Altering Photos on Cards
 

So this was the first time cards were acquired from a particular seller. I always was curious about the advertising that they used and how every card they had was Near Mint or better. They sell everything from Common 1960s to Ty Cobbs. However, I needed to upgrade a few cards on my set registry which is why I had them purchased for me.

So 4 1948 Leaf Boxing cards were purchased which were advertised as near mint and near mint plus with great pictures and a blue background. The cards were timely received in the mail but had soft corners, chips on the border likely from a fingernail and two cards had ink stains on the cards. Clearly the auction doesn't state or show this as they are NRMT or NRMT+ with no marks whatsoever. All of these defects have all been photoshopped out. Pics of the ebay photos and actually cards for two of the cards that are very obvious.

As with these, this person is luring buyers with fancy language and altering the photos to make the cards appear to be NRMT/NRMT+. It doesn't seem like the first time that this buyer has had people question what they were really receiving. Most likely they too were actually receiving the same card but photos were being edited. This is a warning of what people do on ebay to sell something. Does anyone know how to alert ebay on this. Any help??


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Thanks for the heads up!

Good morning, Ez.

First of all, thank you for bringing this to everybody's attention. I will add him to my mental list of buyers to avoid.

To alert Ebay about this seller, bring up the auction you won to attain these cards. Directly to the right of the description and shipping tabs (look all the way to the right from there), you will find a "report" link. Click it.

I'd suggest "listing practices" for the report category. Reason for report, I'd go with "fraudulent listing activities". Detailed reason you have two options. The only one appropriate is "you suspect a listing is fraudulent". I believe it will then ask you for a brief description (I can't test this without filing a report). I don't remember if they will ask for any contact information. I don't believe so.

You might also ask on Ebay's forum if anybody has additional/better suggestions. But this is where I'd start.

Good luck in getting satisfaction here. This is clear misrepresentation. The guy should have his account banned, imo.

Hmm, since I've never done it, it slipped my mind. You can open a case with Ebay about the item (and by extension, the seller).

Go to the resolution center. Here's the link:

http://resolutioncenter.ebay.com/

Under "I bought an item", select "I received an item that did not match the seller's description". On the next page, it will show pictures of the items you've recently purchased. So long as the purchase was made within 30 days, you can open a case.

Take some more pictures, or better yet, if you have access to one, carefully scan the cards so you can show Ebay the difference between the pictures provided in the auction, and what you received.

Best of luck!

Bill

There is no question in my mind. Last year I bought a Joe Jackson Playball. They had photoshopped out a mark by the border. I was happy with price, so kept it. Will never bid on any of their items ever again!!! Avoid this seller!!

In my opinion he is committing fraud (assuming your posts of the ebay photos are accurate). Intentionally trying to mislead. Look how he evens out the lower black border on the Lesnovich, totally takes out the overage on the bottom right border.

I agree this is wrong. Please open an eBay claim against this guy.

Thanks for posting this, Ed! This type of behavior is not right, and is another example of fraud within the hobby.

I had this happen to me 2 years ago on an OPC Gretzky RC. After I won the eBay auction I did some searching and found the card had sold before. No big deal, but once I checked the scans of the older sale I noticed the flip was the same, but the cards looked different (the one I won had better centering and a better upper right corner).

So I message'd the seller and told them that it appeared they photoshopped their scans. I requested they cancel the transaction, which they did, but they denied any wrongdoing. I sent comparison scans to a few hobby friends, but neither of them could be certain of photoshopping.

I went back through my Gavelsnipe history to see who the seller was of the Gretzky.... Battlefield0516. This is no coincidence, and reassures me that I wasn't seeing things 2 years ago. Ed, I think you should edit your title to mention the seller by name (you can do so in advanced mode).

Here's the Gretzky comparison. The upper right corner is definitely colored in on the Battlefield0516 example on the right, and it also appears they added some right border to give the impression of better centering...

Yes, these actions are shady. I am sure more people have had dealings with this person. I am trying to refrain from posting the person's name (or likely guy who is using someone elses name).

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I have had the same problem with this seller. I bought a raw card and when it showed up there were several print spots/factory defects on the card that weren't on the scan. I called her on it and she said they had many of the same card and may have accidentally sent me one of the other ones. I called foul because the card was otherwise exactly the same with at least one other distinguishing mark. In the end, she didn't admit to photoshopping, but she gave me a full refund and let me keep the card. No harm in the end, I guess, but I wouldn't go back.

