NY Times article today about Ebay counterfeiting problem

[Archive]

Posted By: Joann

Long, sorry - but this issue is a genuine concern to all electronic commerce in these cards and therefore to this hobby. Think what you might about ebay, but they are very important to the ability some of us have to particpate at all.

Link is below. Excellent article focusing on jewelry as examples but directed at the problem of counterfeiting in general. Tiffany Jewelry is suing ebay for facilitating fraud, and the article says that if successful it could dramatically change ebay - maybe even shut it down.

When you think about it from ebay's side, as represented well in the article, what really are they supposed to do? They don't have any expertise in product. If they go by what others say they are vulnerable to being used to settle grudges, disrupt competitors, etc. Who are they supposed to listen to in accusations like this?

They say they rely on the trademark owners like Tiffany's to pursue recourse against the counterfeiters, but what about vintage cards and the like that have no trademark owners?

It seems to me that this community (Net 54 VBC) is maybe uniquely positioned to propose some creative solutions. One of the striking things about this board is how widely represented the hobby is - no cliques or "special groups". Also, while members may have individual short spats, the group definitely seems to band together against outside threats to the hobby.

What would happen if we collectively and en masse violated ebay policy about not contacting bidders on false material? They can't shut down all of us, right?

And it seems to me that the hobby is so well represented here that there should be some way that it can be identified as the experts in this area. I wonder if there is a way that people wanting to sell something on ebay can get an endorsement of their auction by a recognized body (in this case, some manifestation of the people on this board) and show the endorsement in the auction. Then in each area (cards, jewelry, whatever) buyers would be made aware of the availability of the endorsement so they could bid with more confidence on endorsed product.

It could get sticky though, couldn't it? Maybe not to say affirmatively Yes or No to any single card, but more to create enough concern on the buyer's part to look into it, and maybe even links to a web page about spotting fakes. That's what ebay should do - host spotting fakes pages for routinely counterfeited auction items, and maybe recognized endorsers.

Sorry for the long post - but it seems like there must be a way for these communities to police themselves on a slightly more official level than now, without putting ebay in the position of having to be responsible for fakes they know nothing about.

The cohesiveness of this board seems to put us in a good position to try or propose something like that. Not as an offical Net 54 activity, but more as the central trading post for knowledge and expertise on fakes and counterfeits of vintage cards.

Thanks for listening. And for thinking.

Link below from today's New York Times. If it wants a password or something to open it, just go to www.nytimes.com and look for Katie Hafner's article in today's Technology section.

Joann

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/technology/29ebay.html?th&emc=th