Ebay Seller "Re-Entry"

Was interested in some of these listings but they look eerily similar to the listings of Superdeals, ogstamps, rushmore_bargins, and hmorgan56. Anyone know of this seller and if there is a relationship there?

Link

http://www.ebay.com/sch/re-entry/m....047675.l2562

Same guy. I have followed this seller's doings on the other stamp board. They have a long thread about him there.

Account listed in ebay UK, 'ships from United States'... dead giveaway...

Thanks guys, appreciate it!

A classic ebay discussion under Classic USA !



Please correct the error if possible. Thanks.

There are **SO** many listings there that are "make-believe" past sales by one of the other UK-based sellers who ship from the US that it isn't funny! And in some cases, they have been "sold" multiple times. So at the moment, this seller has SIX different seller IDs! Incredible!

So, how did anyone figure out that this seller has this many IDs? And, the seller seems to have a lot of positive feedback, so isn't that OK? How do you know they are "make-believe" sales (and why would anyone create make-believe sales?)

Bad buyers and sellers, especially if they are shill bidding, use the bogus sales to pump up each other's positive feedbacks.

Shills don't like to win, but one reason sellers might use shills is to start their auctions at extremely low prices to cheat ebay out of part of the selling fee (higher start values trigger higher fees), and then they shill bid the auctions up to their actual minimum sell price.

Some shady buyers and sellers have used various schemes to "sell" extremely cheap items to each other for just pennies with a nudge and a wink, actually shipping nothing but paying pennies for positive feedbacks.

And many victims of bad sellers have no clue that they have been cheated - otherwise, why would they bid - and so, being clueless, they post positive feedback.

"...how did anyone figure out that this seller has this many IDs?"

Partly by tracking the merchandise, multiple sellers offering the identical bad items. Unfortunately, even by being burned by a bad seller, returning the merchandise, and seeing it come up again offered by an alternate ID.

-Duncan

Thanks, Duncan ....

I guess I knew the concept of shilling, etc. ...

But I was curious how anyone was able to make these accusations on this particular seller(s), whom I have not dealt with at all.

I thank those who are watching out for those of us who may be clueless (I may not be affected much because I generally buy from dealers I have dealt with, and don't spend big bucks anyway.)

I just hope people have some hard evidence to these facts.

Centerstage,
I concur that tossing around allegations without evidence can be a bad thing. But so is screwing over folks; not just on the human level but also is incredibly bad for our hobby.

Ask yourself, why would a seller have multiple accounts? You might come up with one or two justifications for this but to have 15-20 accounts? And if you want to discount that they are not the same sellers, why would one seller buy at 'retail', pay thousands of dollars for a stamp, and then 1 week later put it back on ebay and start an auction at .01 penny? Why would so much material pass from one dealer to another so quickly? (In a previous thread I posted 10-12 transactions that occurred within a few weeks.) Also keep in mind that some sellers may have other reasons to pump up sales such as making their books look better for a potential investor or laundering cash.

And ebay's feedback system has been exploited by many. It is certainly true tha many good sellers have a good feedback rating but it is also true that many bad sellers also have the same. If anyone doubts for a second that the ebay feedback system cannot be exploited by a seller with bad intentions than they have never bothered to search Google for 'buying an ebay account with feedback' (28 million links returned). And of course there are many ways to build an account for the purpose of simply getting good feedback.

Occam's razor and common sense tells us that a logical approach is to believe the theory that makes the least amount of assumptions. I try to not make definitive statements as to a seller's intent or say things like 'this seller is a crook'. But I do offer my opinion when others start a thread asking about a specific listing. My opinion is that this is the same seller across multiple accounts but I may be wrong. My opinion is that something fishy is up when material moves across the same three sellers in a week. My opinion is that I have documented that this seller has at least twice bought stamps from a Siegel auction that were described one way and when they were listed for sale on ebay they have somehow changed (i.e. one hinge stamp became 'Mint Never Hinged' and one used pen cancel become a unused stamp when cancel was removed.)

Folks can certainly ignore the warning signs, my opinion, and the opinion of many others. Ignore that the least amount of assumptions is that there are bad people out there willing to taking advantage of others as their primary intent.

Of course there are many, many great people who sell on ebay. And ebay does give you a bit of recourse if you get scammed, but be prepared for a battle. I would love to hear from anyone who has bought higher dollar material from this seller(s) and has been pleased with their purchase(s); they seem to be in short supply. Has anyone gotten material from him and sent it out for a cert? Given the nature of the material he sells, surely there are those who have done this?
Don

I have expertized several items that were purchased from one of these sellers and in each case, they were "significantly not as described". One was a #277 for which the buyer paid nearly $1,000. and was describe as sound. I found that it had a small repair with the gum redistributed over the repair to hide it. The average collector would most likely be unable to identify a skillfully executed repair or skillful gum redistribution. And of course, that is exactly what ethically challenged sellers are hoping! So how they gain their profit-margin "edge" is to buy stamps that with "improvement" can yield great profits. By changing a previously hinged stamp to a convincing-appearing "NH" will change the catalog value by 50% or more, sometimes 100%! By taking a stamp with a tiny fault, available for 25% of CV and hiding the fault by redistributing the gum can also change the value dramatically.

