I would second what Phil says about remaining calm and polite when
contacting sellers about misdescribed items. A bit of righteous indignation is
all
well and good, but ultimately it’s one person’s word against another –
and if you’re a complete stranger to the seller, why should they believe you’
re any more of an expert than they are? To this end I would also add that
it helps to keep it entirely factual and provide evidence where possible.
Facts and evidence make a difference, as any lawyers on this group will tell
you (!) For example, with a repro Casablanca, a missing bottom border
proves nothing in itself, but (correct me if I’m wrong) a visible giveaway is
that the white tone of the borders on a repro does not merge in with the rest
of the poster in the same way as an original.
We’re lucky enough to have some great information online, in the form of
learnaboutmovieposters, emovieposter, heritage, reputable dealer sites,
forums and fansites. Most sellers on ebay are not crooks, some are even *gasp*
quite nice, and are ready to take on accurate information, even when it’s
disappointing to them. As we saw recently with “Cine Poster”, even Bruce
makes mistakes if people don’t tell him about it, and we know what efforts he
makes to get it right. It would be arrogant for anyone to say they know
every last detail about movie posters - learning and experience is part of
the fun … isn’t it?
Where I differ from Claude and Phil is that I’m slightly more optimistic
about ebay’s attitude when listings are reported (yes, I know, just call me
a romantic fool). As Phil says, there is a large element of caveat emptor,
and obviously they are not going to deal with every little complaint,
particularly if unsubstantiated, but I would guess that alarm bells start to
ring if they receive a certain number of reports of fraud or misrepresentation
about the same item. After all, this is where it can affect their bottom
line. They’ve discovered a few times now that they are not immune to the law
worldwide, and are clearly quite jittery with Vero, so I think there is
always hope they’ll take notice where people are persistent and appear to
know what they’re talking about. “Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but
soon and …etc etc.”
BTW I would always go through the ebay messaging system rather than
personal email address when sending questions or dealing with disputes, as
this
means ebay can’t say it doesn’t have a record of what a seller has been
told, should they decide to investigate.
Anyway, enough of my rambling patronizing. Back to what we do best –
enjoying (authentic) movie posters!
Paul
_www.movieposterstudio.com_ (http://www.movieposterstudio.com/)
P.S. No moles were whacked during the making of this email.
In a message dated 13/09/2009 00:14:53 GMT Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:
Claude is absolutely corrrect. The selling of fakes (and not just movie
memoabilia) on auction sites and through auction houses has been going on for
years - decades, centuries.
That's why it's caveat emptor.
It's also like trying to play whack a mole.
eBay does not care remotely about such matters, because as Claude says,
the bigger the end result the bigger the fees to eBay.
By all means if you see something being described incorrectly then email
the seller and tell them politely that you believe there item to be
other than what they describe it to be.
Why politely? Because of all the hundreds of misdescribed items offered on
eBay (and other auctions sites) are frequently - very frequently - being
sold by
people who have no idea what they are selling.
Getting enraged at something one cannot change, and get the appropriate
people to take action about - because they have no intention to do so - simply
drives the blood pressure through the roof.
Life is too short.
Phil
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