hoocked Using Copied Sovereign Images on eBay
eBay seller hoocked of Sunderland, United Kingdom, not only stole our 1909 Edward VII Gold Sovereign images without permission, but told buyers his coin was in excellent condition

High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member's feedback was 673; with 100% positive according to eBay.
It also demonstrates that high eBay feedback is no indicator of intelligence or reading ability.

Sample Listing

Gold Sovereign - Edward VII 1909 excellent condition
Gold Sovereign - Edward VII
1909
excellent condition
Not sure if this is 9ct or 18 ct
the pictures shown are taken from the web, but i can assure the winning bidder this 1909 sovereign is in excellent condition.
i have tried to take pics but cannot get a good quality pic using the camera i use.
any questions please email.
postage will be with royal mail sent first class & recorded delivery costing �2.95
i never charge over rated posting costs.
good bidding and good luck to all.
please note oversea bidders i will post to your country but please email me for postage costs before 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.
This particular eBay seller only our very high quality images of a 1909 Edward VII Sydney Mint Gold Sovereign, he used them to try to sell his own sovereign as being in "excellent condition". Anyone viewing the photographs would expect this, as the coin we chose was probably the best coin from thousands, even before we "airbrushed" it to make it look like a supermodel.
Granted he did mention to potential buyers that the photographs were not his own photographs, but were "taken from the web" (so that's alright then?)
It appears to happen on a daily basis on eBay.

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.

Can't Read?
This particular eBay idiot managed to find our pictures, and successfully copied them into his eBay listing, but didn't think to give us a mention, or to read the page where he found the photographs. How do we know?:-
"Not sure if this is 9ct or 18 ct" - If he read our pages, he would know that sovereigns are 22ct gold, unless he means the coin is in a ring or other jewellery mount which might only be 9ct gold. Who knows? If he had shown his own photo, buyers could have worked some of this out for themselves.

The Misleading Bastard?
We have just notice that, although the item title and description clearly state "sovereign", it is listed under half sovereigns, and the "Item Specifics" also states "half sovereign", but we, like probably most buyers, read the title and the description, and presumed they were correct. Why did the lazy bastard not state half sovereign in the title and description? He was probably hoping the buyers would be stupid enough to trust his description.
We reckon that just makes him yet another typical eBayer.
As his photographs were of a (full) sovereign, not a half soveriegn, we believe buyers would be entitled to receive a sovereign and not a half sovereign.

Seller ID	Item Number	Date	Description	Price
hoocked	270461763496	30th Sep 2009	Gold Sovereign - Edward VII 1909 excellent condition	�0.99

Price
The seller was asking a starting price of �0.99 for his coin.
If the sovereign was as shown in the photographs, it would be one of the world's rarest ever coins, worth many thousands of pounds.
A 1909 Sydney Mint sovereign would be unique if found, it is so far unknown. As his photographs When he does sell it, after eBay's greedy 10% selling fees, and possible PayPal charges, the idiot may have been much better off selling the coin to us, instead of stealing our photographs.
If he does sell it, he should invest the proceeds in a new pair of spectacles, or cut down on the alcohol.

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
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