Looking For A 15c Scott #340? - Money To Go To APS

Bill,

The seller had no trouble relisting items that I had returned... even when he hadn't refunded my money. ebay had no trouble with it either. I remember the seller went to the trouble of altering the appearance of the stamps by cropping the design and actually rotating it 180 degrees so that the perforations didn't match MY stamps.

The precedence has been set. As long as you possess the stamp you may sell it.

Thanks for posting that, Sinclair.

I THOUGHT it was the Cartel that pulled that stunt - rotating the image to "change" the perfs, but I wasn't positive about who did it. Sneaky, deceptive, and with no legitimate reason to do it.

That's proof of bad actions on the part of the Cartel, for MikeQ who is so insistent on proof.

In fact, to reverse that insistence on proof, let me add this, for MikeQ, who wrote...

"My position - I will say again - is very simple. If you have EVIDENCE, then take it to the authorities. And I don't buy for a minute that the authorities will not listen. Law enforcement has a hierarchy just like the supermarket. If you aren't getting satisfaction at the lower levels you go upstairs."

Okay, MikeQ, if you really believe that, prove it. There is plenty of documentation gathered on the Cartel, including the example that Sinclair just mentioned, documented online. There's certainly plenty to show that the seller(s) known as the Cartel can be deceptive in online sales activity.

YOU demonstrate how simple it is to "take it to the authorities". Surely they don't need someone like you to bring them rock solid evidence, just enough to make a case worthy of investigation which is THEIR job. They have the ability to obtain further evidence from ebay as to identities, real names addresses, email and financial records, and the transactions are recorded on ebay and extensively documented on the popular Australian board. Show us. Bring down the Cartel, if it is, as you say, "very simple". You did say you've already done it at least once, right?

It would make good reading here, you could document your actions step by step, showing us all how simple it is.

I'm just saying...

-Duncan

I was a victim of the Cartel. A victim of shill bidding. It was only one lot and not a huge amount of money(less than $100). The lot that I bought was part of a larger group of 20 items that were "sold" in my specialty. Well over half of the items that were "sold" were re listed. When I asked the seller why the lots were relisted (a number of which I was the 2nd highest bid), I was told that it was due to "a" non paying bidder. Upon further research of the items, I discovered that it was in fact 5 non paying bidders. What is most disturbing is that a number of these lots have now been reoffered several times and "sold" under a different "group" ID. You can guess the seller names. As a seller myself with almost 2000 positive feedbacks on ebay and a similar amount on Bidstart, I have had only 2 non paying bidders. Having over half of a true auction result with multiple bidders ending up as nonpaying and then repeating that exercise is a statistical impossibility without shill bidding. Shill bidding is prohibited under ebay rules.

The tricks used here are many and are devised to operate in the convoluted folds of the process. Do you think that ebay wants to get involved in trans continental litigation? The seller knows this. Very smart. Very cynical. Probably litigious.

Bob

Bobby has given me permission to post some of my communications with ebay, so to demonstrate the kind of effort I've put in recently, here is a sample letter to an ebay rep. whose name I know, and who I've spoken to in the pat on the telephone. She is one of the few people who, in the past, would respond and try to direct me to the appropriate party. This letter was sent about 10 days ago I think. I have received no response.




And folks, I've got quite a few others like this, pleading with them to please put me in touch with someone who can help. ALL have been unanswered. In this new post-peer-review era at ebay, they simply do no seem to care at ALL about fraud or fraudulent activity. And MikeQ's sage advice, which sounds good, is not really as easy as he would like us to believe. Like Duncan, I've been personally involved with submitting reports to Government agencies, including the F.B.I., Post Office, State Attorney Generals, etc and in virtually EVERY instance, they are "not interested" in pursuing the case. In one instance an FBI agent actually threatened me by telling me "hey buddy, I'm telling you to forget this, or else". I have no idea what "for else" meant, but indeed, I *DID* forget it!

And I agree 100% with Dunc., if MikeQ says it's so easy to file charges, I think he should take over this problem and show us mere mortals how he does it!

And here is a letter I received in August of 2013 in reference to the difficulty ebay faces in trying to investigate the "british cartel";




Now unless anyone thinks that I have nothing better to do then sit and make up fake letters to post in places like this, I urge readers to try to understand that while certainly the majority of sells online are completely honest, there are those who are not. There are those who are actively engaged in fraudulent activity at worst, deceptive or unethical acts at miniumum. Just "be careful out there"!

