smitho40 Using Copied Sovereign Images on eBay
eBay seller smitho40 not only stole our 1897 gold sovereign obverse & reverse images without permission, and then claimed that his coin was better than the one in the photographs, as his was in mint condition. What an ignoramus!

Item Location Withheld
Most eBay sellers so state their county or home town. This makes it easier for local bidders to arrange collection, and helps to create confidence. When we see "withheld", it makes us suspicious. Are the vendor's goods stolen? Has he got a record of some kind? What is he trying to hide?

High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member's feedback was 331; with 100% positive according to eBay.

Sample Listing

1897 QUEEN VICTORIA OLD FULL 22 CARAT GOLD SOVEREIGN 8g
SPECIAL COIN FROM LIMITED MINTING YEAR 1893 - 1901
THIS QUEEN VICTORIA OLD HEAD SOVEREIGN COIN IS IN ABSOLUTE MINT CONDITION, IT WAS A GIFT TO MY SON FROM HIS GRANDAD AND NOW HE WANTS TO SELL IT TO BUY GAMES FOR HIS XBOX, FULL DESCRIPTION BELOW COIN WILL BE IN A BLUE BOX NOT SHOWN ON PHOTO.
THE PICTURE IS NOT OF THE COIN I AM SELLING, MY COIN LOOKS MUCH BETTER BUT MY CAMERA IS NOT WORKING AT THE MOMENT SO I HAVE JUST COPIED 1 THAT IS IDENTICAL TO IT, I WILL REIMBERSE (sic) IF NOT TOTALLY SATISFIED BUT I CAN ASSURE U (sic) IT IS IN ABSOLUTE PERFECT CONIDITION (sic) AS MY EX FATHER IN LAW LOOKED AFTER ALL OF HIS COINS VERY CAREFULLY
METAL : 22 CARAT GOLD
WEIGHT : 8g
DIAMETER : 22.5 cm
MINTING YEAR : 1893 - 1901
OBVERSE : QUEEN VICTORIA OLD HEAD
REVERSE : GEORGE AND THE DRAGON
I WILL BE POSTING BY ROYAL MAIL SPECIAL DELIVERY ONLY,

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 images, he has almost certainly deluded himself that his coin is in better condition than the one in our photograph. It's as likely that his wife looks better than Laetitia Casta, Elle MacPherson, or Heidi Klum. She's probably a total dog!
Having convinced himself, he then goes on to try to convince possible buyers (after all, there is one mug born every minute)
We can tell you that the sovereign we photographed was the best out of tens of thousands of sovereigns. We use skills, experience and techniques which have taken us many years to acquire and hone, to take some of the best coin photographs anywhere, and then some eBay prat tells us that not only is his coin better than ours, but that the air-brushing job we did on our images has failed to make our coin look better than the real thing. It's insulting, and we feel offended.
He does at least admit that his camera "is not working at the moment", although in reality, he is probably so stupid that he does not realise why it will not focus closely enough.
We get this about once each week.

Price
If the coin was as good as he believes, we would have happily paid him more than he got for it, as old sovereigns in Uncirculated grade without bag-marks, are much rarer than most people realise.
Even it it had been a dog, we would have paid him about £130 for it, and he could have saved the effort, and the eBay fees.
A better use for the money would have been to buy a dictionary, or a new computer keyboard, as his seems to have got the shift-lock jammed on, like Archy the cockroach (now there's a good analogy!).

Seller ID	Item Number	Date	Description	Price
smitho40	120447111344	13th Jul 2009	1897 QUEEN VICTORIA OLD FULL 22 CARAT GOLD SOVEREIGN 8g	£140.56

Auctiva, eBay & Copyright Theft

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