Question:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – There’s really an easy solution to this: ANYTHING marked "Collectible" or advertised as "Comes with a certificate of authenticity" is a scam. Which is a variation on the more general rule: Never collect anything actually sold as a "collectible". Or collect LaserDiscs – nobody’s ever bothered to counterfeit those 
I also did not read the entire OP, as it failed to establish what its objective was in the first paragraph, not to mention failing to make obvious why eBay is somehow responsible for counterfeiting of collectibles. eBay has serious fraud problems, but fixing them needs to start with laptops, digicams, LCDs and plasma TVs. The Beanie Babies can wait.
Halfway thru he finally reveals that the "copies" are war relics. Granted, they constitute a significant market but hardly the backbone of ebays business model. I think ebay banned him because he talked them almost to death.
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You don’t really expect anybody to read all that stuff do you? Sheeeesh!!
Which is exactly why ebaY and certain sellers get away with the crap they do. — Good Grief. If you’re bored, here’s your own personal 2d animator. It’s an amazing piece of work: http://www.sodaplay.com/constructor/index.htm
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There’s really an easy solution to this: ANYTHING marked "Collectible" or advertised as "Comes with a certificate of authenticity" is a scam.
You mean my copy of the report of the Ohio Electoral College of 1965, signed by LBJ, is a scam? After all, it has sort of a certificate of authenticity, in the form of a cover letter to the original elector who received it. It’s not real fancy, but it’s signed by the Secretary of State of Ohio, on official letterhead. :^) — Good Grief. If you’re bored, here’s your own personal 2d animator. It’s an amazing piece of work: http://www.sodaplay.com/constructor/index.htm
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Re: Mikey van Lauesen (real name: Michael Parks Edelstein) and his inner demons. Judging by the number of eBay IDs belonging to Mikey’s "tormentors" (see the end of original message), he has less than one-in-four-hundred chance to find a believer in his tales of horror and woe. This is hardly surprising for by now Mikey is well-known in the Internet collectors’ circles as the three L’s, i.e., the lunatic, the liar and the lout. To be honest, however, I must say that his tiresome rants, which may interest only a truly devoted psychiatrist, contain an occasional entertaining howler. Here’s an example: "…"sniping" works to the advantage of the bidder, often resulting in lower realized prices…" In my ignorance, I’ve always thought that in order to "snipe" successfully one had to overbid everybody else, but who am I to argue with Mikey the expert? "Private feedback means just that: the public can view only the feedback summary (number of positives, negatives, neutrals), not the individual feedback or who posted them. Why would a seller wish to have private feedback when the summary is posted? Simple: if his feedback contains neutrals or negatives, members cannot contact those who posted the feedback and ask for details, they must contact the person against whom the feedback was lodged and ask for his version of events. Private feedback favors the dishonest, and I am dismayed that eScam permits it." This, for a change, is quite correct; it also explains why Mikey himself made his feedback private by the end of his second appearance on eBay as uncleagent7 (you can still view his record there.) You see, ladies and gentlemen, although he professes to hate eScam, Mikey literally cannot live without it, so – after he had got banned the first time (not for posting any anti-eBay messages, as he wants you to believe, but for common auction interference and shilling), he promptly got hold of a different credit card, creatively changed his whereabouts and became a born-again eBayer. Unluckily for him, his congenital insanity led him again into swindling and abusing his buyers, and he got kicked out again. For more details about Mikey’s unsavory activities please go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/slanderwatch/ and http://pub80.ezboard.com/faustrohungarianlandforcesdiscussionforumfrm… But we wasted enough time on this ignorant and delusional clown. After all, he does not deserve even that much attention. Regards, MW
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muttered something like: Had the article started with a concise: * what this is * why you need to read it * what you need to do about it then I might have read it.
