eBay Copyright Thieves & Crooks Named and Shamed
It's dishonest to copy photographs, and misleading to buyers.
kmay87 Using Copied Sovereign Images on eBay
eBay seller kmay87 of Lowestoft, United Kingdom, not only stole our Rare 1926 Sydney Mint sovereign reverse photograph but used it without permission to sell his own sovereign.
High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member's feedback was 60 with 97.1% positive according to eBay.
It also demonstrates that high eBay feedback is no indicator of intelligence, reading ability or honesty.
Sample Listing
1926 George V 22ct Sovereign SA
Please note, image is a stock photo, but I can provide an actual photo if asked.
8 grams 22ct 1926 George V sovereign with South Africa mint stamp.
I know very little about coins, but condition is perfect. Any further questions on this are welcomed.
No reserve. Postage includes insurance.
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 a rare mint condition 1926 Sydney Mint sovereign, he used them in his eBay auctions to try to sell his own sovereign, which he stated to be an S.A. (Pretoria Mint, South Africa).
The 1926 Pretoria Mint sovereign is common, whereas the 1926 Sydney Mint sovereign is very rare.
He also falsely stated the photograph to be a "stock photo", which it most certainly is not.
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
|
kmay87 | 230466168212 | 24th Apr 2010 | 1926 George V 22ct Sovereign SA | �0.99 / �175
|
Price
The seller was asking a starting price of �0.99, with a Buy It Now price of �175
The coin sold in 2 hours and 21 minutes on Buy It Now.
There are several things strange about this pricing. It the seller was mistaken about the mint, and his coin actually is a Sydney Mint sovereign, it is worth thousands of pounds, depending on its exact condition. A few years ago we were offering a mint condition one for �16,500!
Even if it is only an S.A. Mint, the BIN price was less than its intrinsic gold content; the seller would have to pay 10% selling fees to eBay, plus PayPal fees which could be between 2.9% and 4.9%. Taking listing fees into account the seller would receive between �150 and �152.
He could have posted it to us, and we would have paid him more, without any eBay or PayPal deductions. His only other cost would have been postage to us.
If the coin had been a Sydney Mint (S Mintmark( as shown in our photo, we would have paid thousands of pounds more.
We can think of only three possible reasons why kmay87 did not sell his coin to us:
- The sovereign is fake and the vendor knows it, in which case he is dishonest, and committing an attempted fraud.
- The sovereign is stolen, and the vendor is happy to get a quick sale with hew qustions asked, in which case he is dishonest, and committing the crime of handling stolen goods.
- The seller is stupid, and despite having visited our informative web page, has not realised we would pay more for it.
Actually, there is a fourth possibility, that the sovereign is fake and the seller does not know, in which case he is simply ignorant. We think this is the least likely scenario. All three of the others share approximately equal probability, at a guess.
If the coin is stolen, then he would be even more stupid to try to sell it to us, as we would report it to the police if we had any suspicions. Also if he sold it locally to a pawn shop or jeweller, he would be asked for ID, and as police regularly check the records of these businesses, he should get caught.
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.
Back to Information