Question For Those SCF Members Who Sell On Ebay

This cover was sold in the Carrier & Locals Society Auction on April 13 and offered for sale on ebay as a Buy It Now the following day (today). The CL&S auctioneer confirms that he still has the cover and it has not yet been paid for. I contacted the seller whose response was simply that he was the buyer. No reason to doubt the seller's honesty (is a known high-end ebay dealer) but this seems a questionable practice to me. Sellers: what is your take on this situation?

So was the C&L auction a benefit for the society?

tx, not to my knowledge (the lots are consigned by members).

So this seller has purloined the illustrations from the C&LS auction listings rather than waiting to make his own?

John, it seems so.

And the problem is?

Heaven forbid someone at a stamp show borrows an item walks to another dealer, gets $200 for it then return to the first dealer to pay the full $100 price that dealer was asking.

Knowledge is king and time is money.

On the "many a slip" principle, I shouldn't dream of listing something unless it was in my sweaty paw.

I would not personally list a purchased item as a buy-it-now without first having it in hand. If nothing else, if there is an immediate sale I might not be able to ship within my stated handling period. I also prefer to confirm items in the flesh in case there is anything prior seller missed, and I prefer to use my own scans of items.

If one wants to get nitpicky, he may own the cover, but not the photo of it. So he is using someone else's copyrighted photo.

I though the title of ownership doesn't transfer until funds are paid and received. The EBAY seller may of been the high bidder but title doesn't transfer of who owns it .

Exactly

And you don't know if the person you "borrowed" the item from actually owns it. Just a bad practice.

It'ld be funny if the eBay seller stuck to the 'drop shipping' modus operandi and had the auction house ship directly to his buyer.

As far as I remember (this was some years ago) eBay claim ownership of images uploaded to their site. This "known high-end eBay seller" is pushing the envelope somewhat by using the C&LS image- the auction house could flag it with eBay as a copyright violation.

Yes I would never sell or list an item until I have in hand. Too many problems can arise that I wouldn't be comfortable with. But I'm not a risk taker.

I also would never list/sell an item until it was in my possession. Too many things could go wrong. I've bought items on eBay only to have the seller cancel the sale, claim they couldn't find the item, or I never received it. It's just bad form to sell something you don't physically have.

plus you might discover a hidden fault when it arrives.