Amazing Ebay Auction

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-15-...AOSwwzla146h

I really don't know what to say. Maybe some members can weigh in. The seller is from France offering some extremely rare items. Based on SMQ and Siegel sales these stamps total close to 160,000 dollars.

294a, 295a, 296a inverts total 45K with the 296a sold at Siegel 2012 World Rarities
K16a 2000 World Rarities $9,500

US 131 2004 PSE Graded 98 SMQ 15,500
US 117 PSE Grade 95 SMQ 11K
US 103 NH Graded 95 $28,000 Siegel Sale #1100
US 106 PSE grade 98 $11,000 Siegel Curtis Colletion 2013

Amazing US 299 NH PSE Graded 98J $26,000 Siegel sale 1150
US C15 PSE graded 100 ph $3,000

Few other rare or high graded items on top of those.

This seller is a scam artist. He posts other folks' stamps - e have talked about him on this forum before. Please do not waste you money on anything he sells,

Peter

Thank you. I've sent an e-mail to Siegel & will report the item to ebay

Yeah...and I have a really good bridge for sale too - cheap!!

Sadly there are some people who are bidding on this auction.
It would be nice if ebay would pull the auction if it is a scam.

It is a scam.

why does everyone assume its a scam its not like he is new to ebay surely his account history should indicate he does good business

Among other things, because many of his items can be traced to the auction catalogues of well-known companies. Some threads actually show up his occasionally inadequate photo-shopping of these items.

There are no assumptions being made, it has been proven that this seller runs a scam. As GeoffHa posted it has been proven that he lists stamps he does not, he can not, own. It has also been proven that he manipulates the images he uses have been modified.

Speaking of assumptions....You state that "surely his account history should indicate he does good business". Existing ebay accounts are often bought and sold online. I could buy an existing ebay account this afternoon that has 1000's of positive feedbacks. So counting on a seller's 'account history' is meaningless.
Don

Buying accounts.Seems there are a lot of sites like this....
http://www.unlimitedaccounts.co.uk/...ay-accounts/

My knowledge of classic stamps is very limited as I only collect modern stamps of two countries but I can count more than a handful of clues that the images in the listing are photoshopped.
Have to give him credit for changing the background picture of his table/workbench to make it appear that he/she is taking multiple pictures from the same vantage point.
The quickest way to tell if an image is photoshopped is to inspect the edges of what you suspect are superposed items in the image for artifacts that result from cropping, copying and pasting.

Hi bobeid,
He has been 'Photochopping' images since 2015 as shown in this thread https://goscf.com/t/44138&whichpage=4

Also, while what you say about the edges of a 'photochopped' image is true for a badly done image, it is pretty easy to remove those sharp edges by a more accomplished person. So do not assume that that if you cannot detect the edges that an image is not photchopped.

All,
Another 'clue' (as if any more were needed) is to look at a sellers ID name history. Ask yourself 'why would a seller change his name 5 times in less than 12 months'? Answer...there is not a single legitimate reason for a seller to change his ID that frequently. Folks should use the search function, do some discovery, and to use some common sense before trying to argue that a seller like this acceptable.
Don

Don,

Agreed that there are more things to look for. An if-it's-too-good-to-be-true-it-probably-is approach is also good to have. This ebay listing makes for a good case study to what to look for to identify a scam.

The bidding started at one dollar. Enough said.

Batzendorf (item location), France ......give me a break - a commune with less than 1,000 habitants