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Posted By: Repro cards are in PLAY 

Check out all these reprints and the amount of $$$ he is getting for them? http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=ohiotarheelfan&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=50

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Posted By: Hankron

... Private auction ... "I'm selling these as REPRINTS" ... "Sold as is-- no returns"...

I hate to be a cruel dude, but the buyers of these cards deserve what they pay for

Says the seller: "Since they are not graded I am selling this card as a REPRINT"-- Give me a break.

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Posted By: Hankron

The seller has got a touch of brains here, as he clearly says he's selling them as reprints. When the buyer realizes he spent $400 on a reprint, he has no legitimate claim to get his money back. The seller represented the card as a reprint, and that's what the buyer got.

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Posted By: JC

I just wonder where these people come from? How can people be so Dumb that have that kind of money to waste or invest? When I came across these I could not believe the action on them? They have aged very well over the last 2 years. I think I'm going to be leary on what I buy at Nationals un-slabbed this year.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Not all the auctions ahve the REPRINT disclaimer. Checkout the Plow Boy.

Jay

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Posted By: MW

I'm sure I speak not only for myself, but many others here when I write that descriptions on eBay (e.g., words like "REPRINT"), are often ignored by last second or "casual" (careless?) bidders in favor of an enticing image and a seemingly reasonable price. If these private auctions are truly legitimate, I feel sorry for the collectors who end up with this reprinted crap. Geez. Take a look at the Vezina and Nagurski. Pathetic!

My personal feeling is that even if the word "REPRINT" is listed, there is still more than enough frivolous language in the auction description to mislead or give prospective bidders false hope. Also, I think the way that some of the reprinted cards have been artificially aged is quite misleading. And the fact that they're all private auctions....don't even get me started on that. Personally, I don't have a problem with the concept, but can't eBay limit this option to higher ticket venues? To many experienced vintage collectors, the word "private," within an eBay context, has become nearly synonymous with "fake" or "fraudulent." I think it's only a matter of time before eBay places restrictions on the use (to avoid flagrant misuse) of this tool. And when they do, say goodbye (Aloha) to Libertyforall & Co.'s little shop of cutout horrors.

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Posted By: Hankron

Private eBay auctions are bad news. From my experience, it seems that the main in practice purpose for private eBay auctions is to keep people like Roy Huff in business.

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Posted By: Hankron

I saw that, Jay.

Doesn't anyone find it funny (not in a haha sense), that when these rashes of forgeries appear (along with the ever present Roy Huff), that probably several tens of dealers and average Joe collectors automatically see them as fakes and scams, discuss it publicly on boards like here and PSA-- yet eBay seems essentially impotant to identify and/or do anything about it? To me, this says there's something f**cked up at eBay-- and it ain't their profits.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Yeah, it totally amazing that suspend someone becuase of the bogus online and questionable authentification of autographs PSA/DNA, yet will not listen to literally hundreds of people when they are told that there is a fake card being passed as real.

I guess we need to get RSG/DNA to 'authenticate' scans of cards and then maybe eBay will listen

Jay

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Posted By: MW

Save yourself THOUSANDS of dollars.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=Dover+%2BBaseball&userid=2XB7UB424N

I'm almost tempted to write some cynical reviews for some of these books of reprinted vintage baseball cards. Something like, "I bought this book, cut the perforations off several of the cards, added some creases, dunked them in coffee, and then sold them for several hundred dollars each on eBay. And to think I only paid $4.95 plus shipping."

Or better yet, perhaps I can prominently feature a special eBay auction where I offer do-it-yourself fake vintage baseball card kits to eBay scammers along with a link to the Barnes & Noble site. Maybe that would help some of the bidders on these auctions to realize just what they're buying.

Also, check out the following:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=2XB7UB424N&isbn=0486236242&itm=2

For those who can't see it, a 1955 Jackie Robinson is pictured on the cover. I recall picking up one of these reprint books in a collection last year and the Jackie Robinson, for whatever reason, is printed quite dark. Check out the contrast on the same card from the seller on eBay. You know, it's only a matter of time before this seller "graduates" to the Topps paper cards in the reprinted 1954 SI #1 issues.

