Copies, Imitations, Fakes
We monitor the coin section of eBay.co.uk and eBay.com on a daily basis for vendors stealing our copyright images. We also check some of their other country sites.
In recent months, we have noticed a growing proportion of fakes, imitations, replicas, and other junk being offered and described as gold, as coins, sometimes as rare. On one recent day, it seemed as if there were no real gold coins listed whatsoever, so we spent a few minutes doing a small statistical sample. The results were appalling, and we believe eBay should be ashamed of itself for permitting its site to become such a cesspit of excrement.
You may also wish to see our eBay C.R.A.P. page.

Survey Highlights

• Only 3.7% of "Krugerrand" listings were genuine.
• The majority of "gold" items appeared not be be gold at all.
• One single vendor, "travis.smiley" had 3,881 current listings, about 10% of all "gold" coins.

Simple Search Results

Site	Category	Search Term	Results	Percentage	Comments
eBay.co.uk	Coins	gold	26,225	100%	Starting Point
eBay.co.uk	Coins	mini gold	1,854	7.1%	of above
eBay.co.uk	Coins	mini	2,206	8.4%	of above
eBay.co.uk	Coins	small	3,927	15%	of above
eBay.co.uk	Coins	1865 Small Gold Mexico Coin	594	2.2%	Not gold or Mexican or coins!
eBay.co.uk	Coins	Maximillian gold coin	590	2.2%	As Last
eBay.co.uk	Coins	American Buffalo mini gold coin	485	1.9%	Not gold or American or coins!
eBay.co.uk	Coins	gauden (sic)	862	2.2%	Imitations of St Gaudens $20
eBay.co.uk	Coins	gauden (sic) mini	547	2.2%	Imitations of St Gaudens $20
eBay.co.uk	Coins	HGE	102	%	Acronym for Heavy Gold Electroplated
eBay.co.uk	Coins	gold bar	1,937	%	Starting Point for...
eBay.co.uk	Coins	Necklace / Bracelet Charm 14K GOLD BAR	920	48%	Not Gold, only plated
eBay.co.uk	Coins	Krugerrand	835	100%	Starting Point
eBay.co.uk	Coins	Krugerrand mini gold coin	560	67%	Not Krugerrands or gold or coins!

Advanced Search Results

Site	Category	Search Term	Excluding	Results	Percentage	Comments
eBay.co.uk	Coins	Krugerrand		835	100%	Starting Point
eBay.co.uk	Coins	Krugerrand	mini	245	29%	But still includes 17 replicas
eBay.co.uk	Coins	Krugerrand	mini (filtered)	31	3.7%	Actual Genuine Krugerrand Listings

Advanced Search Notes
Out of 835 listings including the word "Krugerrand", only 31 appeared to be genuine listings including at least one Krugerrand of any size. This represents only 3.1% of all "Krugerrand" listings. Looked at from the opposite direction, 96.3% of all "Krugerrand" listings were for fakes, replicas, imitations, none of which are likely to be made of gold, or even to contain more than a slight trace of gold in a very thin (flash) electroplating.
Unusually, none of listings included any illegally using our copyright images, although there had been 8 on one recent day.
We have assumed that all the apparent genuine listings were non-fraudulent, possibly a dangerous assumption bearing in mind some of our other findings, for example the $1 million fraud. Among remaining non-Krugerrand listings, we noted:

• GOLD KRUGERRAND UNCIRCULATED HGE 14K - 22K ONLY 99P
• KRUGERRAND 1978 GOLD TOKEN IN COIN FLIP (x 2)
• 4 1978 KRUGERRAND MINITURE GOLD COINS PLUS FREE GOLD
• 3 x gold coins 1 krugerrand,1 St gaudens,1 maximillian (x4)
• Krügerrand, Gold Eagle, Krugerrand 9 Stück (x3)
• 5 X baby KRUGERRAND 22k GE GOLD coin/token (x2 )
• Krugerrand Gold 1978 Krügerrand Münze Südafrika
• Krugerrand - Miniature (Replica) 24K Gold Plated Coin
• 20 1978 KRUGERRAND MINITURE GOLD COINS PLUS FREE GOLD
• 18 1978 KRUGERRAND MINITURE GOLD COINS PLUS FREE COINS
• Natura 1 OZ 1997 Buffalo, orig. Case / COA Krugerrand (actual real gold coin, but spamming the word Krugerrand)
• Krugerrand, coin case for bullions Oak/LGP (genuine accessory offer)

One Man Pestilence Plague
travis.smiley, feedback 581, 97.1%, Member since: 01-Nov-06 in United States, Registered as a individual seller, had 3,881 current listings. Strangely much of his feedback is in German.

• 983 for "1978 Small South Africa Coin"
• 948 for "Necklace / Bracelet Charm 14K GOLD BAR"
• 980 for "1865 Small Gold Mexico Coin"
• 969 for "MCMVII Small Gold ST. GAUDEN Coin"

Our Advice
Avoid all this stuff like the plague, and the people who sell it, and the people who allow them to sell it (eBay).

Corollary or Side Effect
One side effect we have noticed because of the abundance of misleading titles and phony descriptions, is that genuine sellers with a real coin find it necessary to add to their title "Genuine Original, Not Copy" or some similar wording. A sad endictment of eBay!

eBay Copyright Abuse

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