Same here. As it was, I saw almost seven hundred lines of text, and without something in the first screen to tell me why I would want to invest the time to read it, I skipped it. Nobody has time to process every last article of information they come across during a day; it’s up to the author to make it clear from the start why his audience would WANT to read his article. -Bertha — Java really is a tsunami, and the Microsoft adoption just doubled the height of the wave. What I don’t know is whether we’re on the top of the wave, getting ready for the ride of our life, or standing on the beach, saying "Wow, look at that." — Jim Waldo
Response:
Long post ignored. Dealer tells his story here…
In an article that reads like the rambing rant of a psychiatric outpatient. "Dealer" needs to learn a bit about composition, if dealer doesn’t want to be mistaken for a psychiatric outpatient. Had the article started with a concise: * what this is * why you need to read it * what you need to do about it then I might have read it. I gave up at about the point where I figured out what "eScam" was supposed to be [needlessly] a stand-in for. If someone’s already been kicked off eBay, why bother to ineptly disguise the name? The meaning of a communication is in the response that it gets. — Regards, PO Box 248 Bob Niland Enterprise which, due to spam, is: 67441-0248 email4rjn AT yahoo DOT com http://www.access-one.com/rjn Unless otherwise specifically stated, expressing personal opinions and NOT speaking for any employer, client or Internet Service Provider.
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eScam, The Internet Fraud Game: One Dealers Opinion Long post ignored. I’ll wait for the "Reader’s Digest" version.
Dealer who knows what’s going on reports fake memorabilia to ebaY, and presents his proof. EbAy ignores him, and lets the crooks keep selling stuff, in private auctions, so bidders can’t be notified by others who also recognize the scam. Dealer reports repeated threats, harassment and fraudulent bids on his own stuff, by members of the cartel selling the fakes. EbAy ignores him. Dealer tells exactly what he knows on his ME page. EbAy finally responds, by shutting down his account, so he can’t tell people they’re getting screwed, and so ebaY doesn’t lose money on the sale of the fakes. Dealer tells his story here, where he get’s the usual "it uses big words and too many of them, so I’m going to ignore his story". Then people wonder why only 18% of active users have been with ebaY more than a year, because it doesn’t take very many times of getting screwed before you stop buying on ebaY. There are none so blind as those who will not see. — Good Grief. If you’re bored, here’s your own personal 2d animator. It’s an amazing piece of work: http://www.sodaplay.com/constructor/index.htm
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Badges of Dishonor eScam, The Internet Fraud Game: One Dealers Opinion Long post ignored. I’ll wait for the "Reader’s Digest" version. jim menning The short version: Do not fuck with the Russian mafia! —
Thanks Don. Sounds like common sense to me. Too bad the original poster doesn’t understand the modern attention span. jim menning
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There’s really an easy solution to this: ANYTHING marked "Collectible" or advertised as "Comes with a certificate of authenticity" is a scam.
Which is a variation on the more general rule: Never collect anything actually sold as a "collectible". Or collect LaserDiscs – nobody’s ever bothered to counterfeit those I also did not read the entire OP, as it failed to establish what its objective was in the first paragraph, not to mention failing to make obvious why eBay is somehow responsible for counterfeiting of collectibles. eBay has serious fraud problems, but fixing them needs to start with laptops, digicams, LCDs and plasma TVs. The Beanie Babies can wait. — Regards, PO Box 248 Bob Niland Enterprise which, due to spam, is: 67441-0248 email4rjn AT yahoo DOT com http://www.access-one.com/rjn Unless otherwise specifically stated, expressing personal opinions and NOT speaking for any employer, client or Internet Service Provider.
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Badges of Dishonor eScam, The Internet Fraud Game: One Dealers Opinion <snip You don’t really expect anybody to read all that stuff do you? Sheeeesh!! — Ed Hendricks
There’s really an easy solution to this: ANYTHING marked "Collectible" or advertised as "Comes with a certificate of authenticity" is a scam. Kris
Response:
Badges of Dishonor eScam, The Internet Fraud Game: One Dealers Opinion Long post ignored. I’ll wait for the "Reader’s Digest" version. jim menning
The short version: Do not fuck with the Russian mafia! — Many thanks, Don Lancaster Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552 Please visit my GURU’s LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com
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Badges of Dishonor eScam, The Internet Fraud Game: One Dealers Opinion
Long post ignored. I’ll wait for the "Reader’s Digest" version. jim menning
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Badges of Dishonor eScam, The Internet Fraud Game: One Dealers Opinion
<snip You don’t really expect anybody to read all that stuff do you? Sheeeesh!! — Ed Hendricks ANA# R178621 eBay: edh.
