So What's Your Take On This "Questionable" Scott 356?

Here is what I deem a questionable #356 offered on ebay by an experienced, but IMHO, "problematic" seller. Although they tout their experience, association affiliations and extensive feedback as reasons that you should trust them, their listings speak otherwise. Any opinions on this listing and/or the seller?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Stamps-...AOSwYwJaM0DN

Worst seller of stamps on ebay. Avoid.

Another questionable listing, and whoa-what do you know? Same seller!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Stamps-...AOSw9gRaM0GB

They say, three's a charm! This seller is unbelievable!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Stamps-...AOSwnw9aM0k-

This seller is well known for his "questionable" listings, and has been for many years. However careful viewing by seriously knowledgeable people can sometimes result in finding a bargain. Best for most collectors to just avoid him.

worse than questionable - felonious is more like it

Not only is the first one a fake, it's a HORRIBLE fake. How the hell does it have $391 worth of bids? Are people literally bidding blind?

That's criminal. Report this seller to ebay, it's anonymous to do so. He is stealing from people who trust him. If he gets enough reports, they will shut him down. Go after these guys, they won't stop until someone stops them. He is raking in a fortune, look how many sales he has.

ebay does not allow fakes or reproductions or things like this person is doing. It would be funny if no one ever bought his BS stamps, but they are buying them. At unbelievable figures too.

You guys have the knowledge to prove to eBa that he is a crook, you know all about stamps. They would listen to you. He would never know who turned him in. You stay anonymous :) Think of all the people you will save from his crooked ways.

ebay IS the problem.

I've only had one transaction with this joker when I first started collecting. I bought a collection of mint U.S. stamps on album pages. He neglected to mention that all of the mint stamps were stuck to the pages.

Anthony's is on the top of my "do not buy from list."

I have reported him numerous times to ebay. I literally kept a dossier of 50+ of his intentionally "misattributed" stamps along with reasons why they weren't what he purported them to be. I even volunteered to pay for expertization on these "questionable" listings with the caveat that if any of them came back good, I would not only pay the fee, BUT PAY DOUBLE THE FEE! Well, guess what? ebay never took me up on my offer, and you sure as hell know Anthony's wanted no part of it. I suggest each and every one of you report them, and then, PERHAPS, we can get ebay's attention? Until we rid ebay of sellers like this crook, it won't be a safe place for collectors (especially, newer, less knowledgable ones) to do business.

ebay is not ever going to change. And even if you manage to close down some of the sellers, they come right back. For example, ebay Safety and Trust has removed the British Cartel seller multiple times including Feb 2011 and again in Jan 2014. And even if ebay actually removed some sellers permanently, there is a never ending supply of people who are willing to take their place and take advantage of others.

The only real solution is to better educate buyers; this is why I started Stamp Smarter about 4 years ago. There is a database with 2000+ reviews of listings and folks can add more. Statistics are compiled for all the listings. So you can quickly lookup a stamp or seller and glean a better understanding of what to be watchful for.

Our hobby has far too many folks who think that all the need to do is become knowledgeable about the stamps they buy. Others have blindly bought into the ebay marketing brainwashing that they are perfectly safe buying stamps sight unseen (other than an image) from an anonymous seller living in another country. Some folks read online about the 'great find' that someone makes and this only encourages them treasure hunt and buy endless amount of poor quality material.

Truthfully, the most successful buyers are those who invest the time and effort into understanding not simply what they are buying but who they are buying from. I think Dan (revenuecollector) is a great example of a person who does exactly this. He has often posted on this forum about the things he does to invest in buying properly. How he builds relationships with sellers, how he has learned how to search and filter for information on listings.

So I think that buyer education is the only real solution here. Chasing it from the opposite direction (trying to 'fix' the ebay issue) is useless. There are good sellers online, smart hobbyists are investing in doing proper discovery on who they are buying from and building strong relationship with those dealers.
Don

While I agree that these are all fakes, statements about genuine or fake are just OPINIONS. They would simply say that in their opinion it is genuine. Collector trust in a cert is based on belief in their expertise, but many genuine stamps have enough of a range factor to allow an out even to what are obvious fakes to many collectors. Alas.

Anthony's is a darling for ebay as they routinely send out their "newsletter" filled with a rambling diatribe about how great ebay is...you have no chance of getting ebay to shut this guy down.