Pathetic fake coin on Ebay

[JIM F.]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-1955-DDO-DOUBLE-DIE-ERROR-LINCOLN-WHEAT-PENNY-CENT-COIN-NGC-AU-55-BN-AU55-/180870948693?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item2a1cbfa755

[JIM F.]

Here's what the coin that was certified looks like.

 

http://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/CertResults.aspx?CertNumber=3177532-001

[SKAGS]

WOW Even shows a picture of the slabb being SPLIT OPEN, just scratchs i guess though.......not.

 

"Please contact us prior to leaving negative feedback, so we can try to resolve any issues."

 

Seller knows for sure.

[benjmurts]

Thanks

[AnkurJ]

Love the ear! Looks like Lincoln was turning into a wolf or something!

[JIM F.]

If the Secret Service wasn't so busy getting "secret service" they would bust these frauds!

[brg5658]

Reported. That's a REALLY bad fake.

[nunfa0]

Reported, that is a shocker!!

[benjmurts]

reported as well

[coinsbygary]

As of now the listing is still up with two bidders at $1100. Fortunately the listing has five days left leaving plenty of time for E-Bay to pull it.

[Oldtrader3]

It is still there!

 

Ebay, Ebay what are you going to do?

This ugly fake coin is still selling through!

You can do your usual and just ignore it too?

Or you can pretend that you did not find it in time.

Then it will become a problem on someone else's dime!

[JIM F.]

I think a couple members ATS are bidding this up for fun.

[coinman_23885]

I agree that something is amiss with the bidding. It is currently at $9,100. My guess is that some bidders have placed outlandish bids in hopes of outbidding any uniformed would-be winner so that they can cancel the sale and prevent a novice from being taken. I have done this a couple of times too in case eBay didn't pull the auction - I could easily get out of the transaction.

[jom]

Love the ear! Looks like Lincoln was turning into a wolf or something!

 

It's clearly the rare Lycanthrope Lincoln variety.

 

jom

[physics-fan3.14]

I contacted the seller directly and told him it was a hideous fake, and he has agreed to remove the listing.

[brg5658]

I also contacted the seller, and he said that after reviewing the NGC website verification pics it was clear it was a fake. His reply was very thankful.

[coinsbygary]

Sounds like the dealer is an honest guy however, some poor soul along the way may have got burned. My hope in all these cases is that perpetrators of these hoaxes are the ones that get burned. Unfortunately, it is likely the perpetrator is the one left holding the original coin and the cash from passing along the fake. It is likely now that the dealer will go after the person he got the coin from unless he was selling it under consignment. I am curious though how this so-called dealer had not picked up on this before he listed the coin. I am glad that NGC images their graded coins to help prevent this type of thing, but in the case of this fake, the quality is so poor that it is apparent to the most casual of observers. This post caused me to spend a little time today checking on a few of my coins, thankfully without problems. This kind of thing makes my blood boil, in that someone would deliberately go through the effort of cracking the original coin out to replace it with a fake and then profit from it at the expense of some unsuspecting soul while holding the original coin.

Gary

[JIM F.]

A database that establishes a chain of custody would identify where the fraud occurred.

 

 

[coinman_23885]

Sounds like the dealer is an honest guy however, some poor soul along the way may have got burned...

 

Gary

 

There was never any danger of someone becoming "burned" in this transaction. I placed a ridiculously high bid on the item to ensure that no novice would be taken. I knew that I could always get out of the transaction given that the item was counterfeit, and I would have never executed the transaction.

[Buffalo Head]

Not even close!

[Oldtrader3]

Sounds like the dealer is an honest guy however, some poor soul along the way may have got burned. My hope in all these cases is that perpetrators of these hoaxes are the ones that get burned. Unfortunately, it is likely the perpetrator is the one left holding the original coin and the cash from passing along the fake. It is likely now that the dealer will go after the person he got the coin from unless he was selling it under consignment. I am curious though how this so-called dealer had not picked up on this before he listed the coin. I am glad that NGC images their graded coins to help prevent this type of thing, but in the case of this fake, the quality is so poor that it is apparent to the most casual of observers. This post caused me to spend a little time today checking on a few of my coins, thankfully without problems. This kind of thing makes my blood boil, in that someone would deliberately go through the effort of cracking the original coin out to replace it with a fake and then profit from it at the expense of some unsuspecting soul while holding the original coin.

Gary

 

Gary, When does "The Ebay Team" start to take some responsibility in all of these questionable dealings? Especially when you may have had knowledge and warning about this issue and or issues many times in the past few years? Certainly hundreds of other similar fakes and counterfeits have been brought to your attention over the years and your eternal lament is "lack of expertise"! So, Ebay often does nothing!

 

You earn enough fees in this area of collecting to pay for a great deal of expertise. When do you start being a party to helping at least reduce fraud, unwitting or not, as part of your business model?

 

Why should collectors stick their necks out and high-bid this coin to protect others, What are you (The Ebay Team) doing in the meantime?

[brg5658]

Sounds like the dealer is an honest guy however, some poor soul along the way may have got burned...

