Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Thoughts for E-Bay repops

I thought a member on here had a friend with connections to E-bay as I had a crazy idea that maybe we could get them to work with us on educating Buyers.

My idea is that E-bay install a reproduction gallery to show the repops vs real for the buyers to look themselves.

I know it's a crazy idea but at least it would give us a piece of mind that they are trying to help be honest with their buyers. I know we can't fix stupid but it would sure feel better if they gave their buyers a chance to compare items and learn at the same time.

I know I get sick or reporting items that still get sold for big $$$$

What do you guys think and is their anyone on here who knows a way to get ahold of someone at E-bay who might work with us?

It would be great...That's why ebay probably wont ever do it...I report and report and report somemore...but its never ending... Yeah I was wondering about this ebay connection guy also. Brian

You can sell all the fake signs you want on there....But never put on a WW2 German item with a swastika its pulled so fast its like Blitzkrieg.

I couldn't be more with you Mike on this. But remember the bad guys who make the repops will be looking at the pictures too.

The problem is that working with eBay doesn't seem to work. Maybe working against them , so to speak, would be more effective. So if you know a media person who would be interested in a business story on eBay's failings then that might inform the public as well get eBay's notice and induce/entice change.

or a BB-gun

I'm with Fred. Public opinion is the only thing that would make e-Bay shun Profits.

E-Bay has a vested interest in generating profit...no vested interest in protecting people from themselves.

This is not an eBay problem; it's a societal problem. The sellers who represent fake signs as originals are crooks. Why should eBay be responsible for educating buyers in order to keep from being taken by a crook?

Look at it this way. Let's say I list my house for sale with a realtor. And let's say that I fail to disclose that the roof was leaking. Should the selling realtor be responsible for educating buyers on what to look for when buying a home? Should the realtor spend its own money to develop a website that educates buyers on how to identify problems with a home? Of course not. The buyer needs to do his due diligence in order to make an informed and responsible purchase.

The realtor simply brings buyers and sellers together. eBay is no different.

If the realtor continually sells houses with leaking roofs he will lose his license; that I can guarantee.

Your argument is flawed at so many levels that I won't get into it...simply because if you don't get it...nothing I can type that will make you smarter.

Here's a different approach being taken by someone who has had enough.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Texaco-Gulf-Shel...E-/251654191227

Reproductions are one thing but what do you have in mind for the fantasy items? You cannot picture originals that never existed.

Dave, this guy is a friend of mine. Bryan Backus. We discussed this idea a couple weeks ago and I have mentioned it before on this site. I was afraid to do it thinking ebay might end up taking my selling priveladges away. I can't believe he did it. That's awesome.

That seller from Germany actually pulled all his listings from ebay. So it must have worked. At least temporarily.

Ebay makes money from people selling repops, fakes, and fantasy items.

And....think about all the other area of collectables outside of what we collect that are likely experiencing the same problems.

I really don't think ebay cares about anything other than the bottom line.

I was on hold with ebay yesterday for 2 hours taking care of an exceedingly minor problem. If they cant handle basic customer service I dont see them helping to police reproductions versus real items. It be a nightmare for them, determing what was real and what was fake, i see why they would want to shy away from it. I dont see why they cant, however, suspend peoples accounts that have numerous complaints against them. The feedback system should take care of it one would think, but apparantly not!