Posted By:
HankronMy feelings about fakes on eBay should be apparent-- but eBay's actions are understandable to a degree. Realize that there are probably 1,000s of different niches on eBay (Pre-WWI baseball cards, Pre-1950 U of Indiana memorabilia, comic charector's matchbooks, etc). Exemplified by this board, there are small groups of expert collectors who daily follow and scrutinize the niche. It would be largely impossible for eBay to police and have experts in each area. This is coupled with that eBay may feel itself liable if it is constantly tampering with auctions-- saying, "This may be fake, we should shut it down." Realize, that while people are angry about fakes, many sellers will readily sue if eBay starts tampering with auctions on a regular basis. I'm quite sure that most of us on this board, including myself, would not be happy if eBay started scrutinizing the text of our individual auctions.
My feeling is that eBay should 1) limit the use of private auctions by sellers an 2) give basic information to new users on safe/smart buying (which I think eBay already does to a limited degree). A buyer's knowledge is his responsibility, and eBay should point this out to all new users.