 

Gary

 

There was never any danger of someone becoming "burned" in this transaction. I placed a ridiculously high bid on the item to ensure that no novice would be taken. I knew that I could always get out of the transaction given that the item was counterfeit, and I would have never executed the transaction.

 

I believe he was referring to the person who the seller purchased the coin from...assuming it was not the seller him/her self who made the "counterfeit switch-er-oo". The point of Gary's comment (if I understood it correctly) was that even if no one got duped by purchasing the fake coin on eBay, he hopes that the seemingly honest eBay seller doesn't have to eat the cost of a mistake of that kind.

[coinsbygary]

I'm not excusing E-Bay, and I sell very little on E-Bay, however when I do sell, I only sell certified coins from my collection that I no longer need. Otherwise when I buy, I only buy certified coins. Now thanks to threads like this one I am alerted to this method of fakes and will be on the look out for anything I come across which I have reason to suspect. brg5658 correctly identified the intent of my post. When I sell coins, I do so with the highest integrity, therefore I demand it from those I do business with. When it comes to fakes I always hope the perpetrators of the fakes are the ones who ultimately get burned. However, we do not live in a perfect society so the best a person can do is educate themselves to protect from being a victim of fraud.

[Oldtrader3]

You did not address my issues except as it pertains to you buying and selling. Do you represent the "Ebay Team" or not? If so, pass this on, please.

 

The best we can do is get some help from those who stand to gain the most from honestly traded transactions and more of then! Theft and deceptive practices do not add value, they lessen it! Save the "Perfect Society" lecture for someone who is not informed about the realities of the marketplace and your (Ebay's) part of it.

[coinsbygary]

I do not. The views I post are my own and only represent me. I do not shill for anyone. I educate myself about fakes and pass whatever I learn on. However, the reality is that E-Bay posts thousands of auctions for just about anything under the sun. Their response to the coin problem has been to tighten up the rules which has caused somewhat of an angst on these boards. With that there will always be some fakes that pass through their filters. The perfect society alludes to that they will never be 100% meaning that I either educate myself or restrict my buying to known dealers and auction houses like Teletrade, Heritage, or Great Collections to name a few that I have happily done business with in the past.

Gary

[Keigwin]

It is easy to fault ebay, and understandable. "Why aren't experts hired to review auctions for fraud, counterfeits, etc.?"

 

How many experts would that be? To look at every auction? Not just coins. For all the products that are sometimes counterfeit, from golf clubs to handbags.

 

Would you say there are a hundred product categories with a thousand auctions started every few minutes? Way too low?

 

So ebay needs to simply find, hire and train a few thousand experts to watch auctions 24/7?

 

I'm not forgiving ebay, just saying "tough problem".

Lance.

[JStull]

Listing ended yesterday at 1:41 PST.

 

I bet the seller is wondering why no one jumped at the chance to own a coin that Numismedia.com values at $2160 for such a low price of $999.99 plus $1.95 shipping and handling.

 

The pics of the edges of the slab say it all, damage from someone opening the slab and replacing the real coin with the junk one.

 

37 negs in past 12 months doesn't help his cause either.

[MarkFeld]

Listing ended yesterday at 1:41 PST.

 

I bet the seller is wondering why no one jumped at the chance to own a coin that Numismedia.com values at $2160 for such a low price of $999.99 plus $1.95 shipping and handling.

 

The pics of the edges of the slab say it all, damage from someone opening the slab and replacing the real coin with the junk one.

 

37 negs in past 12 months doesn't help his cause either.

 

He wasn't wondering that, as a number of us contacted him and told him what he really had. Hopefully many or most collectors could look at the coin (without needing to see the holder) and know immediately that it was a counterfeit.

[Buffalo Head]

Listing ended yesterday at 1:41 PST.

 

I bet the seller is wondering why no one jumped at the chance to own a coin that Numismedia.com values at $2160 for such a low price of $999.99 plus $1.95 shipping and handling.

 

The pics of the edges of the slab say it all, damage from someone opening the slab and replacing the real coin with the junk one.

 

37 negs in past 12 months doesn't help his cause either.

 

He wasn't wondering that, as a number of us contacted him and told him what he really had. Hopefully many or most collectors could look at the coin (without needing to see the holder) and know immediately that it was a counterfeit.

 

 

Really BAD!!!!! How many "experts" does e-bay need to figure this?

[MarkFeld]

Listing ended yesterday at 1:41 PST.

 

I bet the seller is wondering why no one jumped at the chance to own a coin that Numismedia.com values at $2160 for such a low price of $999.99 plus $1.95 shipping and handling.

 

The pics of the edges of the slab say it all, damage from someone opening the slab and replacing the real coin with the junk one.

 

37 negs in past 12 months doesn't help his cause either.

 

He wasn't wondering that, as a number of us contacted him and told him what he really had. Hopefully many or most collectors could look at the coin (without needing to see the holder) and know immediately that it was a counterfeit.

 

 

 

Really BAD!!!!! How many "experts" does e-bay need to figure this?

 

That's not really being fair to Ebay. It's not a matter of how may people they need to "figure" it. It's a matter of how many people they need to be able to review all of their listings. And that is a lot.