An Ebay Ethical Question Regarding Forgeries

Thanks Rog,
nicely done. I had trouble over "other" where "none other" I am used to.
Appreciated.

I assume that Gross had a complete revenue collection?

To my knowledge he had no revenues. At least that is what I was told by someone who would know.

His ex-wife?

STORY TIME ----About Forgeries .

Back when ebay was getting HOT ,there were new people coming to the larger public stamp auctions ,many of the "old timers " couldn't stand these new people in the viewing rooms at the auction houses . They show up with their notebook pads and hog as many of the houses catalogs at there viewing place or spot. They also took forever to view each box of stamps and would be writting catalog values on their pads .They took hours to view each big lot . The regulars {mostly dealers } could go thru 5 boxes in 15 mins. and I would do the same until I hit something I never seen .

One time at Regency ,I viewed a nice collection with a lot of mid-value British Colonies and wanted to bid it ,it was a nice lot to fill a lot of blank spaces in my Internationals .

When the auction got underway, I found I was bidding against one of these ebay resellers with the note pad . We both ran the lot up in price,maybe up above what is worth . He won the lot .

At checkout ,after the auction ,I had to ask him why he wanted the lot . He showed me his note pad and it had over $10,000 in catalog value for the German States and few on the British which most of it was under $10.00 catalog with a few more around $20.00 which he added on the sheet .

I lost the lot to a guy who valued FORGERIES and REPRINTS at catalog .


So the auction houses know what their doing , they can use these fakes to jack up the value to some bidders and profit from it without claiming what they are ,so yes people buy or bid thinking they are seeing something the regulars are missing .

Ruinous to the hobby. E Caveat Emptor

Some dealers offer every stamp in ebay auctions from lots purchased at auction. It gives them a competitive advantage over ethical dealers. Every altered stamp or forgery offered as genuine adds to their bottom line, even if the hammer price is low.

I posit that the words ebay and ethical are mutually exclusive.

rog you've just insulted all of us here who sell on ebay

Please do not confuse ebay the company with individual sellers. Most ebay sellers try to do their best and provide stamps at fair prices. There are some bad apples who are protected by ebay because of the revenue they generate and some others who are clueless. What ebay fails to understand is that raising the quality of stamp offerings would increase sales and revenue. Problematic dealers also exist in the larger stamp marketplace.

My humble apologies to those honest brokers I offended. My emotions get the better of me. The Cartel and others are always in my mind when ebay is discussed and it colors my opinions. Of course their are many honest sellers.

In my opinion the tone and tenor of this community is to be extremely negative towards ebay. There is nothing balanced about the majority of opinions posted here about ebay, it is just non-productivity negativity over things that will never change. To be honest, I do not understand the point other than perhaps it is cathartic for the poster.

Few people consider that ebay income is the fuel that this community runs upon; without the ebay affiliate program I doubt the SCF would be here. I also think that history will show that ebay played an important role in helping this hobby transition to the internet age. Whether or not ebay remains in this role is certainly debatable but no one can deny that ebay has supported many hobbyists engage in the hobby more than if did not exist.

The constant negativity about ebay in this community hurts SCF and certainly is not good for those who sell on it; drawing a distinction between the venue and the sellers does not really change this. I think that having more balanced opinions and occasional recognition of the positive things that ebay has brought to the table would be a good thing.
Don

I for one still purchase a bit off of ebay and still haven't had a real bad experience. I've had a couple of items that arrived damaged to to poor packaging but the sellers were very quick to make things right and I still left positive feedback and have been a return buyer with the same sellers.

I am also in the overall Pro-eBay camp. I get frustrated with things at times but on the whole, for the average collector who also likes to turn over material I don't want, it is ideal. I live in a city with almost no Philatelic presence, I can not afford to travel for my hobby, and I cannot afford to buy (let alone have the material) to both with the big auction houses. There are bad apples everywhere and the bigger the venue, the more likely to run into them.

As a buyer on ebay, I have had almost zero problems. If I'm patient, I can always eventually find what I need and usually for a considerable bargain, at least for the low-mid end stuff. As a seller, I get the occasional "not received" claim but it's relatively infrequent and there is zero other avenues I have to move the type of material
I want to get rid of as efficiently, effectively, easily, and for a reasonable fee for what I get.

Again, there are problems and changes they make that can be annoying. I am well aware stamps are just a tiny piece of a much bigger ebay business puzzle so it comes with the territory of such a large selling platform. It's like being a kiosk that sells cell phone cases inside a massive shopping mall. My particular "needs and wants" for business are hardly the main concern of the mall owner. I will say that their customer service (IF you can find the number lol) has been more helpful late than in times past, which I appreciate. I was a bit disappointed with how they responded (or rather, didn't) to COVID, but that is overall a minor blip.

Keep another thing in mind that this hobby needs new faces and youth to be involved. I am a relatively young collector and although I started before the internet was around, it wasn't until ebay that my hobby went from amateur to more serious. This hobby has faced enormous challenges competing with many new distractions for a younger generation. Video games, internet, and social media are the new hobbies. Stamps must find ways to permeate into new generations to continue and ebay and the internet in general is a major player.

For all it's lumps, it's still a great platform overall - my 2c