You guys are great for pointing this kind of stuff out! I almost bit the bullet on several Diamond Stars from this seller, but what caught my eye was the high negative feedback - all claiming use of stock photos. The prices were so good though - now it makes sense - not stock photos but photoshop. Pretty clever. Sleazy, but clever. Seller always responds to negatives that the card sent is the actual card - which is true!

My only question is, how is it that 99.1% of this seller's customers leave positive feedback?

Maybe it doesn't matter so much on a graded card but I liked this scan, even though I had to go to the eye doctor after looking at it (different seller).

Bottom line is I think enhancing scans is pretty common out there.

Battlefield has been doing that for years now. I am really surprised that you are just now catching on with them. They and Great Lakes Auction House have a history of buying nice looking PSA 4-6 cards, cracking them out, and selling them as NM/MT.

I had a similar issue with battlefield about a year ago..Cant believe people still buy from them. Very Shady!

Bobby,
There is a difference between cracking out and giving an opinion on a card. A person can say what they want. A picture is worth 1000 words. However, outright altering pictures is not legal.

And if you knew for many years why not speak up as it seems like many others did not.


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99.4 percent positive feedback. LOL.

In another thread I mentioned the importance of leaving accurate feedback (even if a refund is issued). Sellers like this are the reason why. If we allow sellers to engage in shady practices with no real consequences then they have no incentive to change their ways.

Alex, fraud is different from ignorance.

With 35 revised feedbacks, it seems that users are leaving accurate feedback, however, the users of these 35 revised feedbacks were somehow "persuaded" to revise.

I had an issue recently on another item with a different seller and had a long, drawn out case ensue. Eventually I got a refund, but then I went to leave negative feedback and ebay blocked it, presumably saying that since I got a refund and was made whole that the seller didn't deserve negative feedback. It was weird, but it was the first time in years I'd tried to leave negative feedback and just figured it had been just another asinine policy change.

Good luck, guys! Unfortunately, it's my impression that eBay doesn't care. :(

I had the same issue with dealing with them on some high end cards that I bought and paid quite a bit for. Being a graphic designer by trade for Fortune 100 companies as soon as I saw the cards I could tell that there was some heavy photoshop work done.

I complained to them and eBay, got my money back and was banned to bid on any of their auctions which was 100% fine by me since you really don't know what you are getting until it's in hand. Shady, shady, shady!

I didn't say anything because I just assumed everyone knew about that. There has already been threads spoken about them in the past.

Agreed. As long as eBay gets their $$$ that's all they care about. :confused:

This. Ebay feedback is a joke, having to return a card that was mislabeled is a waste of time and at best should get a neutral, even if a refund was given.

How many here would be happy to order the steak, receive the chicken and leave the restaurant 45 minutes later without eating.

I have heard of similar situations. as long as they make their percentage....:rolleyes:

Doctoring Scans
 

Check this out - he/she (Battlefield0516) bought this set from prewarcardcollector back in February 2014. Described as Ex+ Now set broken up - relisted as singles by Battlefield0561 with the usual puffery over-hype language. OK, beyond all that - check out the doctoring scans! Prewar's on left, Battlefield's on right. Clearly photo-shopping these scans to make the cards look better than before. Brighter, more contrast. Rounding corners magically turn sharp! Marks and blemishes disappear!

Fraud
noun
1.
deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.

Nice work Ed.

That is shameful.

That is crazy Ed. Good find.



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Assuming this is all factual and you guys have really presented a strong case wouldn't you think some type of interstate commerce laws are being breached?

I think it goes back to what some of the other posters have said, eBay doesn't really care. Battlefield has over 6000 feedbacks and what appears to be a steady stream of cards for sale - many of which they purchase from other eBay sellers, doctor scans and then flip. Can't see eBay messing with their money-stream here on both ends unless the negatives start to pile-up?

I tried to look at how to report, but the options on an item-by-item basis don't reflect listing practices - fraud - misrepresentation/image enhancement. Just schilling practice fraud. I'll be happy to report this up (whether or not they do anything with it), just not sure how beyond the "report item" link?

Re: Interstate commerce - not sure? Definitely fraud with intent to gain/profit, but I'm not sure this would be seen as small, below-the-radar type of stuff? I'm not too well versed on how this is all considered and dealt with. For now, glad you pointed this out, Ed. Bobby noted Great Lakes Auction House which does similar and I have seen previous posts on them. Great forum to alert one another! Thanks for starting and sharing this!

