Some one is up to no good again. KR200?

[Bob Purton]

Take a look at this , Some joker has copied and listed Andy's schmitt for a song on ebay. Whats wrong with this guy?!!!  270262186757

[Jim Janecek]

well apparently some people went and did the proper thing and went to the bottom of the listing and clicked "Report This Listing" because it appears to be gone now.

this happens a lot, when you see it again (and you will), don't just complain about it, click "Report This Listing" at the bottom of the Listing Page.

[Bob Purton]

Dont tell me off Jim, I tied that but it only gives you the option to proceed with the report if it is YOUR listing that has been copied , it asks for your original listing number before you can go any further. At this point I gave up. I guess Andy spotted it. 

[Triporteur]

On other vintage vehicle forums i belong to, we've been tracking and reporting stuff like this for many years now. At first ebay ignored us, but in the past year or so they've started taking it more seriously.

Bob - In the 'report this listing' menu you simply have to use one of the other options - counterfeits, stolen property, fraudulent listings, etc.

A friend in the police told me last month that because ebay have been monitoring vehicle-selling scams more efficiently (eg cloned stolen modern cars), Autotrader has now become the media of choice for the criminal gangs.

[Bob Purton]

Ah so thats how you do it, thanks for the helpfull explanation Colin. I shall proberbly not bother though, the maritime antiques section is wall to wall fake indian repro, if I sat there and reported it all I would be at the computer from now till doomsday!

[marcus]

Bob, In Texas I have seen huge shops absolutely full of "Genuine" antiques.  Indian, Chinese, Japanese, European. Clocks, furniture, pottery, the whole caboodle. I am no expert, but some are so clearly fake or grossly "improved" it is laughable

[Chris Thomas]

Dear Marcus

I know what you mean. On a trip to New York state I was in an American Antique shop and noted a display of glass and in amongst the items was an old milk of magnesia bottle labled "French Blue Glass", and for sale at a huge price.

The antiques trade seems to be prone to misrepresentation.

Chris Thomas

[Triporteur]

I lived in Asia for 10 years and spotting reproduction antiques is even more complicated there because new 'antiques' are made in exactly the same way as they were 100 years ago, ie with low labour costs poor artisans use exactly the same traditional methods.

This devalues what few original old items there are, so all of it is cheap.

Which is no doubt why it's worth western 'antique' dealers importing it and selling it as old.

[Bob Purton]

I think thats the case in asia Colin but all these school of Bombay Scientific instruments look like they have been made by a child, bearing little resemblance to the real thing, most bearing the makers name Stanley even though Stanley's never made the things originally, one cowboy outfit narrowly escaped a law suit recently for churning out pathetic looking sextants all marked up with the name Kelvin Hughes on them not realising that the company is still trading! I propose that the makers and sellers of them all be put in a large boat in the middle of the pacific with one of there sextants and see if they can navigate there way home! I was recently approached with a fake divers helmet made in turkey, the thing had no valves on it, I suggested the seller try a dive in it first and if he lived I would buy it! As for our friends the Americans, most fail to understand the definition of the word antique, this is borne out by the fact that they call classic cars antique, don't you just lov em. Sorry if I sound bitter but all this scrap brass has almost put myself and other genuine dealers out of business, consumer confidence is now zero.