metroid-3 Using Copied Sovereign Images on eBay
eBay seller metroid-3 of Waterlooville, Hampshire, United Kingdom, not only stole our Uncirculated 1895 Victoria Old Head Sovereign Reverse image without permission, but failed to tell buyers his coin was not the same coin.

High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member's feedback was 81; with 100% positive according to eBay.
It also demonstrates that high eBay feedback is no indicator of honesty.

Sample Listing

1895 Gold Sovereign Good Condition
Hi you are bidding on a victoria (sic) 1895 sovereign coin , dont (sic) know much about it
no returns
Happy Bidding

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.

Seller ID	Item Number	Date	Description	Price
metroid-3	70525388992	10th Aug 2010	1895 Gold Sovereign Good Condition	�0.99
metroid-3	170525389334	10th Aug 2010	1917 Gold Sovereign Good Condition	�0.99

Price
The seller was asking a starting price of �0.99 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.

Going, Going, Gone!
While we were writing this page, the listing was ended by the seller, presumably as a result of a fraud alert. Using our photo of a high quality coin without warning potentially deceives all potential buyers, who may pay more than they would have paid for a coin in its actual grade, which would almost certainly be lower than ours.
If our guess is correct, it is more thanks to the efforts of a small number of interested and energetic unpaid anti-forgery and anti-fraud campaigners than to eBay.

History of Copyright Abuse
When we looke at metroid-3's recently finished items, we could see he had a previous listing using a familiar 1895 photograph, form an Austalian dealer if we remember correctly. We guess this had been challenged, and he had decided to end the listing, and repeat it with a photograph stolen from elsewhere (ours).
He also listed a 1917 sovereign at the same time, again using our photos.

Relisted Two Coins
He then seems to have ended both listings, and replaced them with one listing for both items, which apparently sold for �189.99 the pair, and he would have paid between �20 and �30 in eBay fees, netting about �160 to �170. We would have paid him about �350 for the pair, without any deductions. His only cost would have been sending us the coins by insured mail (about �6).
What an idiot! What an eBayer!

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.