[meteorite-list] "Ebay Again!"

From: Galactic Stone & Ironworks <meteoritemike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:38:29 -0400
Message-ID: <CAKBPJW-vVw2mjtgMp3SHA2W50j_eNDAtkP-i-vxJocwXhxXdFQ_at_mail.gmail.com>

Hi Folks,

Over the years, going back into the List archive, you will see
intermittent spurts of vigilance for these fakes, especially in
regards to eBay listings. Frankly, there are just too many different
sellers and too many different fakes to police them all. eBay does
not help in most cases and you are generally wasting your time trying
to get eBay to make enforcement on their end work. That leaves us on
the outside, and most of us are too busy with life to take on the
added work of being eBay-Cop for meteorwrongs. It is also a thankless
job if one chooses to accept the work - lots of pissed off or trollish
sellers who do not give a damn and the sucker buyers are born every
minute. The obvious fakes are not really the true problem.

The misrepresented meteorites are the biggest threat to market and
collections integrity in my opinion. Selling a piece obvious of coal
or slag as a meteorite is usually a one-off scam by some opportunistic
yahoo - they use disposable eBay accounts and it's like playing
whack-a-mole to keep them in check. Truthfully, they cannot be
stopped entirely - it's buyer beware. A modest amount of homework
before buying will pay big dividends with any newbie buyer.

The bigger and more insidious threat is fallen dealers operating in
the relative safety of eBay - they put out mislabeled or
misrepresented meteorites. They are real meteorites, but not the type
or locality being offered. Is that an Ash Creek or a Chergach? Is
that a Buzzard Coulee or a fresh-looking Bassikounou? Is that really
a Chelyabinsk or a Oum Dreyga? Some are easy to spot and avoid -
others can be tricky to the eye with clever camera-work and lighting.

The best advice for eBay newbies - know your seller. If you do not,
then find someone who does and ask them.

Best regards,

MikeG

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On 10/22/14, Peter Richards via Meteorite-list
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> wrote:
> You might as well be saying "Look how smart (you are.)" I don't know
> who is alerting Anne Black to these ads, but to me, at the least, and
> I would predict I am not the only one, the person is an utter
> nuisance. Regarding this latest ad, it would be too ridiculous to
> comment upon it, so I will refrain.
> -Peter Richards
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Received on Wed 22 Oct 2014 04:38:29 PM PDT