Thanks for the post.
I too have noticed many high end card like Wagner & Young or Mathewson that look too good to be true and then get re-listed several times by this seller. I have bid on them & when I tried to contact the seller about the same items being re-listed got the usual blame the seller answers -or no response on other inquiries. If it seems to good to be true I guess it is.

I asked ebay where they stand on it- "does the sellers volume makes the misrepresentation acceptable?". Probably wasn't my place to ask but it got me mad. Hopefully the seller will have to represent more accurately in the future

Ebay is not going to fix this problem, in my opinion. Law enforcement is the better hope.

To Ebay, giving the buyer their money back IS fixing the problem. If you want them to do anything to censure the seller, you have to join a bunch of other buyers in squawking about one seller. If they start racking up lots of negs, not only will it affect the seller's fee structure and item appearances in "Best Match" searches, it will also raise the red flag that something is going on. I'm not sure how much or what percentage it would take for them to actually boot a longstanding seller, but a handful of isolated neutrals or negatives isn't going to do it.

There seems to be quite a bit of evidence of tampering with the cards.


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The only issue here is that we are on to it and don't buy from them. If you do not buy you can't leave a negative!

The buyers that purchase may not notice or care- until they go to sell.

+1...Good luck with Ebay

The cards still go high, and don't look like past images when I find the cards in VCP......very odd.

I have run across this exact problem so many times (with post-war cards) that it has become frickin' ridiculous!! After filing the cases with ebay, I have yet to NOT get my money back, so they somewhat do the right thing in the end.

But, of course, as others have stated, ebay will do nothing to actually correct the problem and ban these scumbag sellers, because enough people accept the receipt of these altered-photo cards, so they make their revenue off of them. Pathetic.

More battlefield blues

And here is what I got in the mail - tons of Photoshop work done

Sweet god that's egregious!

The guy photoshopped pictures of his Dick before posting it online? Shocking. :D

In all seriousness, I am sorry to hear that you have been inconvenienced because a seller's unethical business practices are allowed to continue on eBay.

Best regards,

Eric

Wow, that's really bad. This seller had a ton of really nice t205s last week. I almost bid on a couple but I remembered that they had been mentioned here for photoshop work, so I stayed away. That's incredible that they can make a FAIR card look VGEX.

hmmm. If I got crapped on by this seemingly fraudulent seller I might start the process to make them pay for it. Just as I did yesterday with a local scammer. You start with filing a report at your local PD and then go from there. Yes, this is internet, and through the mail, and it might get to federal authorities (FBI and Postal Inspector) quickly as it crosses state lines (I believe, I ain't no lawyer). But you generally start locally as that is where a lot of your taxes go and local authorities have sworn to protect you. With what is shown above, and their previous escapades spoken about, someone really needs to be in jail for all of that continuing fraud.

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAP...ab=AllFeedback


.

Not sure if it is a woman that is behind this or her husband using her name. Every time someone leaves negative feedback she/he threatens with slander. If someone starts the process I am for it. I have all the pics of what I purchased and how they were photoshopped. The pics are simply "breathtaking"

I've never bought anything from this seller, but wondering if all of their descriptions use language like this one -

http://www.ebay.com/itm/JOHNNY-ROMAN...item1e9e920bae

Calling a card NM is subjective but this listing says things like 'no creases', 'no markings', etc., which are pretty cut and dry things. I'd be curious to know if that same language is used on their other 'NM' listings on cards that may have creases, which would be a clear misrepresentation.

This seller cant be trusted even with graded cards. I bought an expensive, PSA graded card two months ago, but battlefield photo-shopped out two stains along the border. They killed the eye appeal and were nowhere to be seen in the ebay photos.

FWIW, I asked for a refund and got it within 24 hours, no hassle.

Peter V@^ 81arg@^ (sorry forgot the rules for a moment, thanks for keeping us honest!)

Regardless of me wanting to see fruadsters in jail, in order to make this kind of statement on this board, your full name needs to be next to your post (you can scramble it to prevent searches). IF you don't want that then you can edit your comment and I will edit my quote in this post. There is nothing personal or punitive in this request, just the rule. thanks

Damn it
 

I bought the T205 Joss from them last week. I haven't received it yet, but expect to today or tomorrow.

Well here it is
 

Well my card came in today. This is the image from ebay of the card that I thought I bought:

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NTE1WDM5NA...VQvVD/$_12.JPG

And this is the card that I received:

http://dixonsbaseballcards.weebly.co...22530_orig.jpg


I'm not really sure what to do from here. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Robert Dixon

This came with the card from the POS:

http://dixonsbaseballcards.weebly.co...84846_orig.jpg

Robert Dixon

Whomever is doing that deserves the karma they will get..

