Posted By:
scott (runscott)We expect certain levels of expertise out of sellers, but there are sellers with great feedback who are ignorant about some of the items they sell. I recently saw an item on ebay that was a blatant forgery, being sold by someone I know - he did say in his description that he wasn't sure what it was. So the question is "should he have known?". Heck, I don't know. The only reason I knew it was fake was because I had seen similar fakes on ebay before, sold by known forgers, but this particular item was not something the seller normally handled.
I just purchased a wonderful cabinet forgery for $30. I couldn't tell it was fake from the scan, and I feel certain the seller couldn't either. But as David Rudd frequently tells us - get out the 30x and give it a good look. So I did, and it was fake. It even had the players' names written on the back with a cartridge ink pen and even SMELLS old! The giveaway was that the ink was not at all faded and the picture, probably from an old baseball guide, had been "decopauged" onto a very old piece of board - probably real vintage. I didn't even tell the seller - I just laughed and moved on. Of course, if I had paid a large amount I would have politely asked for a refund.