High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member's feedback was 287; with 100% positive according to eBay.

eBay Copyright Thieves
Many eBay vendors use our coin photographs to sell inferior quality coins on eBay. These eBay members are dishonest and should be avoided.
We believe eBay profits from IP rights infringements (copyright theft), and does so knowingly, only removing infringing items reluctantly, if at all.

Sample Listing - 1

GOLD SOVEREIGN PROOF SET1982. (£5-£2- SOV & HALF SOV)
1982 GOLD SOVEREIGN PROOF SET.
THE FOUR GOLD COINS ARE:
FIVE POUND, TWO POUND, FULL SOVEREIGN, & HALF SOVEREIGN. ALL IN PROOF CONDITION.(PLEASE SEE PHOTO)
ONLY 2500 SETS WERE MADE OF THIS 1982 PROOF SET, & THEY ARE NOW GETTING HARD TO FIND. THESE ARE A GREAT SET OF COINS AT A GOOD PRICE.
YOU MAY VIEW THESE COINS IF YOU ARE IN THE SUFFOLK AREA. ALSO IF YOU WISH TO PURCHASE THESE COINS PLEASE CONTACT ME ON 07979203230 SO PAYMENT BY CHEQUE CAN BE ARRANGED. I DO NOT LIKE GIVING MY MONEY (OR YOURS) TO PAYPAL OR OTHER THIRD PARTIES. THANK YOU.
PLEASE NOTE: THE FIRST BID OF £0.99WILL WIN THESE GREAT COINS. (PLEASE NOTE COST OF POSTAGE.)IF YOU ARE THE LUCKY BIDDER PLEASE CALL ME ON 01284 760648 OR 07979203230, MANY THANKS.
THESE COINS ARE NOW UP FOR SALE ELSE WHERE, SO IF THEY SELL I WILL PULL THIS AUCTION ON EBAY.

Sample Listing - 2

GOLD SOVEREIGN PROOF SET1982. (£5-£2- SOV & HALF SOV)
1982 GOLD SOVEREIGN PROOF SET.
( YOURS FOR £1350)
THE FOUR GOLD COINS ARE:
FIVE POUND, TWO POUND, FULL SOVEREIGN, & HALF SOVEREIGN. ALL IN PROOF CONDITION.(PLEASE SEE PHOTO)
ONLY 2500 SETS WERE MADE OF THIS 1982 PROOF SET, & THEY ARE NOW GETTING HARD TO FIND. THESE ARE A GREAT SET OF COINS AT A GOOD PRICE. PLEASE READ NOTE CONCERNING POSTAGE.
YOU MAY VIEW THESE COINS IF YOU ARE IN THE SUFFOLK AREA, AND COLLECT IF YOU WISH.
ALSO, IF YOU PURCHASE THESE COINS PLEASE CONTACT ME ON 07979203230 SO PAYMENT BY CHEQUE OR THROUGH THE BANK CAN BE ARRANGED. I DO NOT LIKE GIVING MY MONEY (OR YOURS) TO PAYPAL OR OTHER THIRD PARTIES. THANK YOU.
PLEASE NOTE : THE POSTAGE ON THESE COINS IS £1350, SO THE FIRST BID OF 99p WILL WIN THESE COINS.
GOLD TODAY (8-10-9) IS MAKING £652.54 A TROY OZ, THESE COINS WEIGH 2.19 TROY OZ. (67.90 grams) PLUS PROOF COINS MAKE MORE MONEY THAN JUST SCRAP GOLD.
THESE COINS ARE NOW UP FOR SALE ELSE WHERE, SO IF THEY SELL I WILL PULL THIS AUCTION ON EBAY.

What's Wrong?
We invest a great deal of time, effort, and cost into creating some of the best photographic coin images on the internet. We strongly object when lazy and dishonest people decide to use them without a by your leave or thanks, doing so in competition with us.
Copyright theft is dishonest. We recommend you avoid doing business with dishonest dealers.
This particular eBay seller not only stole our image of the boxed set of 1982 Gold Four Coin Proof Sovereigns, he used it to try to sell his own coin set on eBay. He did not mention to potential buyers that the high quality photographs of mint condition proof coin set was not his own photograph, wrongly advising potential buyers that the coins were all in proof condition (see photos)". He has obviously not read our page about proof versus uncirculated coins, or our grading page, where it also states that proof is not a grade or condition, but a special finish on a specially produced specimen coin.
Most buyers will see the photo of a mint condition coin, and assume that this is the coin on offer, and not read all the description.
Quite often we are offered proof coin sets where the owners have taken the coins out of their capsules and fingerprinted them, or worse.
It's possible he is ignorant of such fine points, or just plain ignorant.

It is always possible, even likely, that sellers who steal photographs do not own a similar coin, and have the intention to totally defraud potential buyers.
The vendor is not only cheating us by stealing our copyright images, he is fraudulently or ignorantly misleading and deceiving all potential buyers. Gaining pecuniary advantage by deception is the definition of fraud.

Exorbitant Postage Charge
Not only is 777pf cheating us by stealing our photograph, cheating buyers by concealing the fact that the photograph is not of his own coin set, and he possibly does not own such a set, but he is trying to cheat eBay our of its, admittedly high, selling fees of £40 by selling the item for only £0.99, but with a ludicrous postage charge. eBay know that many if not most of their members are dishonest or devious, and know sellers will try to circumvent the rules to save money.We will bring this to their attention when we report the listings. For once, we expect them to act firmly as they are very careful with eBay own money!
He also appears to be trying to circumvent any PayPal charges. We sympathise with him here, but it is against eBay's rules.

Price
The seller was asking a starting price of £0.99 for his coin, but with postage and packing of £1,400; and the same but with "only" £1,350 postage for the second listing.
Somebody should bid on it, then demanding that they collect it in person, making the postage fee redundant.

eBay Guilty of Negligence or Complicity
We will be reporting this example of copyright abuse using our standard Statutory Declaration via the eBay VeRO programme, and wait to see if they chose to action or ignore our report. We look forward to taking legal action against eBay for their negligence and / or complicity if they fail to take down the offending material promptly.

Copyright Notice Please see our "Copyright" page for further information.

Buying Gold Coins & Bars on eBay

Selling Gold Coins & Bars on eBay

Copyright Thieves on eBay We already have a page naming and shaming dealers using our images without permission. It's time we did the same for eBay, although if we include them all, this could be a very long page.

Alphabetical Listing of Other Copyright Theft Sites

Other Scams

Other Web Sites All comments about copyright also cover content of all our other websites including, but not limited to:-

• Chards
  www.chards.co.uk
• Investment Gold Bars & Coins (This Site)
  taxfreegold.co.uk
• General Coins & Jewellery:
  www.24carat.co.uk
• 1982 Gold Four Coin Proof Sovereign Set:
  goldsovereigns.co.uk
• 18 Carat Gold Jewellery:
  www.18carat.co.uk
• 9 Carat Gold Jewellery:
  www.9carat.co.uk