bec02101978 Using Copied Sovereign Images on eBay
eBay seller bec02101978 of Durham, United Kingdom, not only stole our 1959 sovereign obverse & reverse images without permission, but tried to tell buyers his coin was in top condition.

High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member's feedback was 19; with 100% positive according to eBay.
It also demonstrates that high eBay feedback is no indicator of honesty.

Sample Listing

Half sovereign gold coin 1968
I have for sale a half sovereign gold coin dated 1968. It has been sat (sic) in a plastic wallet within my jewellery box for the last 25 yrs so is of an excellent condition.
On 02-Jun-10 at 08:02:24 BST, seller added the following information:
MISTAKE MADE ON LISTING - This is a full sovereign gold coin

What's Wrong?
We invest a great deal of time, effort, and cost into creating some of the best photographic coin and gold bar images on the internet. We strongly object when lazy and dishonest people decide to use them without a by your leave or thanks, doing so in competition with us.
Copyright theft is dishonest. We recommend you avoid doing business with dishonest dealers.
The ignoramus also thought it was a half sovereign. These do not exist for 1968, as he would have discovered if he had read our 1968 half sovereigns page (try Googling it). From there, it would have been a simple step for even a dolt to work out that the coin in his or her possession was in fact a sovereign.

It is always possible, even likely, that sellers who steal photographs do not own a similar coin, and have the intention to totally defraud potential buyers.
The vendor is not only cheating us by stealing our copyright images, he is fraudulently or ignorantly misleading and deceiving all potential buyers. Gaining pecuniary advantage by deception is the definition of fraud.

Seller ID	Item Number	Date	Description	Price
bec02101978	200478899329	31st May 2010	Half sovereign gold coin 1968	£50

Price
The seller was asking a starting price of £50 for this listing.
Whatever the items "sell" for, after eBay's greedy 10% selling fees, and possible PayPal charges, the crook may have been much better off selling the coins to us, instead of stealing our photographs.

eBay Guilty of Negligence or Complicity
We will be reporting this example of copyright abuse using our standard Statutory Declaration via the eBay VeRO programme, and wait to see if they chose to action or ignore our report. We look forward to taking legal action against eBay for their negligence and / or complicity if they fail to take down the offending material promptly.

Selling Gold Sovereigns & Other Coins on eBay
We point out that sellers may often get more money, for less effort, by selling to a specialised dealer, such as us, rather than via eBay.

Copyright Notice
Please see our "Copyright" page for further information.