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HankronBob, while authenticity and lack thereof is a subject that obviously gets me excited, I agree that eBay is agreat place to buy. There are lots of great sellers, both full time dealers and normal collectors. I also think that the vast majority of eBay sellers are honest and try to do a decent job. I recently bought a Greta Garbo photograph from someone in Romania, and was satisfied with the transaction.
I submit that 99 percent of eBay forgeries and intentional fakes CAN be avoided before bidding. Hell, if you skipped Private Auctions and "All Sales are Final" you would autmatically skip 95 percent of them right there. If you then skipped featured auctions of high end Pre-War cards where the seller can't fit the entire card in the scan and cards that don't actually resemble the real cards and cards that look exactly like they've been cut out of the Funk & Wagnal Dictionary* and are so ugly that they would scare the family dog, you're almost home free.
* Yes, there indeed once was a AAA Graded Funk & Wagnal Babe Ruth