My Bresnahan showed up yesterday and at quick glance it looked like the scan, but I wasn't paying it too close attention as with four clipped corners I figured wrinkles or extra edge wear weren't going to bother me any more.

Since it may help to show a routine with the seller, though, I will look back at it and see if there was any photo manipulation that I just glossed over.

That Joss has the sections of paper loss on each side middle is totally missing in their original picture.

Deplorable.

I know it's already been suggested, but maybe the title of this thread should have the seller's name to alert others who might gloss over the topic.

Something that can't be photoshopped out? ;-)

This guy definitely deserves some jail time.

Reprobate
 

That reprobate should be put out of business and run out of town.
He is no better than the comic book dealer from the Simpsons.

So there is no question, MY NAME IS MATTHEW CHARLTON

I sent a request to seller for a small refund to see if he would reply but it took 3 days plus to finally get back to me. I just this morning sent negative feedback and a then I received this reply:

I'm sorry you aren't happy with the cards. Nothing has been photoshopped. These were low grade cards that had no chance of selling for a big amount. I would never risk losing my business by doing that. We do well enough selling cards as is. Anyway, if you would like to keep the cards I'm fine with sending the 15% refund that you requested. Let me know for sure and I will send it.

Thanks,

Carol

- battlefield0516

My feed for him. - WARNING card was photoshopped - creases removed BEWARE did not return emails

So bad news is that he waited to long to get back to me and of course he is flat out lying about the photoshop work. Only good news is that he/she is willing to work with buyers. I'm glad I feel that I got both cards I won from his auctions at a good price. Best of luck to all that bought from Battlfield. As Leon said karma will have its day.

My name is John Hanssen

Recent purchase
 

I recently purchased three T205 cards from battlefield also and was a little surprised by the photos in the eBay listings compared to what I received. Am I not right in asking for a refund? Will let everyone know what happens.

Here is one of them, the Konetchy –
Pic one is the ebay photoshopped pic and the other two are the scans of the cards I received.

http://t205photos.webs.com/

Here is how the listing read:
Up for auction is a 1911 T205 Gold Border Ed Konetchy #105 vintage baseball card. This card has a Piedmont Back. This card is in nice condition for its age! It is 100% authentic and unaltered! This card has light to moderate corner wear, great centering, beautiful color, good eye appeal, a light crease, and a spot of paper loss on the back. There are no pinholes, markings, or any damage of that kind. T205 Gold Border cards are very difficult to find in good condition and we are breaking up a beautiful COMPLETE SET this week! You won't find another seller starting this card in this condition at $0.99 with no reserve! This card would be a great addition to any vintage collection. If you have any questions I will be happy to answer them.

Here's the message I sent:
Dear battlefield0516,
I purchased three T206 cards from you that look nothing like the pictures you have for the item. I will attach a copy of a scan of the Konetchy card I received so you can see for yourself. Besides a few chipped edges on the cards, all of the imperfections on the cards I received have been removed from the images you posted. I don't mean to be rude, but that is called bait and switch and is illegal. I am going to want a refund on all three of the misrepresented cards.
Thank you - bbcardzman

Wow! That gorgeous T205 Joss is up again.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ADDIE-JOSS-1...item20fc4855b8

WOW that Joss is up over $200 now!!
Someone is going to be really pissed when they receive that card.

Here's the side by side in foto forensics... all that white is photoshop.


http://i60.tinypic.com/2m4dnqe.jpg

Not as obvious as the last one I posted... but you can still see some editing.

http://i62.tinypic.com/2iij42p.jpg

WOW! I finally got my money back from the notorious battlefield0516.
I have three spot to leave feedback on, any ideas on what I should say?

Joss
 

The Joss is up for auction again

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ADDIE-JOSS-1...item20fcd96568

He's adjusted the photo a bit this time to make the creases noticeable. The photo still makes the card look way nicer than it does in hand though....

Meanwhile this guy's up to 13 Negative and 28 Neutral feedbacks in the last month

He has a t206 Cobb, bat on, rated a PSA 4(mk), but there's no visable mark in the scan. Nice looking card, but now I'm leery....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/132160652803

As you should be!

Many posts have been written about her, and even if you are new here and never read them, all one has to do is read her feedback.

How anyone could possibly think they are going to win a card that looks identical in her scans or her description, after reading her feedback, is beyond me? :confused:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=206192

It's over $1100 at this point....