like Eagle8016, Prizesports, etc. It is my belief that the individual known as ohiotarheelfan and bellyfly69 who were booted from eBay for this activity may have re=registered and are once again selling on ebay. In any event, this has become a very troublesome situation. I know that many collectors of vintage baseball cards have reported these fakes to you in the hope that you will take affirmative action and ban the sellers from ebay and remove the listings. All to no avail. This use of ebay's private auction set up deflects the identities of legitimate buyers from notice of the fraud being perpetrated upon them and a lot of innocent and trusting users of eBay are being hurt. If you refuse to withdraw these listings, the only thing remaining is what is currently being discussed in the hobby, a boycott of ebay for a certain period of time by those legitimate and honest card collectors. While this may seem like an action, however regrettable, which would not financially affect your company, I promise you that eBay could stand to lose a great deal of money in listing fees and more importantly percentages of sold item final prices. This idea is picking up momentum as word of this idea has spread like wildfire on the internet boards which collectors use to communicate. I personally would hate to see it come to this but unless eBay takes some action to prevent its customers from being hoodwinked buy these scam artists, I feel it might become a reality. Collectors who bid thousands of dollars on each eBay item, along with the smaller collectors are indicating their interest. The ball is in your court. Sincerely, Bob Marquette (tbob on ebay 2550 feedback rating 100% positive)

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08-08-2003, 11:05 AM

Posted By: danBob eamil me at r337man@yahoo.com thanks

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08-10-2003, 12:15 AM

Posted By: botnBelow are copies of my e-mail to my Power Seller Rep and his reply to me. Despite having my hands full right now with some family matters I just am sickened by the fact that eagle is dropping turds on the public. Original Message Follows: ------------------------- Adam, I believe that you are my Power Seller Rep. If this is the case then I would like to bring to your attention something that has been occurring on ebay. I sell vintage sports cards and have been a dealer and collector for the past 15 years. I consider myself very knowledgeable due to my vast experience. Recently eBay has experienced an influx of reprinted vintage cards that are "aged and worn" to make look like original cards from the era. The problem is not in selling reprints but in selling these reprints and not disclosing to unsuspecting collectors, that the cards are reprints. All of the auctions have the same MO. They say something about a grandfather that left these cards or an estate sale purchase. All of the auctions are private and on 3 days. As I have said that I have been in this industry for 15 years. I have bought and sold millions of dollars worth of cards. I have never come across an original collection that was filled with only high dollar vintage cards consisting only of the big stars from the era. There is a seller that was thrown off several weeks ago. ohiotarheelfan out of Ohio. Shortly after that bellyfly69 was born out of the same area, oddly enough selling the same cards with the same scans but slightly different story. ebay was diligent and did suspend this user. Now this criminal is selling under eagle8016. Here is a link to his auctions. <a href="http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=ViewListedItems&us" target=_new>http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=ViewListedItems&us</a> erid=eagle8016&include=0&since=2&sort=3&rows=0 Every single auction that he has that he had or has listed as Private, are not real cards. These are all reprints or color laser copies. He has been reported dozens of times by concerned ebay users like myself--people who are infuriated that these opportunists are given such a chance to steal from innocent people. I understand that ebay has their hands tied in some instances but I would think that all three of these users ids (in this case) are sharing the same or similar IP address. Is there anything that can be done to prevent scams like this. If this guy gets away with it, which it appears that he has, then it is only going to give other losers a hope that they too can get away with it. I primarily sell graded cards. So while it does not necessarily hurt my business directly, indirectly my customers and potential customers are being robbed. I know that ebay does not make representations to the public for items listed on its site but when an overwhelming number of people in the hobby contact ebay to report incidents such as these, I do not understand on what grounds ebay can turn the other cheek and let it happen. I would love for the opportunity to speak to someone in Trust and Safety. I would be more than willing to offer my services to help patrol the vintage baseball card listings for fraudulent activity. Thanks, Greg Hello Greg, Thank you for writing eBay with your concern about authentisity of items being sold on the site, primarly the scope of items that you sell. eBay doesn't actually handle the merchandise that is offered for auction. Without firsthand knowledge of the item, we are unable to guarantee the accuracy of the listing information. We encourage members who are interested in bidding on an item to email the seller for additional information. However, I am still going to send your report over to the Safeharbor Department for further review. No amount of fraud is allowed on the site and we do take these things seriously. You should hear from them as soon as possible. Part of this information is contained in our User Agreement, under article 3. I have included a portion of that Article below for your review: "...3.1 Overview. Although we are commonly referred to as an online auction web site, it is important to realize that we are not a traditional "auctioneer". Instead, our site acts as a venue to allow anyone to offer, sell, and buy just about anything, at anytime, from anywhere, in a variety of formats, including a fixed price format and an auction-style format commonly referred to as an "online auction". We are not involved in the actual transaction between buyers and sellers. As a result, we have no control over the quality, safety or legality of the items advertised, the truth or accuracy of the listings, the ability of sellers to sell items or the ability of buyers to buy items. We cannot ensure that a buyer or seller will actually complete a transaction." Thank you for being part of the eBay community. Regards, Adam eBay PowerSeller Support

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08-10-2003, 06:04 AM

Posted By: warshawlawWelcome to the wild froggin' west, where a man is a man and a card is a . . . copy.

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08-12-2003, 12:21 AM

Posted By: botnCongratulations eBay!! As of Sat 8/9 you have helped Eagle8016 gross over $68,500 with another 15 quality reprints to end on Mon 8/11. The figures on this so far are listing fees $65 and final value seller's fee of about $2500. I received a message on Sunday afternoon from the Power Seller's Investigations Team to go over any additional questions or concerns that I might have about this situation. Here is the e-mail follow up that they sent and my reply. Hello Greg, This is a follow up notice to my phone call attempt today regarding your concerns over sports memorabilia and eBay's authentication policies. While we were not able to contact you personally, I just wanted to advise you that if you have any additional concerns or questions regarding eBay's policy or the above notice please let me know by responding to this email or by calling me direct at xxx-xxx-xxxx. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. Regards, Gabriel Investigations Team eBay Powerseller Support Gabriel I am aware of ebay's position and understand it from a legal point of view. As a collector, retailer and person who truly cares about the integrity of the card industry I am appalled and want to intervene in someway. What is occurring with respect to this one individual is unconscionable. He has been thrown off twice under two other ids yet due to technicalities evades suspension and hides behind the rules that are there to protect honest participants on your site. His open and closed auctions are over $60,000. He is committing fraud and doing so over state line. I just think that it is a shame that ebay gives these people such an easy out to being able to commit this type of crime. I will be contacting my connections at Sports Collectors Digest (Krause Publications), MSNBC.Com, Beckett Publications as well as Vintage & Classic Baseball Collector to raise public awareness. I would post all over your message boards but I know that would be a site infraction and wind me up as suspended (now that is complete irony). Thanks for taking the time to contact me and follow up by phone and now e-mail. My best, Greg

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08-12-2003, 01:04 AM

Posted By: BcDThey " were unable to contact you directly" !!!! gee really e-bay? Greg's name,phone number,web site et is on each and every one of his e-mails! Maybe they meant- a) we do not really care b) Go for it Greg-just keep us ( E-bay*) out as we want the fake card commision c) as we said when we were ten years old- "we are not Posta call you" Our company is far to profitable and large to have one of our $10 per hour kids call you concerning this.