Fraudulent Ebay Sellers!

As long as ebay gets paid, what's their incentive to prevent sales of fakes?

They didn't even pull the fake platinum bar I reported, and I made so much stink on that one that it made the WSJ!

see this is exactly what I mean everyone is now stearing away from chinese sellers just because..well there from china. Its just a few that sell fakes. And I dont know to much about foreign coins but to me those look real. and they dont do what most fake sellers do wich is cahrge nothing for the product but charge over 100+ fpr shipping (no refund on shipping)I have boughten a few coins from chinese sellers that I knew were real...1000+ feedback 99% positive. shipping costs were reasonable and the coin was pre weighed and I weighed it at home as well. You just cant say chinese culture. every blog and **** is all about harming a culture/company/person/what ever. now, you cant say all 17 year old white males own 5 pairs of shoes just cause 3% do. Its just misplaced facts made by misinformed unexperinced people. And no thats not stereotyping its the truth

zohar - You might have studied Chinese culture during your spare time, but I AM Chinese...and having grown up with a deep sense of cultural history, I think that I've got a bit of an advantage on you regarding Chinese culture. As for "let's not be PC just for the sake of being PC", that wasn't my point...every article you posted pointed to specific items/events where plagiarism/theft of intellectual property was discussed. None of them made the over-stereotyping statement of "oh, it's part of Chinese culture". And if it was such an accepted part of Chinese culture, as you readily seem to think, then why is the Chinese government taking steps to stop the plagiarism? (as stated in the articles you posted). I do know that there are Chinese companies/individuals who don't respect the concept of intellectual property and who blatantly copy things, but to say that it is a cultural norm is an over-generalization.

Looking back in history, there is a plethora of ideas and technologies that have originated from China...but you don't exactly hear the Chinese complaining that "oh, the rest of the world copied us."

Alright, I'm done with this, I don't want this to become a bickering argument...I've said my peace, and we all agree that those Chinese sellers who are selling fake coins are a bad thing for our hobby, so let's just leave it at that.

I believe this to be true, and a big part of that difference is the ability to profit from it without giving due respect to the source, whether it be monetary or otherwise. I don't think copying intellectual property for the sake of profit is inherent in any particular culture. That stuff goes on worldwide. I think where the difference lies across countries/cultures is how much noise is generated to crack down on this activity!

Guys - I did not mean to offend anyone. I am working off statistics of global software piracy and other copyright violations as well as what I read about the acceptance of copies as art (in the US as an example, forgery/cheating has a very bad connotation).

A high concentration of software piracy exists in China (this is fact) and therefore the claim that it may be the driver for coin forgery on ebay from China. As many cultures change with the times and economic activity/regulation, I am sure this one will.

Appreciate it and again, just pointing out another concern re ebay buying.

I'm so glad that you all got this worked out so civilly. That's one of the great things about CCF!

I would like to chime in with an opinion, though. From what I have seen, the problem seems to be that only the bad guys are getting the press. This makes the fake coin problem appear to be much larger than it is. As I understand it, the Chinese government views the copies to be "art" and, as such, not a counterfeit violation.

However, no matter what country you reside in, misrepresenting an item as genuine when it is not, is still unethical and wrong. And it's not just Chinese sellers that are selling these. Many are being sold by unscrupulous US sellers who purchase them cheap from non-US sellers and then sell them as genuine. Let's all remember the seller in Savannah, Georgia who sold thousands of these fakes.

This is definitely a very real problem. ebay is taking more of a stand on the US site, but there really needs to be more regulation on the sites for other countries. Part of the problem is that ebay doesn't have experts on staff that are able to identify these fakes accurately, and they are timid about accepting the word of someone who reports an auction.

ebay definitely has its problems; but let's face it, numismatics is a very specialized field of expertise and most people are simply not able to grasp the subtleties of the hobby. ebay is attempting to remove the bad sellers in other ways; and I certainly hope it works.