I don't know how many of you frequent ebay, but I'm constantly chagrined, and at times, just plain pissed off at the number of scam auctions and fake antiques being listed in the sword section.
I gathered a bunch of information off the web from many sources citing the fraud problem, and then spent a good amount of time scavanging email addresses that were in some way related to ebay. The last thing I expected was an answer.
I struck gold. A man named Rob Chesnut emailed me back and asked me to send him my contact info so he could call me. I was off work the day he emailed back (work email) so he got my home number from my ebay profile (I had included my ebay login for him - member since 1996) and called me at home to discuss the problem with me. I was in the middle of dinner, so we agreed he would contact me the next day at work.
Turns out Mr. Chesnut is the Associate General Counsel of ebay. He is a really stand-up guy, and in all honesty, too big a fish to be calling me. We spent a good 10 minutes discussing the problem and finally agreed on two points.
Point one: auctions from China/Hong Kong that are <$1 and charge exhorbitant shipping (Mr. Chesnut says anything close to $50 is too much) do not make ebay any worthwhile profit, and harbor scam artists. He agreed to pull any auctions/sellers that I sent him that met that criteria.
Point two, and this is where I originate a call out to the community: ebay has begun a program that enables select ebay users who are passionate about a category to band together to form a sort of committee that reviews auctions in their particular area of expertise. They currently have about 8 groups running now, including a stamp collecting group.
This group holds a not small amount of power. They, as a group, can review any auctions that are suspect. If the consensus is that the auction is misrepresenting the item in any way, the group sends an email to the sender detailing how the item is misrepresented and suggesting the seller change the listing to reflect the item's actual value/description. If the seller refuses, or ignores the email, the group contacts ebay and the item is pulled.
This offers an enormous potential to once again make ebay a good and enjoyable place to look for high quality collectables.
He has offered to create one of these groups for collectable blades. This is your chance. Tell everyone you know and post this message to any blade related forum you frequent. I am looking for a group of dedicated, knowledgable ebay users/collectors who want a hand in cleaning up the cesspool the collectables:knives has become. The group has to be a manageable size, so I am looking for the best and brightest.
I gathered a bunch of information off the web from many sources citing the fraud problem, and then spent a good amount of time scavanging email addresses that were in some way related to ebay. The last thing I expected was an answer.
I struck gold. A man named Rob Chesnut emailed me back and asked me to send him my contact info so he could call me. I was off work the day he emailed back (work email) so he got my home number from my ebay profile (I had included my ebay login for him - member since 1996) and called me at home to discuss the problem with me. I was in the middle of dinner, so we agreed he would contact me the next day at work.
Turns out Mr. Chesnut is the Associate General Counsel of ebay. He is a really stand-up guy, and in all honesty, too big a fish to be calling me. We spent a good 10 minutes discussing the problem and finally agreed on two points.
Point one: auctions from China/Hong Kong that are <$1 and charge exhorbitant shipping (Mr. Chesnut says anything close to $50 is too much) do not make ebay any worthwhile profit, and harbor scam artists. He agreed to pull any auctions/sellers that I sent him that met that criteria.
Point two, and this is where I originate a call out to the community: ebay has begun a program that enables select ebay users who are passionate about a category to band together to form a sort of committee that reviews auctions in their particular area of expertise. They currently have about 8 groups running now, including a stamp collecting group.
This group holds a not small amount of power. They, as a group, can review any auctions that are suspect. If the consensus is that the auction is misrepresenting the item in any way, the group sends an email to the sender detailing how the item is misrepresented and suggesting the seller change the listing to reflect the item's actual value/description. If the seller refuses, or ignores the email, the group contacts ebay and the item is pulled.
This offers an enormous potential to once again make ebay a good and enjoyable place to look for high quality collectables.
He has offered to create one of these groups for collectable blades. This is your chance. Tell everyone you know and post this message to any blade related forum you frequent. I am looking for a group of dedicated, knowledgable ebay users/collectors who want a hand in cleaning up the cesspool the collectables:knives has become. The group has to be a manageable size, so I am looking for the best and brightest.
