An Ebay Ethical Question Regarding Forgeries

Agree with the above statements about ebay .....to me it has been a GOD sent .

I told many times on here ,how ebay clean out my closets and garage of boxes and boxes of stamps,plus getting prices I only dreamed about .




ebay has given a lot of collector the ability to upgrade their collections and expand their collection thru aggressive bidding at public auctions because they now have a away to sell off duplicate or unwanted items .

I still buy bigger lots because I know that I can sell 80% of it on ebay and still get myself additional material for my main collection plus get back the original investment . It is no fun to watch the overhead screen each day with the financial markets feeding quotes but spreading a bunch of stamps on a desk and only looking up once in a while ,making the day go by .

I'll also add a comment on a flip side to all this. I sold a set of forged stamps long ago. I did so with no knowledge they were forged and did actually put that I knew nothing about them other than selling as the previous collector labeled them. I wasn't doing it to bait buyers. I also offer returns. But it is impossible for many sellers with a wide range of material to know everything about every stamp or set. The buyer, as it turns out, was knowledgeable and told me they were forged on arrival. So I refunded. No harm or malice on my end as a seller or attempt to deceive.

Where I am going with this is not every fake stamp or incorrectly defined stamp is on purpose. Additionally, in my best attempts as a buyer and seller to excel in both areas, ebay has forced me to expand my knowledge, to join forums like this, and to research. It has inadvertently made me "better" and stronger.

Again, my 2c from my own experiences.

I never realized that ebay revenue fuels this forum. Good to know.

Thanks Don for your words. As an ebay seller who tries hard to be honest and give good service it's good to hear some positive words. ebay is a pretty unregulated marketplace so of course everything that can happen at a swap meet can happen there. There's a guy over there selling socks, VHS tapes and diamond rings. I'm sure you can get a good price. There's plenty that could be better; but, there is no way I could have the business I have without it. Sure, it could be cheaper. They could crack down better on the cartel. They could fix more bugs. I'd rather use PayPal for payments, etc. But it really is an amazing tool allowing me to show my goodies everywhere in the country and to much of the wide world if I so choose.