Beware Alibaba.com

Grossly disgustingly disgusting.

ebay officially bans counterfeits. Alibaba does not. How good ebay actually is in getting rid of counterfeits posted on their site is another question, but the fact that ebay has such rules in place forces the counterfeiters-in-bulk to find alternative marketplaces - marketplaces like Alibaba.

It has been forum policy, for several months now, that links to Alibaba sales are not allowed on this forum. If you wish to show examples of fakes being sold on Alibaba, please steal the pictures and upload them here instead of posting a link directly to the counterfeiter's auctions. They don't need any more publicity than they already have.

I have stopped buying bullion altogether. I moved into non common, non key date 90%. Most know the Chinese copy key date stuff, and bullion, but when I found "1964 Washington quarter DOLLARS" 100 for $150 on Aliexpress, I got rid of all my '64 quarters except proofs, and uncirculated. Hopefully keeping mix '40-'50's will maintain providence.


Touching on the subject BStrauss3 mentioned, I have reported counterfeit coins on ebay, but the powers that be seem to prefer money than sticking to their own rules.

Jr, you vastly underestimate the interest & resources of the USSS in fighting counterfeits. At coin club last winter a local PD detective told us that unless it's massive (i.e. the LOL and LOM they found with STACKS of counterfeit 20$ around the fireplace), USSS and/or the AUSA turn it back to local law enforcement.

IMO, ultimately nobody actually "gets away" with anything. We eventually reap what we sow. Buyer Beware is the best suggestion. They say, "Oh, you mean that I can't trust people?" Since when have I actually been able to "trust" someone (especially a sranger) in a business deal?

None of this is really news; we've been linking ebay counterfeit auctions to Alibaba offerings for years. The new part is that ebay has abdicated acting on counterfeits, and the NYSE is joining them in endorsing Alibaba's practices.

Me? I'm done with ebay. No mas. 16 years as a seller, all done.

The problem with ebay is their management of the site. ebay has made it a policy to seek as much money as they can. They rush to the quick-buck and don't want to invest in integrity. Their business model is to place all of the risk on sellers. Their policies are pro-buyer (not a bad thing), but they provide very little support to buyers. I suppose they figure that buyers don't have a lot of other choices and they'll be more to follow the ones that leave...

You seem to forget, ebay is a publically traded company. As such, you as a seller and I as a buyer are way down the list. ebay's first responsibility is to the shareholders who demand increasing share prices and/or dividends (i.e. a return on their investment). For that to happen, ebay's income and profits must increase. That requires either higher fees or more transactions on the site OR lowering costs.

People to review complaints are expensive. Once written, software works essentially for free. But software can't look at a picture and say, 'hey that coin is wrong'. It can scan for prohibited words (but only to the extent programmed). I can't be sure this is what happens, but it certainly matches what we've observed recently at ebay.

BTW, if you are ranting about the B2B site Alibaba.com, don't forget AliExpress.com which is the sister site devoted to B2C sales. On one site you buy 50 pieces of Morgan dollar replicas for $105 w/ free shipping. On the other, one piece...