I find Don's logical presentation of his views to be totally compelling and hope that readers agree.

Out of curiosity, anyone care to venture a guess on the percentage of stamps that are altered from this / these sellers ?

stallzer,
I am not sure that it would be appropriate to answer that question unless one had done a lot of research and discovery with a specific seller. Bill has supplied an actual case or two and others might weigh in with details about a purchase or two they have made (guessing that some may not either want to admit that were taken and others may simply 'don't want to know').

But to speculate the percentage, without spending a boat load of money with this seller and having everything checked out and certed by a third party, would not be very good for anyone involved. (And may even cross the line for slander/libel.)

I think the best that can be done at this time is to simply give folks a 'heads-up' via education and let them make their own decisions based on the best information they can find. There was one poster who said he had bought some lower dollar items without any issues (or at least from what he could observe). Each person can form their own opinion's based upon the possible risks/benefits. But frankly the lack of anyone stepping up and really recommending a seller, beyond the inane ebay feedback system, would be enough to cause me to pause before dropping substantial amounts of money with any seller.

Someone recommended using well known dealers and auction houses. This cannot be overstated, there is huge value is using dealers who care about their reputations and investment in the industry. Ask other hobbyists who they prefer to buy from, it is not hard to find good dealers. In my opinion it is our desires, and sometimes our egos, which get us in trouble when we find what we think is a good deal online.

ebay does indeed have some good deals and sellers. But if you guys are like me (a hobbyist) then you probably find yourself in the situation where the stuff you want/need sells for catalog value or better but when you go to sell stuff you are lucky to sell it for half of catalog. But as you grow and your collection becomes more advanced finding great deals online becomes less likely for various reasons.
Don

Although some dealers are less careful than others, it should be safe to buy from American Stamp Dealer Association (ASDA) members, National Stamp Dealer Association (NSDA) members or American Philatelic Society Dealer Members. It is also relatively safe to buy from APS members who are not dealers because the APS selling guidelines can be invoked. It is possible to follow up with the APS in case of a dispute. It should be noted that one very large ebay seller claims APS membership but offers a number of marginal or questionable lots every week. I believe that this seller will retreat if challenged on any individual item, but many buyers apparently fail to catch problems soon enough to return an altered or misdescribed item.

Unfortunately so many ebay auction lots are offered without an adequate description that properly described stamps sell for low prices because buyers are afraid that they will be stuck with damaged stamps they don't want and can't return. [Paraphrase of a Jim Kloetzel article in Scott Stamp Monthly a few years ago.]

Many good sellers suffer because the few malicious sellers and the many sloppy or uninformed sellers dumb down the ebay experience to the lowest common denominator.

Clark

It was just a random question, I was not thinking of purchasing or bidding on any of their material. I did look through the listings and from merely looking I see a lot of what one would consider high end material and seeing what I've read about this / these sellers I was wondering what the percentage of altered stamps might be from them, 1% ?, 2%? Is the majority of their merchandise legit ?

Without being able to actually examine the offerings, it is not possible to speculate about percentages of misdescribed material, but in the few cases I was personally involved in, the evidence was clear that alterations to either the stamp or gum had taken place. I think Don's point is excellent - I am unaware of anyone coming forward in a public forum such as this, and praising the seller's or their wares. That is not "proof" of anything, but it's also not an endorsement either! In the end, all buyers need to assess the possible level of risk. Unfortunately, as I've stated before, unless a buyer has the skill necessary to recognize whatever is wrong with the object he buys, all the guarantees in the world don't do any good. All good folks can do is try to educate through consumer-friendly sites like this one, or StampSmarter and take the warnings to heart. I feel like if we can "save" just a handful of novice/inexperienced collectors from getting stung, that it's worth the effort. If only a few people stop to rethink a bid on an item as a result of something they learned here or any other consumer-friendly site, then we've accomplished something.

In the "old" days, we were able to send emails to buyers who had purchased something misidentified or deceptive and try to educate them to the actual status of their purchase, but of course ebay put that to a screeching halt by making buyer's ID'd a secret! That keeps consumer-friendly observers from being able to help. Which in turn means more of the garbage "sticks" and of course, that means ebay gets to keep the selling and listing fees. It's great for everybody concerned - except the unskilled buyer. Can you imagine, for ecample, how much good it would do if we could, for example, send an email to the guy who just paid $135. for a Newspaper stamp proof that catalogs only $18.? Nothing rude or accusatory, just a simple "Hi there, I was interested in this item when I realized that it was just a proof that catalogs only $18. Can't help but wondering if you realize that?". That's all that would be necessary to change the deviant climate that now exists.......