Fraud, Ignorance Or Greed?

I saw this Confederate listing a few hours ago and noticed immediately that the item was not genuine, and that the seller had 'mistakenly' labeled it so.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...:WNA:CA:1123

He even states in his listing
"100%Genuine not a fake"

I emailed him and let him know that it was a fake and that ebay frowned on such fraudulent listings.
He emailed me back fairly quickly and said he was new to stamps and had no idea, thanking me for the information. At that point there were no bids.
Now he has his $35 opening bid and is obviously not withdrawing the item. He is a new seller, just beginning a month ago.
Is it caveat emptor, buyer beware? Is the seller really ignorant and really lucky that he has found an ignorant buyer?
We've seen a lot of dishonest sellers posted here lately. Chalk up one more.

Wow, and get a load of this apparent Downey Head the same seller has on offer......





Skilo54

yeah it's totally fake. CSA never issued that stamp

Hi, although I am new to the forum I have used ebay over the past four years, and my fear is that there are more and more people out there thinking that if something is old it must be valuable, without doing the research behind it. There are a number of people trying to sell very common stamps as something special and my concern as a collector is that people will be duped and give stamp collecting a bad name.

I am inclined to agree bayman, but in my experience some of the most egregious cons are perpetrated off ebay by individuals claiming to be respectable, prominent stamp dealers.

At least with ebay items and sellers can be reported.

Discussing and exposing them on forums such as this also helps.

And a very warm welcome to the SCF.

The Indian States are a happy hunting ground for the fraudsters, ignorant and greedy on ebay.

This sheet of the unissued Jammu & Kashmir 1886 ¼ Anna



is on offer there at the moment - for a trifling $US350,000. A small detail the seller doesn't disclose: he bought it a few weeks ago, on ebay, for a still rather stiff $US375. Proper value? $US200 tops for this curio.

Not fraud, I grant you, but ignorant and greedy in equal measure.

Tony: since he can't possibly expect to sell it for that price, what do you think is his real motive for listing it this way?

I'm completely perplexed.

Tonymacg, I totally agree with you. The person has allowed 28 days to find someone more foolish than themselves. The Seller and Intelligence have never met. Most scatty rip-off attempted on ebay ?

Sad when a person thinks someone will swap a house for a few hundred dollars.

I honestly have no idea what the seller thinks he's doing. The most expensive Indian States item I recall selling publicly in recent years was a cover from Duttia State of near-unimaginable rarity. It went for around £30,000. $350,000 seems to be reaching just a bit.

I like his description the best of all!

"Stamp is unused and in near perfect condition.
Front is perfect with no tears folds or marks. Only flaw is small tape mark on reverse side.
let me know any questions you may have.
Thank you for looking and good luck.
100%Genuine not a fake"

Whenever you strongly suspect or know an ebay description is not accurate, it is imperative that you contact ebay to look into it. I have done so on numerous occasions. When doing so, you can do so in a possible manner. In this case, one could state "Being knowledgeable of stamps, I believe this item is a facsimile, but the desccription indicates it is not a fake which could be misleading to someone less informed."
Is this the same individual we discussed several months ago who used the same excuse? If so, that information also needs to be provided to ebay. The only way we can keep stamp-related sales and purchases on ebay from becoming a black eye on our hobby is to provide the (for lack of a better word) policing authority with the information.

NC, I always contact the seller first to give them the chance to come clean. This guy contacted my quite promptly and had lots of, what I now suspect, were excuses. I assumed he'd do the right thing and withdraw the item. But, surprisingly, he got his bid and I guess the $$$$$$s took over.

I agree with you 100%. I always want to give the seller the benefit of the doubt. I use a junk email account for that purpose. If someone wants to be vindictive and start sending me annoying emails (it has happened), I could care less. I just delete that email account and create another junk email account.

Unbelievable how intellectually vacant and greedy some ebay sellers portray themselves. My mate just emailed this link showing a fairys P&H cost of $30 for a US Bee - with black omitted, 2281b.

NOT scarce, appear plentiful from numbers being listed on ebay.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/2281b-BEE-B...:SHOP:US:102

Have a look under "antique Queen Victoria penny red stamps" on ebay and you find greed on a grand scale. These "dealers" rely on the ignorance of the buyers. For sale is some of the worst Penny Red stamps you will ever see. Perforations cut, torn, tattered....but all priced at between 5 and thirty pounds. All antique of course.

I just can't resist posting these. Another outrageously priced item. Judge for yourself. Think it's worth it?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Stamp-Sc...em27c09e3acd

I like the US 1869 pictorial series as much as the next collector, but THAT PRICE plus $14 postage (to Canada) for a straight edge and missing perfs. Am I missing something?

edit- ok, on reading closer I see it's supposed to be an 1875 re-issue. I'd certainly want some certification for that price.