I did write to ebay yesterday, as well, and was very specific in that
it was felt, that a reproduction poster was being offered on ebay and
was trying to be sold as on original. i also mentioned that a number
of people and experts in the poster field had written the seller, and
all contacts had been ignored. i asked if there wasnt a way ebay
could pull the auction, so that some person would not be scammed for
hundreds of dollars. The reps answer veered into the VeRO issue...
ugh. oh well..
jeff
i got this reply from ebay last night (well after the auction ended):
Dear jeff potokar,
Thank you for writing eBay in regard to counterfeit posters.
As you know, eBay does not actually handle the merchandise offered for
sale on eBay. We are unable to make any judgments regarding copyrights
and trademarks on items offered for sale on eBay. However, we are
committed to removing listings that infringe on the rights of an
individual or company when we are notified of the infringement.
If you come across an item that you believe may infringe someone's
intellectual property rights, we encourage you to contact the rights
owner. Rights owners can have infringing listings removed through the
eBay Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) program.
You'll find a list of rights owners and contact information, as well as
information about infringing items, in the VeRO Program About Me pages.
To view the list, please go to:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/vero-aboutme.html
If you are a rights owner and would like more information about the VeRO
Program, visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/programs-vero-ov.html
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Hogan
eBay Customer Support
Original Message Follows:
------------------------
Form Message: %33313% 052200
D_ID091220091348D_ID/W_ID180033712W_ID/S_ID000S_ID
Subject: RC=CU0346 How do I report a listing violation? [160360019344
#US L10 $US 100771T 100999B ?01 -01 ]
Member or Item being reported:
160360019344 L10 $US US !13413! 052200
Message: Hello..
i am member of a poster collecting group with many sellers and dealers
of old,original materials as fellow members.
This item listed has been brought to light and most likely is a fake or
reproduction, yet the seller has it listed as a genuine item. Some
unknowing winning bidder is going to lose hundreds or dollars for an
item that is maybe worth 5 or 10 dollars.
This auction should be cancelled. Others from this poster collecting
and selling group
have tried to contact this seller, both thru the ebay system and his
private
email but he ignores ALL contact and correspondence.
With only 1.5 hours left in this auction, could someone please look into
this and shut this auction down. Otherwise, someone will be scammed for
a good chunk of money.
Thanks for reading.
jeff potokar
On Sep 13, 2009, at 7:09 AM, Paul Gerrard wrote:
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
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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