Anthony's Llc Dismal PF Report Card = Follow Up To 10/23/17 Discussion

Well, here is one that displays the logo and looks cartel.
Read the description and then read the cert....


https://www.ebay.com/itm/AFFORDABLE...AOSw4IZaJzZ9

Not part of "the cartel." Multiple accounts. H MBA one account that I know about. You are quite correct, a seller to be very wary.

Although not part of Philip Ryle's consortium, this seller is nonetheless "suspect" (at best), and possibly also using multiple seller accounts. I sniffed out a couple of potential deals with him, and without going into a lot of detail, got a bad smell and took a "pass".....in the FWIW department.

There are bad sellers everywhere, and we have our share in numismatics. But, it is simply astounding how many of them there are in stamps, and that for the most part, they go unchecked. I love this hobby and am having a blast with it. Fortunately, I discovered Siegel early on, and they have saved me a lot of grief....but, for the most part, the philatelic arena is the Wild West.

Cartel ebay names.

https://goscf.com/t/60909&whichpage=1

quoted earlier in this thread:

" ebay has been a boon to the hobby, not a curse...."

In my opinion a more accurate statement would be "the internet has been a boon to the hobby, not a curse."

There are plenty of alternatives to ebay, and ultimately we the consumers are in control. Don't buy from ebay, unless you are prepared to risk the inherent gamble it is for anything more than commodity or basic philatelic items.

There are countless great stamp sellers who stand behind what they sell, and they happen to have a presence on what is, ultimately, the world's biggest bazaar where EVERYTHING and ANYTHING goes. ebay is ENHANCED by their presence, as Stamp Auction Network is similarly enhanced by the (for the most part, presently) upstanding auction houses choosing to pair with S.A.N.

Too many bad apples in the barrel will ultimately ruin the entire barrel for everyone. ebay chooses to keep rolling out new barrels instead of taking the time to throw out the obviously rotten apples.

Other than individual trusted dealers, or established auction houses with an earned reputation, it's the wild, Wild West. Buyer beware.

--Jim Wentzell
stampguyaps177-681

Jim,
I agree the trick is to counter the brain-washing that ebay has done about buying from unknown sellers. The spin they have peddled for years has a large number of people believing is that you can safely buy from an unknown seller but this is not true. Are the risk minimal for low value listings from unknown sellers? Yes. But the real exposure is for the intermediate to advanced hobbyists buying higher value material.

It would be great to think that intermediate to advanced hobbyists have enough experience to understand they should not trust an unknown seller but I guess ego and lusting for material they really want can override common sense.

And of course a 'start-at-a-low-price' auction listing can really tap into our human shortcomings, bringing out all kinds of poor buying decisions at times.

Additionally when one of the respected member of our hobby posts that they scored a great buy from one of the notorious sellers, it feeds the confidence in others. Unfortunately many do not have the experience or skill to pick out the real buys; sellers know this and prey upon those buyers.
Don

This has gotten silly. You will find the good, the bad, and the ugly at all stamp buying venues. Painting ebay, and by association all ebay sellers as shady or evil is sheer ridiculousness.

I remember reading Chicken Little as small child. "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!"

I'm not joining the chorus. The sky is not falling.

ebay never denies the fraud that takes place. It simply uses its contracts, terms and conditions, the law in general and its enormous financial resources to insulate itself from harm. It is not a "shady" enterprise in that the fraud is well known. In fact they simply let buyers and sellers fend for themselves when things go bad.

I have to agree with bookbndrbob. All of this long discussion focuses almost entirely on US singles which are only a tiny percentage of ebay stamp sales. There are lots of people buying and selling in other categories with little or no concern about certs or forgeries or the ASDA.

I disagree with the notion that stamps sold at auction with a low starting price are automatically suspect. I am certain if you look at collections you will find most of the fixed price offerings are ridiculously overpriced, but many stamp collection are fairly sold each week via the auction format.

That being said I took a quick look at the sold items in US 19th C Unused and if you sort by highest price 1st it's a mess. A quick count showed 45 out of 50 sales were by the cartel.

The majority of cartel sales are of british stamps. Fraud and scamming is far from an anomaly on ebay. To each their own however. ebay loves and appreciates the support.

Holy crap! Anthony's finally got caught? No way!! Isnt NYStamps in the same office?

Do you know something I don't? Just the fact that this thread is 26 pages long, speaks volumes of the deception and fraud committed by this company. If they finally got caught with their hand in the cookie jar, I'm sure that everybody here, myself included, would love to hear details!

Anthony's is alive and well and sporting the ASDA logo. They are located in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

NYStamps is located in Flushing, New York. No ASDA logo.

It is CKStamps and NYStamps that are related but not in the same office. Nearby though.

If someone wanted to back up their claims against incorrectlydescribed stamps on ebay, you could contact show organizers (maybe NOJEX - ASDA show, APS Stampshow) and call it "Evaluating stamps on ebay". During the session, you just go through ebay lots and point out what you see.

It would be interesting to see how various groups react.