ninniepop1 Using Copied Sovereign Images on eBay
eBay seller ninniepop1 of Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, United Kingdom, not only stole our 1898 Melbourne Mint Sovereign Photographs without permission to sell his sovereigns, but stated that the photos were of his actual coins, thereby deceiving all potential buyers.

High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member's feedback was 53; with 100% positive according to eBay.
It also demonstrates that high eBay feedback is no indicator of intelligence, reading ability or honesty.

Sample Listing

1898 Gold Whole Sovereign Queen Victoria Coin
The Coin Shows Great Detail With The St George Emblem To The Obverse
Queen Victoria To The Reverse
Dated 1898
Perfect Collectors Piece
22CT GOLD 1898 QUEEN VICTORIA FULL SOVEREIGN COIN

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.
This particular eBay seller not only stole our high quality images of both sides of a 1898 Melbourne Mint gold sovereign, he used them in his eBay auctions to try to sell his own sovereign without saying it was not the same coin. Anyone viewing the photographs would expect them to be the same, near perfect condition coin, "airbrushed" to make them look like supermodels.
In addition, this stupid ignorant crook stated "The Coin Shows Great Detail" and ... "Perfect Collectors Piece", which would lead any normal person into thinking that the photographs shown were the vendor's own photos of the actual coin he was selling.
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.

Fraud Alert
We were alerted to this particular auction by one of the few eBay members who are not only honest, but care enough to be proactive in trying to prevent fraud. He regularly e-mails us whenever he spots our photo being used.
By the time we saw the listing, the two main photo had been changed, as our contact had alerted the vendor. The gallery image was still ours though, and several days later, the same image appeared on our "My eBay" page under "My Recent Activity - Viewed Items", so we felt fully justified in reporting it to eBay.
The link to the item was "http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=320505582485&Category=98774", and the image name was "3205055824856464.jpg".

Seller ID	Item Number	Date	Description	Price
ninniepop1	320505582485	23rd Mar 2010	1898 Gold Whole Sovereign Queen Victoria Coin	£99

Price
The seller was asking a starting price of �99.

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.