This ‘GAS’ (genuine antique set) of small size was recently purchased where?? …..shussshhhh, yet apart from it being a nice little cutie – king 7 cms -, it was purchased in super condition and for a modest sum, however these ivory sets if photographed from afar create a problem for new collectors. Should a seller state that the material of such a set is made of ‘ bovine bone’, then trying to confirm the so-called bovine bone nonsense description is none too easy, then the sellers so-called 100% positive feedback is all a bidder can rely on.
The current Ebay feedback system is rather flawed , and their offered selling stats sure don’t tell the true picture. The simple reason being that items offered for sale on the Bay, are often mis-described which will lead to unhappy buyers. Some sellers have little knowledge on their items which is rather unfortunate, the Ebay stats do not show this, and with tit for tat seller to buyer comments will discourage truthful and genuine trustworthy feedback. When I first bid on Ebay items almost 20 years ago, questions asked by bidders were frequently published with answers on their listings – now this rarely happens ?!?! Even worse with the current ivory ban, viewers who place what looks like a banned Item on ” T H E I R watch list ” yet some collectors like myself have no intention of bidding for the item which sure looks like illegal ivory ….!! Some sellers will say “prove it”, hiding being behind lousy images! Yet out of the blue comes with just about the worst S C R O O G E like offer! This automated mail which looks like Ebay work, and when rejected with total contempt the sellers deny ever making these offers via email – who is kidding who here ?? This nonsense makes these Ebay stats pretty much useless. Another rather suspicious business is when one bids for an item in what looks like an open auction, then when outbid ….fair enough BUT the auction has become a private listing?? Some sellers deny that they have changed their listing, and some bidders have requested privacy ?!?! Myself NEVER! This suspicious looking business had persuaded me not to bid on ‘private’ listings, and even in extreme cases retract my bid, none
of this ‘entered wrong amount ‘garbage! With auction houses I reckon they play pretty fair with descriptions and do not have any DTD’s (dirty tricks departments ), – of course mistakes can be made,
and being human, things can happen.
Being frank, I am finding buying at auction a heck of a lot easier than on Ebay all because of these issues. Should any sellers feel these comments are unfair, well then I am pretty sue when an Ebay Collectors group was founded around about 2004-2006 such hard hitting views were commonplace.
Their solution is to get their descriptions right.
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