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Written Proof From Ebay that it does not care about Fake Autographs!

I reported this obvious fake "Let it Be" signed album with LOA from busted "Operation Bullpen" scammer Donald Frangipani. (His LOA's are on ebay's "Banned" List).

https://www.ebay.com/itm/156139334485

Got back this response from them:

What happened:
We looked into your report and didn’t find the listing to be in violation of our policy. This determination was made by a customer service agent..

Your reference ID:
2-175810893722

Here are the listings you reported that are included in this decision:
Item: 156139334485 All 4 Beatles Autographed “Let It be” Album with Letter Of Authenticity.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by fab432 on March 28, 2024 at 8:35am

May well have been. The email they sent me indicated the item I reported was removed and perhaps it was already removed when the last person went to review it. Either way it’s gone !!!

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on March 29, 2024 at 5:41am

Agreed! Gone! :-)

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Permalink Reply by Jim Cushman on March 27, 2024 at 3:32pm

This crap has been around since the late 1990's...

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Permalink Reply by a pug called eva on March 27, 2024 at 11:03pm

Scott Paul mentioned that eBay makes as much money from the sale of fake items as they do from the sale of real ones.

That is true for a particular item but if people trusted eBay listings more I'm sure that more autographs would actually sell and for much higher prices on average. Ultimately, eBay might well gain from having a proper quality control process.

Personally, I get much more vexed about the "physical" auction houses who make no effort to verify authenticity. They really do make a lot of money when fakes are sold: 25%+ from the buyer and ca. 15% from the seller. I'm sure it is also much harder to take action against them than it is against an eBay seller, at least as a general rule.

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Permalink Reply by fab432 on March 27, 2024 at 11:27pm

I agree with all your points. If eBay was more stringent on what was allowed on their site perhaps 90% of the fake items sold on that platform would not be listed. It wasn’t always this bad. As to most of the other auction houses they will generally list any set of crap autographs and if there is a story then that is all the better. Buyer beware is an understatement!!!

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Permalink Reply by Scott Paul on March 28, 2024 at 4:20am

I agree with you 100% that if people trusted eBay listings more the sales would go up. The problem is this is a case that eBay is not even following its own banned COA/LOA list. I rather suspect their "banned" list is not enforced much. Of course, the major obstacle is eBay is such a behemoth there are a new crop of customers every year. The unscrupulous dealers when their negatives get too high merely change names. My gut instinct is eBay will be the same place next year as it is now.