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Posted By: davidcycleback

When the bidders names are hidden, you can't know what was the sell price on these kinds of items. Someone who would sell a fake with deceptive description could also be a shiller. In fact, with hidden ids and dubious prices, you can't be sure there was a single legitimate bid.

Often in shilled auctions, the seller (or friend) is the winner, as he or she was busing trying to rise the win price. Thus, in a shilled auction, there may not be a real, outside person who won the lot. The pricing and bids may say one thing, but the item actually went unsold.

Prior to eBay making all bidder ids, private auctions (with ids hidden) was considered by many to be a haven for shill bidding-- as it prevented outsiders from seeing who was doing the bidding. Many bidders followed the rule to avoid private auctions, as it indicated, or at least suggested, that the seller had something to hide-- in particular considering 99+ percent of eBay auctions were not private. Prior to eBay making all auctions private, the experienced eBayer would simply ignore the pricing on private auctions, as there was no way to know that bidding was legitimate. The bidding information was literally and purposefully hidden from view.

So I would question the assumption that reproductions are selling for good money, as eBay doesn't provide reliable information, in particular when talking about the pricing for intentionally deceptive auctions. However, I have no doubt that there are suckers out there who fall for what we would consider obvious scams.

The best thing you can do is to be good and honest seller, and give your customers authentic items. If someone bypasses your good and honest auctions and purchase from known scammers, there's nothing you can do about it.

It should be noted that many people who buy from scammers are trying to get "steals" ("All the other Ty Cobbs are going for $1000, but this one is only $199.") or are even thinking they are pulling a fast one on an ignorant seller (scammers often feign ignorance). Many of the scammed are actually acting unethically (at least to a degree), but are too ignorant for it to work out in their favor. Many simply let greed get in the way of common sense.

I've had complete newbies read the articles on my website and ask me for further advice before they buy their first grade Gd T206 common, and I've had people ignore my advice that they are buying an obviously fake T206 Ty Cobb tobacco card. There's nothing you can do about the latter-- they won't listen to you and are only going to learn from their own mistakes. Considering I've had a retired grandmother email for advice about buying baseball cards for her grandson's birthday and a 7 year old girl in Australia email me to help identify an antique photo she found, I don't spend my time worrying about the idiot on eBay trying to "score steals." If a 7 year old girl can do her homework, anyone can.

Besides for the real collector, the one actually interested in the material, doing the homework (otherwise known as "learning about the material") is half the fun of collecting. Someone who doesn't want to do the homework is likely in it simply for the money. The irony being that not doing homework is the best predictor that someone will lose money.