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Posted By: david

i noticed some of these auctions last night. i also noticed that some of the closed auctions have fetched over 100 dollars for obvious reprints. i think something is fishy with these auctions because i see legitmate cards often going for less then the reprints

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Posted By: dan mckee

Alot if not most or all of the bids on these are probably the seller himself with alter ID's. He may catch a fish in the end but if you will notice, several of the bids were placed less than 1 minute apart. Dan

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Posted By: david

that is what i was thinking. no doubt a scam where the seller bids up a few of his auctions to high dollar amounts in an effort to get the unknowing collector to think that his cards are real because they must be if someone is willing to pay a few hundred dollars for them. i believe this is a misuse of the private auctions policy also. according to ebay rules the private auction can only be used with certain items and i dont think reprints is one of them

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Posted By: david

http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/select-RS.html

this is the link to report this guy to ebay. i already sent one out. perhaps if a few more people do so ebay will at least warn this guy of his fraud

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Posted By: Hankron

Other than protecting sellers of fakes, private auctions are also used to hide shill bidding (Broadway Rick).

In my my opinion, and I bet the opinion of many others, if eBay could do one and only one thing to prevent fakes and scams on its website, it would be to ban private auctions .... And, before someone starts a debate on the theoreticals, I am not against eBay allowing private auctions for certain reasonable circumstances: sale of the Hope Diamond, a sale of particularly sensitive nature, etc. The problem when you get into this type of theoretical debate ('In theory a private auction could legitimately be use for...'), is that in reality I've never seen the Hope Diamond offered on eBay, but sure see a Hell of a lot of Roy Huff's stuff. So, for the time being, my concern lays with Roy Huff's stuff and not the potential sale of Hope Diamond.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Sadly, multiple reports go unnoticed. Once an item has been reported, if anyone else reports it, they get back a generic message that says this item ahs already been reported and they are looking into it.

Would be nice if they actually tracked how reports they got on each item, but given eBay's track record, I doubt they really care. As they have proven time and again, all they care about is generating fees. they don't seem to care if their sellers are offering legitimate items or not.

Although I was joking about RSG opening an RSG/DNA division for online authentification of cards, I also half serious about it too. If PSA/DNA can authenticate sigs via scans online, then why can't someone start authenticating cards via scans online? Just think of the money you can make.

Jay

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Posted By: botn

Jay,

The company's site is not longer valid (what a surprise) but read this article.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2002/10/prweb48132.php

Greg

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Posted By: Hankron

While many fakes and forgeries can be identified from an online image, one can't and should not even attempt to authenticate something from a scan. Considering that images are regularly manipulated or accidentally photograph different (darker, lighter, off color, etc) than the real item, and sometimes the image is stolen and the person doesn't even own the item, an 'online authentication servce' would be, in my opinion, bogus. There's no way around the fact that one can only authenticate an item by seeing it in person.

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Posted By: Hankron

The above illustrates that, as far as authenticity goes in online auctions, the bidder is dependant on the knowledge and honesty of the seller. This explains why I regularly encourage bidders to find and deal with quality sellers. Especially when buying expensive and esoteric items, a quality seller is an essential not a a luxury.

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Posted By: Three25hits

"one can't and should not even attempt to authenticate something from a scan"


I agree one can't "authenticate" a card via scan. But, can't one deem a card to NOT be authentic via a scan?

I don't think ebay should be in the business of authenticating. But I do think they have a responsibility to remove items that CLEARLY are NOT authentic.

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Posted By: Brian H.

I agree.
Certainly a "good" copy coupled with some sharp scanning can get by me on line -- so I can't authenticate scans. But the inverse is not true -- I can detact a phony. Thus we can "inauthenticate" !

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Posted By: Hankron

I noted that many fakes can and are identified from online scans.