Posted By:
FrankI agree with you completely. It is not a good idea to put an item out for auction with such a degree of uncertainty about what it really is.
Actually, when I wrote the ad a week ago I kind of realized this and started making inquiries as to what the Old Judge item I had really was. I did this not only because I felt uncomfortable with the confusion in the ad but also (and really more importantly to me) to determine if what I had was really authentic - in which case ebay would probably not be the venue to realize it's actual worth.
Had no one responded I probably would have (knowingly) run the auction as originally written. As it turns out, though, a lot of folks were very helpful and in their opinion the item is not authentic.
At that point I decided not to list the auction but, as I've stated above, through a mix-up the original auction listing was posted last night.
This may seem like much ado about nothing but there are some lessons to be learned, not the least of which is how one's reputation (for what it's worth) can be injured through a stupid mistake.