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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:
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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.
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=ViewListedItems&us
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
08-08-2003, 08:28 AM
Letter to eBay
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