I suppose I'll post this in case Mike Q wants to get back on his soapbox. Phillip Ryle is the man behind the mask on many of these accounts and has had some of the accounts NARU'd by the investigations of some very resourceful collectors and has been widely discussed and some great evidence presented here;

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopi...f=21&t=38353

I usually won't paste links to other Stamp forums but I thought this might shed some light on the seller Mike Q (Phillip ?) is trying to defend. If you follow the thread through you will see that Bill Weiss is speaking the truth about the practices by rushmore bargains / reentry / ogstamps, etc....

By the way, if you look on page 1 you will see the background of the Stamp Bill Weiss is selling on this thread. Ok Mike Q, what to say now ?

Thank you Stallzer for supplying that link. If time is taken to carefully read the mountain of evidence presented there, then understand that ebay will not respond to emails such as those I've been sending to them wanting to present more evidence, what other conclusion can we draw from that refusal to respond then that they are WELL AWARE of all of these facts and do not wish to participate or even acknowledge people like me!

It is also interesting to note that they have no qualms about "naming names" over there, but I wonder if the Aussie laws might be different than here?

The evidence is overwhelming. Anyone who wishes to believe that ebay cares 100% about providing a "safe and pleasant buying experience" (as is their mantra in so much of their advertising) is just kidding himself.

ebay Seller "re-entry"

This thread that is in this forum from a few days ago is pertinent to this thread. I know it takes us off topic slightly.

Also my thanks to Stallzer for posting a link to the other stamp board. WOW. I don't know what else to say. I am now very spooked in regards to ANY stamp purchase I have made or will make going back or forward in time. Just how many crooks are out there??? The big time guys have been identified and not shut down or jailed. How many small undetected sellers are out there.

Also,where do all the exposed fraud stamps end up? I am sure they still end up in circulation eventually, then they will get filtered through many unsuspecting buyers and back on the market.

My question is about the big stamp auction houses that sell high end expensive stamps using their own judgement and experience about authenticity.

I have bought some pretty expensive (for me) stamps through these auction houses believing their opinion on such purchase without an actual expertise certificate believing that the auction house will do me no wrong. These are as far as I know reputable auction houses.

am I ok to think this way or am I stupid or gullible or fill in the blank for me.

Crazy for trusting people..... Thanks. I might turn away from my hobby for a long time for MANY reasons.

Xyyz, the majority of sellers on ebay are respectable. The main things to look for are buying from APS members, check sellers feedback, and when buying expensive or scarce items make sure they are accompanied by a certificate from a reputable establishment. These of course are general rules and nobody is going to forge or tamper with a 1¢ Lexington-Concord issue, but a scarce W/F coil, no cert, no sale.

Taking us back to the initial reason for tis thread, thanks to the insinuations by mikeQ that I was doing something unethical or wrong in selling this stamp, I appealed to ebay customer service and asked for an explanation for the current status of the item in question. Here is the response;

And here it is again!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...:LCA:US:1123

Bill, the stamp in the original 1st post and the one in your last post are 2 different Stamps ?

You keep ignoring this, but once again you cannot hold a charity auction on ebay unless it's in the framework of ebay's Giving Works program. You can be sure that someone will report the auction and ebay will end it.

?

Jenny2U,
You are incorrect; ebay allows charity auction outside of their Giving Works program and actually has instruction on how to do it;

Quote:
You can list items for charity without ebay Giving Works if:

You're soliciting on behalf of recognized, tax-deductible charitable organizations (for example, 501(c)(3) or equivalent status with the IRS).

You receive advance written consent from the charitable organization for the solicitation—and include the following information in your listing:

A readable photo or scanned image of the written consent. (This proof can't be a link to a website.) The letter must be on the charity's letterhead and signed by one of the organization's officers

The charity's tax-deductibility status

Your name or ebay user ID, dates of event or listings, and the donation amount (percentage of the final sale price) you'll be donating if your item sells

This can be found on this page http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies...raising.html

Bill has a pretty close relationship with APS and I have little doubt that he is an honest guy. But he has not followed the above instructions and would probably be wise to include it in the listing.
Don