christophero1981 Using Copied Sovereign Images on eBay
eBay seller christophero1981 of Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom, not only stole our 1899 Victoria Old Head Near Mint Condition Gold Sovereign Obverse Photograph, but failed to tell buyers his coin was not the same one.

High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member's feedback was 232 with 100% positive according to eBay.
It also demonstrates that high eBay feedback is no indicator of honesty.

Sample Listing

queen victoria sovereign
For Sale,
1898 Queen Victoria Sovereign, very good condition, made in melbourne (sic)
any questions please email me,
item will be sent special delivery

What's Wrong?
We invest a great deal of time, effort, and cost into creating some of the best photographic coin 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.
When eBay vendors use photographs of near mint condition coins, this may mislead potential buyers into believing that the coins shown are the vendors own photographs of the actual coins for sale. This may be deliberate in which case it is fraudulent, or it may be though ignorance and stupidity. It may be all these factors, and laziness also.
eBay knows it happens, but take very little action about it.

christophero1981 originally used the description as above in the sample listing. He then changed it to this:
For Sale,
1898 Queen Victoria Sovereign, very good condition, made in melbourne (sic)
any questions please email me,
PICTURE HAS BEEN REMOVED DUE TO A POSSIBLE COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT, PLEASE CHECK MY FEEDBACK FOR ALL OTHER ITEMS IN CASE OF CONCERN
Thanks Chris
item will be sent special delivery
Is he possibly suggesting that someone has stolen a picture from him? More than likely he knows that he has been caught stealing a picture from us.

Seller ID	Item Number	Date	Description	Price
christophero1981	270650615824	17th Oct 2010	queen victoria sovereign	�240

Price
The seller was asking a starting price of �240.00 for his item.
Whatever the item "sold" 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.

Fraudulent Misrepresentation
Using our images breaches our copyright.
Using them to suggest or infer that the coins in the photos are the actual coins for sale is misrepresenting them as to rarity, because of the date mintmark combinations, and as to grade, because our photos are of high quality coins in near mint condition, whereas the actual coins are extremely unlikely to be as good.
By not clearly stating that his coins are not those shown on the photos, he is committing or attempting fraud. This of course is an everyday occurrence on eBay.

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.