Response:
Badges of Dishonor eScam, The Internet Fraud Game: One Dealers Opinion The people involved in this on line collectibles scam, for the most part are Hungarian. The main brain behind the scenes and who distributes thousands of copies a year is Peter Czink and Zoltan Korassy. The copy criminal Korassy has a PO Box in Virginia and has a storage locker filled with hundreds of bags of copies, ready to be sold to the highest bidder. He also excepts payments and other goods for his buyers in the US for sellers that sell ammo and ordnance from Holland, where it is illegal. Czink and Korassy runs a vast organization that employs hundreds of people, making and distributing copies of all manner and description. Czink the mastermind who has orchestrated, 85% of the harassment to my Internet auctions and forum activity. Some of the biggest names in Hungarian and Polish collectibles, and even well know military historians and authors are involved to include: Andris Kursietis, Peter Czink, Kris Bernarsky, Jorge Steiner, Glenn Jewison, Mariusz Wesolowski, Clive Williams, David Lazarus and Robert Rogers. Never heard of these guys, read on and learn, feel free to down load this, and circulate this information to all your friends. Complete list of user IDs who harassed me to the bottom. Don’t worry they can always get more! The Internet has become the latest in a series of fast track and highly innovative ways to buy and sell almost anything. One of the most prominent and established of these on line auctions is called eScam, which has had a significant impact on the sale of collectibles via the Internet, as they were the first to start the on line auction concept. Many on line auctions have literally opened the world to collectors and dealers, and in the process it has become a venue that some individuals love and hate in equal measure. Many would recommend Internet auctions for it’s fast service and large selection of items, seemingly a buyers paradise, that is not to say, it is not without flaws, in fact rife with fraud and deception. It is true, in my opinion, that the Internet has become a dumping ground for reproductions of all kinds, and in a disturbing number of instances it appears not to be simply a matter of a seller mistakenly offering the occasional reproduction! Some sellers appear to be making a nice living offering an endless supply of reproductions which they routinely represent, implicitly or explicitly, as original items. The reality is that you will find a similar state of affairs in all venues, some better and others much worst – other auctions, gun and militaria shows, and direct sales from dealers. eScam is not the worst of venues, it is simply the most visible, and so, too, are its flaws, as it has grown immensely, so to has it’s censorship and violations of users nominal rights, ever increasing fee schedule and decreasing, deteriorating service. An Internet Mafia The eScam Internet collectibles auctions that I have encountered are controlled by several groups that are deliberately operating to defraud the public, their premiere site is on eScam, why you may ask – it has the major buyer market share on the Internet and to the world. One American who lives in Budapest with a lengthy criminal record for fraud, is responsible for making and distributing well over 25% of the copies that are currently being sold on the Internet and other auctions today. He has orchestrated a huge on line scam, he specializes in militaria collectibles, in particular rare orders and decorations of the world. This convincing overseas con man further seems to be providing original Nazi badges, decorations, buckles, and other items and having them copied in Hungary. The copies are molded and have improper stamps or other markings, which seem to be impressed into the metal as opposed to the correct raised relief markings. The cast items lack many details, have large seams, casting marks, and cracks in the metal. They cleverly disguise some of these flaws with battery acid and other aging techniques, to create rust, tarnish, and corrosion. Other items are simply painted as opposed to the correct plating, or even plaster is applied to fill in the cracks, flaws or scratches. According to a federal law enforcement official in Budapest, the American copy king who is currently operating in Hungary was convicted of the following criminal charges in the United States, "larceny from interstate shipment, conspiracy & traffic in stolen vehicles for an interstate auto theft ring," that were spot lighted on the television program, "America’s Most Wanted." He was captured on May 31, 1994, in Royal Oak, Michigan (this means he was on the FBI’s ten most wanted list in 1994), he received a three year federal prison sentence. More trouble for the American overseas, according to the public record, he is now in violation of the National Firearms Act. The copy king was trying to send German machine gun parts to a well known militaria auction and his brothers