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Does eBay REALLY guarantee the authenticity of all items sold on its site?

I just saw a TV ad proudly proclaiming that eBay guarantees the authenticity of the products sold on its site. Then, how do they explain the blatant forgeries that daily pollute their site?

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Permalink Reply by Findbooks on December 27, 2022 at 3:43am

In the early noughties, I was so incensed with the blatantly and transparently fraudulent activities of a lot of sellers that I actually changed my user-name to FAKE-SIGNATURE-SPOTTER and would bid on/buy items I knew to be forgeries. In those days the name of the leading bidder would be displayed on the item for all to see - I believe "private auctions" may not have been in use then but I may be remembering that wrongly.

I got kicked-off eventually, of course, but I hope I may have alerted at least a handful of buyers. I remember a couple of sympathetic emails from ebay customer service but they didn't really want to know.

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Permalink Reply by Eddy on December 26, 2022 at 7:46am

It puzzles me to no end how some who deal pretty well mostly in blatant forgeries can have stellar feedback.....often 100% over hundreds or thousands of transactions.

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Permalink Reply by Findbooks on December 27, 2022 at 4:00am

It's simple - the blind leading the blind.

You see a seller with 50 or 5000 positive feedbacks and no negatives relating to quality of product and you immediately "trust" that seller. And if you are satisfied with what you buy from them, you will go back.

Autographs are usually much less expensive than many other collectibles and more easily available and so - it seems - people are less discerning about what they buy.

I see quite large collections gathered over many years with much ebay-like material in them where you think, how has this person's knowledge and expertise not improved over the years? The only answer I can come up with is that they have a tick-box approach to what they are doing.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on January 4, 2023 at 11:16am

How do eBay fake sellers have 100% feedback?

The unknowing or naïve "bargain hunters" who buy from them don't get second opinions or authentication from credible sources. Bear in mind, savvy collectors are typically not the ones buying from junk sellers.
In the rare case when a buyer does raise an issue, "smart" fake sellers immediate issue a refund no questions asked. The buyer is so happy to get their money back, they don't leave negative feedback.
High volume sellers can easily get negative feedback removed... they just call their eBay rep and it's taken care of.

In other words, eBay feedback only means someone received an item in a timely manner. It has ZERO value in assessing the authenticity of a seller's material. The most nefarious forgery mills on eBay have thousands of positive feedbacks.

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Permalink Reply by John Smith on January 4, 2023 at 11:42am

I was such a buyer until very recently. I never put much faith in Ebay's verification system and such. I did, however, expect a COA to hold the seller to some level of some responsibility, but a COA is inherently just an opinion which allows them to pass off forgeries with impunity. It doesn't matter how many complaints they might have against them, the authorities won't do anything. The only exception is with Suresh John Ross, the founder of Soccer Signings Australia, who's committed national-level fraud.

Others will even come up with elaborate stories to deceive you. With my most recent purchase (before I wised up), the buyer provided me with his real estate website and proved to me that one of his colleagues did in fact get a set of autographs from some members of a local team.

The pictures checked out, but that only meant they obtained at least one set of autographs, ultimately, a buyer can never be sure how many others, if any, are genuine. I'm no expert on calligraphy, but even I could tell something was off, and PSA and Beckett confirmed that the items weren't genuine.

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Permalink Reply by John Smith on December 26, 2022 at 8:29pm

As overpriced as Beckett, James Spence, and PSA might be, they are your safest bets outside of actually getting the autographs in-person. If you stick to those, you should be fine. Anybody else, I advise you do your research on them. And if they don't show up anywhere, hard pass. Other options would be to purchase directly from the memorabilia store of the actual sport club, or going to Fanatics, Steiner, Fanatics if you're interested in sports in particular.

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Permalink Reply by meggs on December 30, 2022 at 11:25am

Agree with that John, with the proviso that even the safest bet services do occasionally make mistakes. Especially with secretarial items that were authenticated before sharp eyed sleuths in the autograph community came up with evidence they were indeed secretarial. And from what I've seen, I'd only put JSA and PSA in the safest bet group.