Time for eBay to wake up and clean up its act.
Saul Hansell's 12/14/07, New York Times Blog assesses whether an eBay and Amazon merger would help eBay resume its growth given the apparent lack of consumer protection.
Angry readers chime in on eBay's sloppy and sleepy Management who continue to condone fraudulent merchandise. eBay's lack of visionary Management is Harvard Business School Case Study waiting to be written.
This apparent lack of Management vision and preference of Seller Revenue continues to force buyers away from eBay given the absence of an eBay post sale warranty/assurance.
Obvious counterfeits continue to remain and new counterfeits are listed 24/7 since eBay since eBay Management refuses to hire knowledgeable personnel who can easily monitor defuse the 24/7 time bomb fraud.
A short time ago, eBay introduced a new Art subcategory titled Art from Dealers & Resellers. Instead of only allowing Art Dealers to list in this "Dealer" category, eBay Management allowed infiltration from anyone.
In our eBay Guide Scam Alert: eBay Makes It Easy To Sell Counterfeit Art, we suggested there is so much art fraud that eBay should introduce another sub category for the Professional eBay Fake Art Seller, who have
businesses that specialize in "Fake Art" rather than "Fine Art".
eBay's "Professional Fake Art Sellers" maintain a significant advantage versus ethical Art Dealers as the former benefit from large margins due to a virtually zero cost of goods. Let's face it, it is cheaper to stock counterfeit Works by Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, etc., than the real thing.
eBay Management clearly prefers maintaining listing fee revenue instead of implementing a meaningful anti-fraud policy to protect art buyers beyond the nominal amount they offer. Increased revenue is a key reason eBay doesn't ban Sellers who break the law and only sell Fake Art.
In fact, many "Professional eBay Fake Art Sellers" who sell fakes/counterfeits state their eBay Lot is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity ("COA").
eBay Art Buyers should recognize that no matter how well written, a meaningless/worthless COA cannot and will not, magically transform a "counterfeit Warhol" into an a legitimate Andy Warhol.
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