living in Nevada in 1998. The NFA is serious business, violations of this federal act are a class "A" felony. Penalties for NFA violations: A conviction for a violation of the NFA will result in a felony conviction, punishable by up to ten years in prison, and or a $10,000 fine. According to a federal law enforcement official, at the United States Embassy in Budapest, Hungary: "the American has a lengthy list of prior arrests and that he was an experienced con man. He claims that most of the crimes that he had committed were regarding fraud and scams involving militaria, military medals, and transport of stolen cars." My source also claims that, the Hungarian National Police have already investigated the copy king, "a search warrant was obtained a while back and that he was arrested in Hungary, briefly detained, for selling and shipping military ordnance, the items in question were investigated at his home in Buda, but nothing was ever done and he was released without being charged." Tragically theirs a loop hole in Hungarian law, as long as the ammunition is inert, even though it has all the working parts, functional fuse, primer, shell and projectile are intact, it’s not illegal in to own or posses these Hungary. The provider of many of the military ordnance items that Nevada Smith sells on the Internet, are from a Dutch dealer. He supposedly sells his wares in the USA in the state of Virginia and then in the UK, he actually sells and lists his items from Holland and a colleague fronts his payments in the state of Virginia, but not actually selling items from these locations. The Dutchman actually stores ordnance items at certain drop points in Belgium and the UK, where it is legal to hold such items, he then ships the items from these locations when he receives his payments from his Virginia drop point in the USA. Protect Yourself – eScam Won’t Many who complain about the reproductions, fakes, copies and misrepresentations that appear on eScam wonder aloud, myself included, why eScam cannot better police the items offered. The reality of the matter is that proving, in a courtroom sense, that an item is a reproduction or a fake can be very difficult, and it can be expensive because it requires the services of experts (and, no doubt, the services of lawyers, given the litigiousness of the public). Whether they wish to admit it or not, collectors want to have it both ways in these matters: they want venues to add the expert staff necessary to screen a wide (huge, in the case of eScam) variety of artifacts, but they do not want the added cost of maintaining that staff passed along as commissions. My research convinced me that this seller had operated under many different Internet auction IDs, and in doing so had purchased from their own accounts and posted feedback for their transactions, even the copy kings own brother (one of three brothers that operates in this militaria, collectibles copy ring) had exchanged feedback. I sent eScam all of my evidence, but eScam said it was not conclusive enough to justify action. Shilling This copy ring is apparently making "supposedly" large profits on the Internet from this very clever and unethical scam with copies and ordnance materials, sometimes $1,000.00 or up to $4,000.00 a week on his brothers on line eScam auction site. My investigation concludes that many of these sales are spurious, as the seller loads his auctions with shills or friends and merely sells the auctioned item(s) to himself. The shilling of prices plays a very important role in the eScam selling operation. It could work one of two ways. First you bid the price up against genuine bidders to see just how far they will go. They will lose no matter what. After the auction, the seller mails the low bidders to see if they are interested in buying at his infalted price, as the top bidder, for whatever reason can not pay or complete the auction. Another tactic that is employed is to have a friend email the loser of the auction and says, "I’ve got one of those, I was watching the auction and saw the price, I’ll sell you mine for less". Also the seller gets his auction fee’s back, as the top bidder did not complete the auction. The seller gains feedback points and a high sales track record, to deceive innocent buyers into believing his inflated prices are the real thing. Second, you sell privately. You advertise for whatever item for sale and they use the old, "the last one sold on the Internet for" routine. I only want XX for mine, that way, they could sell the same item to everyone who replies. The buyers aren’t likely to get together to compare the privately offered item, no problems with the auction authorities and no recourse for the buyer, if he is dissatisfied. It’s an old con, working on someone’s greed, getting something rare and valuable for half the price. The Austro-Hungarian Connection Two advanced Hungarian collectors and one Austrian who … read more »
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