Now THIS is funny - favorite images part 2

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Posted By: MW 

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1806731556

You would think that the Ruth autograph would be sort of close....

I realize this topic has been brought up before, but how difficult would it be for eBay to have some sort of screening process on more valuable items put up for auction?

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Posted By: MW

A wrong link was posted----corrected link in post below.

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Posted By: jay behrens

pretty amazing ball. Considering that Galavin died in 1902, I really have a hard time believing that ball is legit. And even with the horrible picture, I can still do a better Ruth fake without any practice that what you can see on that ball. It's also nice to see the the seller already has a negative and that the current bidder is a new account. Can you say shill?

I do agree, eBay really does need to have some sort of system in place to get blatantly bogus material removed from the sight.

Jay

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Posted By: MW

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1807445980

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Posted By: runscott

...but anytime I see "God Bless" in a listing, alarms go off.

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Posted By: petecld

Look at:

http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_email.asp?/news/713634.asp

At some point they will have to start caring about something if they want to stay in business.

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Posted By: Bill Cornell

From the same MSNBC article: "EBay says that fraud is a persistent problem, but the company adds that it affects fewer than 0.01% of the millions of transactions the auction site handles every year."

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Posted By: tbob

If they have had that few frauds on ebay, I must have seen everyone. I'd like to see more items like the time machine that supposedly really works as opposed to the doctored reprints we see so often. I wish I still had the link to the time machine, it was great. Ebay made the guy take it off, though. Too funny.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

We all know and loathe the minimal feedback guys with the blurry, dark scans. But this guy worked for years to build a major business. I wonder if it was all a fraudulent scheme from the start or if he ran out of sources for figurines. As an attorney who prosecutes fraud cases on behalf of defrauded customers and occasionally defends them, I have found that most frauds arrive there incrementally. They don't start out trying to scam someone, but when the opportunity arises to go a little hinky, they take it. It then snowballs into one dishonest decision after another.

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Posted By: David

If you click the pictures one right after another it plays like a scene from 2001

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Posted By: MW

The first would be Chief Nip-a-Way from Wee Forest Folk, a mouse dressed up as an American Indian.

The second would be resource allocation. According to the article, eBay "employs a team of about 20 fraud investigators."

I don't have exact statistics as to the number of auctions (or average number) per day, but it seems to me that eBay's fraud-investigating resources might be spread just a bit too thin. With annual revenues of $749 million (last year's figures), surely a fraud-prevention task force of 100 or so would not be excessive. I'm no business expert, but surely the added costs could be defrayed by increased revenues brought about by a safer trading environment.

Third, the seller, Mr. Richardson, had 6,185 positive feedbacks but he also had garnered 58 negative and 56 neutral ratings. Hello? Red flag? Sure, that's quite a few positives, but to me, that's also an excessive amount of non-positive feedback. Is there any way that I would have bid on this gentleman's auctions -- even if he had a Chief Nip-a-Way available for $200? Nope.

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Posted By: Bill Cornell

If the Braves were forced to get rid of the great Chief Nok-a-homa as their mascot to appease modern sensibilities, I don't see how the Wee Forest Folk can promote Nip-a-away, mouse or not.

BTW, the Braves claimed they knocked down the Chief's teepee to make way for more seats. Winning has its disadvantages.

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

I love to quote movies.

"I've been waiting for you." Anybody know that one? Hint: 1945.

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

everything looked like that Mantle. The doctor said i should wait until the baby was born before getting my glasses corrected. Sure enough, I didn't need to.

Why post a scan, when it doesn't tell you anything?

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

I don't like to get gloomy, but this guy had a good business going, and was providing his customers with stuff they liked.

Did it ever occur to anyone that he was dead, snuffed or otherwise?

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Posted By: MW

Agreed!

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Posted By: Jim Parks

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1806983995

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Posted By: MW

Please, photography experts correct me if I'm wrong, but this picture appears to be taken by one of those turn of the century box cameras with airbrushed color accents added later.

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

..that somebody tried to auction on e-bay, with photo of a roomful of childrern? e-bay made them take it off.
Sorry I missed the time machine; always wanted one of those...

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Posted By: Bill Cornell

http://www.whattheheck.com/ebay/

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Posted By: David

Or a pinhole camera

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Posted By: Anthony

Nah, both a box camera and a pinhole would've been much sharper. Ever see that Saturday Nite Live spoof commercial with Stevie Wonder shooting pictures with a Minolta? Should've just laid it down on the scanner.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I tend to believe that less clear photos of graded cards from PSA or SGC are less scam attempts than bad marketing.

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Posted By: MW

I know that Daisy was one of the main characters in "The Great Gatsby." Am I close?

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Posted By: Brian Daniels

I could'nt resist! I wrote him and asked him a ton of historical questions akin to interrogatories. ( what he may be needing practice doing after someone creates a law suit with the seller )I got some very funny answers.Of course, I also asked for some pictures that were large and clear.......if he was your child and you told him to stand in the corner a half hour per lie....well...anyway my finale was to ask him if he thought he should do a little follow up on his high bidder! I mean with no feedback and the sun glasses. It is the pathetic e-bay encounter of the year award winner. At least until the "bidder' shows up again!

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Posted By: runscott

I can never resist an opportunity to amuse myself at the expense of others.

"Did one of your ancestors have a premonition and get Ruth to sign this ball as a small child? Do you have any more balls? It looks from this auction that you have more than anyone I've ever known!"