The bay ONE of the best places for wishful thinking inexperienced gamblers to blow their coin and to be re-educated about the reality of their ambitious innocent stupidity.The question being how much coin will you lose before you gain some Real knowledge,Do yourself a favour and buy some Gemmo books or eqipment instead at least you will have something that is permanent(untill it breaks) real and useable. YES!!!! you can score from the bay but you can lose alot before you do, not just your billfold but your sanity too. Remember vvs on the bay stands for very very shiny,or very very s****y,or is that very very silly if you buy it!!!
There's always faults in any type of auction system but a lot of it boils down to the buyer that wants to score a hope diamond for 99 cents. It ain't gonna happen! Ebay's put some tools in that can help to minimize your chances of being scammed if a buyer wants to use them. They list the country where the merchandise is at, buyer ratings and how much stuff the seller has sold. Yes I sell on ebay btw but if I were buying, and I do from time to time, I always check on these three things first and haven't gotten burned yet. Not that ebay could not do more to cut down on the scamming but many of the people that get burned were looking for that pie-in-the-sky gemstone deal and didn't take the time to check on these things. Common sense is the best defense against the scam artists there. Now that I have my own website I still list on ebay and I know of other, honest dealers that also continue to do so. Why? Ebay still reaches more people, all over the world than any other site and I look to increase my traffic and exposure by any means possible.
I'm not defending Ebay, they could do a lot more to cut down on the number of scammers, but let's remember that there's always two sides to a transaction.
Just my two cents,
Pete
_________________ Pete (AKA Ruffysdad) http://www.westerngem.com
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 6:43 pm Posts: 615 Location: St. Paul, Minnesota
I don't think the ratings or number of items sold information makes an difference at all in your chances of getting scammed. There are any number of sellers with seemingly high ratings who sell nothing but junk, and loads of it.
Although I do agree that buyers wanting the hope diamond for 99 cents don't help the problem. Most of those buyers would not even look at the merchandise on an honest sellers ebay because it is "too expensive".
I have another tidbit to throw into the mix. I sometimes buy on ebay, usually from small sellers well known in the gem community but also from a couple of big vendors. I have all of my ebay purchased and anything else remotely questionable checked out by a gemologist.
I have sent many gems from the big vendors I "trust" to her. I've uncovered no what I would consider deliberate scamming, but lots of mistakes. Only a few synthetics, but many more misidentified gems.
I've gotten tourmaline sold as apatite, and apatite sold as tourmaline. I've gotten rubies sold as spinel. They obviously work on volume and don't pay close attention. I keep buying from them because I've actually benefited monetarily from their mistakes, but had I not used a gemologist I would have sold misidentified stones.
THANK YOU for outing gemselect, that cannot be done often enough because even some in the gem world seem to think they are a reputable vendor.
From my own area of gemstone business and knowledge (opal) I see a huge amount of totally fraudulent selling on ebay. At best (selling fiber optic glass as opal from China) it is usage of keywords to try and get customers. To the worst I am saying powersellers from Thailand selling treated Ethiopian opal as "Australian Lightning Ridge Black" at ridiculously low prices if it really was black with that much colour from the ridge. I can tell easily from the pictures, no gem labs needed. This is undermining the real opal sellers and in any other situation would be fraud with the potential for criminal prosecution in some countries.
Ebay does not give a damn as long as they are making money. Yet will delist items with a brand name in a instant to protect the big corporations.
Ebay has itself become a corporation, anyone noticed how you cant get a number to call them anymore? They are not interested.
Far too many people are buying stones that are deliberately misrepresented.
Well, there are currently 11,897 results found for mystic topaz on eBay. I haven't found any which describe a coating......admittedly, I have not checked all of them, just the first 100 or so. But, to beat a dead horse, your premise that the success of eBay depends on "trust" is naive.
Barbra, they are still out there an many are claimed to be natural. Another one is pink topaz
Jamey, Barbra and others who have posted on this thread are so right that it is scary. Last week a had a parcel of 80 faceted gems sent to the lab for testing by a gem dealer who has been in the trade for a few years.
Of them, 75 were eBay purchases spread between about 20 different eBay sellers, so it would give a fairly good indication of your odds at success.
Of those 75, a staggering 67 (89%) were synthetics.
I think that in this case the math speaks for itself. There is usually a good reason why prices are too good to be true.
Yes, there are some excellent sellers on eBay, but finding them and building up relationships of trust, like most things; takes time, money and a fair amount of knowledge.
Nothing wrong with ebay- 20 different sellers 89% fake.
Speaking as a professional gemologist who routinely identifies many gems purchased on eBay , I must say that I have seen gross misrepresentation frequently associated with eBay purchases.
Gross, fraudulent, misrepresentation.
You're being charitable Barbra
Pete
Lots of nightmare stories in the GO virtual marketplace. Gotta love ebay.
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