[meteorite-list] eBay and bogus meteorites

[Michael Gilmer]

Hi Bob and All!

I am going to speculate a bit here about why eBay does
not crack down on sellers like this.

Over the past year, I have run across several auctions
on eBay that had obvious problems.  This was before
I started collecting meteorites, and the auctions in
question were for telescopes and eyepieces.  Either
the telescope was a reproduction being passed off as
a genuine antique, or it was other issues such as
the seller misrepresenting the location of the item.

When I filed a complaints with eBay, I
received a typical "form letter" type of response and
no action was taken against the sellers.  In some
cases, an obvious fraud auction was pulled, but the
sellers were not punished in any noticeable way.

One seller of green laser pointers was claiming to 
have the pointers in stock here in the US, but they
were actually shipped directly from the overseas
manufacturer.  Numerous other buyers had complained
about this seller and left neutral or negative
feedbacks saying as much.  But yet this seller was
not banned or suspended and continues to sell 
misrepresented laser pointers.  And to top it off,
this particular seller is an eBay Power Seller.  

Here is what I think is going on :

eBay is struggling with it's slowing growth and there
has been a drop in new listings and overall revenue
for the site.  eBay's stock has also dropped and
their earning reports are not great either.  I think
eBay is getting a little greedy or desperate for
revenue, so they are letting a lot of stuff like this
slide by - especially from Power Sellers which are
eBay's bread and butter.  By banning these sellers,
eBay will be losing a lot money in the way of fees.

Unless a seller is doing something that is blatantly
illegal and could get eBay into hot water, the powers
that be are going to look the other way with
this stuff.

That's just my pet theory anyway.

Until eBay gets serious with enforcing it's own rules,
then I am only going to purchase specimens from IMCA
members, members of this list, or sellers that I am
personally acquainted with.

Regards,

Mike in Louisiana



---------------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2008 00:14:42 -0700
From: "Bob Loeffler" <bobl at peaktopeak.com>
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Meteorite-list Digest,
Vol 52, Issue 9
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Message-ID:
<20080206071320.48AA010617 at mailwash5.pair.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

And notice that he spells "meteorite", "origin" and
"weight" wrong on
 the
certificate!  And what does the "specimen weight"
mean?  Is that the
specimen that is being sold?  Obviously not 1655
grams!  Or is that the
 TKW?
Or is that the size of the specimen that was tested
before they sliced
 off
this specimen?  It's amazing that fraud can
proliferate like this
 without
someone throwing them in jail.  I wish eBay could
crack down on people
 like
this (no jail time, but boot them off of eBay).  Even
if this guy was
innocent and was sold the specimen and COA by someone
else, he should
 still
be reprimanded because he obviously doesn't have a
reputable source and
doesn't care.

Regards,

Bob


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