A Blue Max and Apparent eBay Fraud

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Greetings All,

 

Here is something you all might be interested in following along with as it concerns an Orden Pour le Merite that was just offered on eBay and "purchased" by yours truly, (I use the parentheses as I have not sent dime one on this). I found the listing a couple of days ago and thought it sounded fishy so I began tracking it. Here is the closed listing:

 

Blue Max Listing Today

 

She supposedly could not send along additional pictures as her child dropped her cell phone, plus she was more than willing to lower her "Buy It Now" price very fast. I thought the only picture she posted looked familiar so I did a quick search and found it in the following old eBay listing:

 

Original OPLM listing from January 2009

 

I have sent an email to the lady asking for the cost of postal insurance, (the lack of same on an expensive item like this being another red flag in her listing), as well as a request for additional photos of the item, (under the guise of wanting to show them to my friends I am meeting with on Friday so they could see what I bought). She has not gotten back to me on either request, which again indicates this is more than likely a scam as anyone selling a pricy item this time of year would want payment sent along ASAP. Also, her ratings for past transactions as a seller on eBay show she has misrepresented items before.

 

Should be interesting to see how this one unfolds, and I will be reporting this person to eBay if it all goes the way I imagine it will, (unfortunately, as I would love to really have such a medal in my collection). However, I can see no other explanation in this case other than the woman went online and found the image from the old listing and offered it as the a photo of the medal she is selling, and I'm betting there is either no medal at all and she will claim it was lost in the mail, or she has a cheesy $20 knock-off that she plans on sending. I detest dishonest people, and doubly so around Christmas time.

 

Lou

 

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[Hasse Wind 46]

If I ever start selling fraudulent WW1 stuff at eBay, I'll be sure to avoid any offers from you, Lou.

[Olham 164]

This was almost certainly a replica, Lou.

The Original has a slightly brighter blue enamel, which is coming up, like a cake so to say.

Here is one such pic.

 

 

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Actually Olham, after doing some more digging I've discovered this person has no such medal at all and has been selling that photo repeatedly over the last year on eBay and never delivers the item, (because she doesn't have it). It is straight out fraud and it amazes me that eBay allows it to continue, (so much for their Buyer Protection). Others in the medal-collecting community are aware of her and have filed repeated reports against her at eBay, including me now, (filed four different reports against her yesterday). You watch though, I'll bet in the next month or two that supposed Blue Max will be for sale again on eBay, showing the same picture.

 

In all my dealings on eBay thisis the first time I have run across a case of outright fraud. It would be nice if it were the last.

 

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[+hgbn 91]

Must be an case for the FBI to solve or?

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Hgbn, even though it would fall under the FBI's jurisdiction I've a hunch they have bigger fish to fry. What surprises me is eBay's apparent lack of interest in taking care of this repeat offender.

 

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[Hasse Wind 46]

That's bad news. Makes me wonder if it's safe to use eBay at all. I've sometimes thought about getting something from there, but then I haven't dared after all.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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As I said Hasse Wind, this is the first time I ever ran across such an issue. With this exception, all the many, many items I have sold and bought on eBay have resulted in excellent transactions.

 

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[Hasse Wind 46]

Yeah, it's probably not much more dangerous than buying from Amazon or some other big company. But what I like about those companies is that you can easily get a replacement order if you don't get the package or something. It happened once that I ordered a book from Amazon, but never received it. I e-mailed them about it and they sent me another one, which I got. No difficulties whatsoever.

[Olham 164]

Can you write a seller rating about her perhaps, as I always do in AMAZON?

If you are asked to write a short line, you just write something like:

"This lady keeps selling the same item again and again, without even owning it".

[Cameljockey 3]

No matter what, you'll always find at least one bad apple in every bunch.