Deceptive eBay Listing? Or Not??
Nick Knight
Check out this listing:
BOHEMIAN SILVER MEDAL OR THALER -1520 SOLD AS IS
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350327534577
I have a couple of there as restrikes. However, someone who doesn't know
any better might not notice the restrike date at 5:00 on the obverse. Makes
this worth $10-20, not even that much to someone who has a couple :). It's
also pretty worn-looking for a non-circulating piece.
"I don't know when it was made". Well, they didn't stamp 1967 on it way
back in the 1500's!
Nick
Mr. Jaggers
What we have in this auction listing is a practice known as "leading the
witness."
James the Juror
Bruce Remick
"Nick Knight" <bhnc...@mr2ice.com> wrote in message
news:4b9aec70$1$avpx$mr2...@news.east.cox.net...
I agree. It's a deceptive listing. You would think that a seller with over
500 active world coin listings would have the resources or contacts to get a
better handle on what this is. If I came into something that interesting
with a claim to be almost 500 years old, I wouldn't be letting it go without
first determining exactly what I had. If it were indeed a 1520 piece in
that condition, I doubt I would be starting it on eBay at $50 bucks and a
shrug.
Cato
"Mr. Jaggers" <lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com> wrote in message
news:hneqp...@enews6.newsguy.com...
Note that the seller is in Israel, so what can you expect from a Jew?
Cato
"Mr. Jaggers" <lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com> wrote in message
news:hneqp...@enews6.newsguy.com...
Note that the seller is in Israel, so what can you expect from a Jew?
Peter
>
> - Show quoted text -
Note that he also seems to have revised the listing, on his own;
perhaps it was a mistake.
Relayer
>
> I have a couple of there as restrikes. �However, someone who doesn't know
> any better might not notice the restrike date at 5:00 on the obverse. �Makes
> this worth $10-20, not even that much to someone who has a couple :). �It's
> also pretty worn-looking for a non-circulating piece.
>
> "I don't know when it was made". �Well, they didn't stamp 1967 on it way
> back in the 1500's!
>
> Nick
As he said in the description "probably copy" so I don't think it's
misleading. Copy, replica, etc should be listed only in the replica
category but some people don't understand that. I've learned to read
the listing, looking for the above and for "cleaned" anywhere, I got
burned once and that was it. It was a cleaned coin, graded, but he
didn't mention it and I didn't look that closely at the picture. If I
had enlarged it, I would have seen it was cleaned because NGC clearly
said it. I examine all things about the listing before I bid on
something.
Nick Knight
03/13/2010
>> Check out this listing:
>>
>> BOHEMIAN SILVER MEDAL OR THALER -1520 SOLD AS IShttp://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350327534577
>>
>> I have a couple of there as restrikes. However, someone who doesn't know
>> any better might not notice the restrike date at 5:00 on the obverse. Makes
>> this worth $10-20, not even that much to someone who has a couple :). It's
>> also pretty worn-looking for a non-circulating piece.
>>
>> "I don't know when it was made". Well, they didn't stamp 1967 on it way
>> back in the 1500's!
>As he said in the description "probably copy" so I don't think it's
>misleading. Copy, replica, etc should be listed only in the replica
>category but some people don't understand that. I've learned to read the
>listing, looking for the above and for "cleaned" anywhere, I got burned
>once and that was it. It was a cleaned coin, graded, but he didn't mention
>it and I didn't look that closely at the picture. If I had enlarged it, I
>would have seen it was cleaned because NGC clearly said it. I examine all
>things about the listing before I bid on something.
The "probably copy" reference with restrike date was added after-the-fact.
It was not in the listing when I originally posted it. The original text
allowed one to optimistically believe it was the real thing.
Before I posted here, I reported it to eBay as being deceptive, leaving it
up to them. Why the seller changed his text is an unknown. Perhaps someone
wrote him directly; I've found that to be effective only about 10% of the
time. Perhaps eBay informed him of complaints? Not sure they do that, but
I did point to the 1967 stamp in my report. Perhaps some from here wrote
him? Or, maybe there's a extremelly remote chance that he saw my post here.
Whatever the case, the listing is now much more realistic, except for the
seller's starting bid. However, if someone decides to read his text as it
exists now, and still pay $50 for it, that's their problem.
Nick
B.J.
>
> Perhaps someone
> wrote him directly; I've found that to be effective only about 10% of the
> time.
I've had much better luck -- over a third of the times I report errors
the auction gets modified. It might be much higher -- I usually don't
go back to visit the auctions again.
The typical scenario -- an eBay search, manual or saved, returns an
auction for a coin I'm interested in. I view the auction only to find
the seller didn't realize the II was a number, so the coin is actually
2 Mariengroschen (a type I already have) instead of 1 Mariengroschen.
I alert the seller and receive a "thank you" message, but I never
visit the auction again since I don't care about the coin.
Many days the number of error reports I make is higher than the number
of bids I make.
My better response from sellers might be due to the price range -- I
typically look at less expensive coins, below the range a scammer
would target.
Mr. Jaggers
I find that sellers normally are much more receptive to my pointing out of
typos or honest misattribution than they are to things that smack of an
accusation.
James the Diplomat
Relayer
> In <04dbf380-322e-46d3-a89e-f8bb449d3...@q15g2000yqj.googlegroups.com>, on
> 03/13/2010
>
> - Show quoted text -
Then it was a total deception. I would be suspect if only because of
the condition. Ebay should cancel all pre-exisitng bids automatically.
Nick Knight
03/15/2010
>> Whatever the case, the listing is now much more realistic, except for the
>> seller's starting bid. However, if someone decides to read his text as it
>> exists now, and still pay $50 for it, that's their problem.
>Then it was a total deception. I would be suspect if only because of the
>condition. Ebay should cancel all pre-exisitng bids automatically.
I felt a little bad, as even after he fixed the listing, it disappeared.
Apparently eBay pulled it. He's listed it again, with the improved title
and description.
There were no previous bids, tho, as at a $49 start, nobody had chosen to
bid. There is SOME sanity on eBay!
Nick