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alma_banuelos & eBay Copyright Theft
alma_banuelos of Victorville, USA, is yet another dishonest eBay PowerSeller who has used our copyright images without permission.
Many eBay sellers, including dealers steal our copyright images, we suspect some of them may also be fraudsters. Does eBay care?

Is eBay Really a Lottery? - Is This Seller a Crook?
Whenever we send copyright infringement notices to eBay, which is a daily occurrence, we include a paragraph warning or alerting them that in our experience, may people who steal our images also steal other things, and that if a vendor uses stolen images, it is likely that he does not own the items he is offering for sale. eBay appear to take no notice of our "good neighbour" advice, and usually allow the seller to relist the same or similar items, sometimes they steal other people's images as well.
In a significant number of cases, although we don't keep count, we notice that a few weeks later, the seller is "no longer a registered user". We never get any feedback or thanks from eBay, but our guess is that the seller has failed to deliver the goods after being paid, buyers have complained to eBay or the police, and his membership has been revoked. Because we don't receive any feedback, we can only guess, and it does seem that eBay goes to great lengths to avoid bad publicity.

Power Sellers - Pillars of the eBay Community? Yet another dishonest eBay PowerSeller.
Feedback 1,950 - 99.7% Positive.
In our growing opinion, it just goes to show, that not only can you not trust eBay sellers, you should be particularly wary of eBay PowerSellers, and do not trust the eBay feedback system, or the PowerSeller symbol.
When we revised this page in August 2009, alma_banuelos had increased its feedback to 2,133; and this was 99.5% positive.

Copyright Theft is Dishonest - Can You Trust This eBay Vendor?
Using other people's copyright images is against eBay's rules, it is illegal, it is dishonest, and it is unethical. Using the hard work of a fellow dealer to sell the same goods in competition with him demonstrates an extremely low standard of ethics. We would not recommend anybody to transact business with this person or company.

Thick as Thieves
Actually, this crooked eBay PowerSeller is not the first to have stolen this particular montage, we reported another eBay seller for using the same image last week.
If you look for the picture on our websites, you will not find it, because it was probably taken from the website of APMEX (American Precious Metals Exchange).
So why are we interested...

Altered Images
The grandly titled American dealer APMEX (American Precious Metals Exchange) has the offending image on its website (apmex.com). Nothing wrong with that, you might think, but for the fact that the Credit Suisse gold bar shown in the montage of three is taken from one of our high quality copyright photographs, as is the Engelhard bar. In order to alter or combine an image, it is first necessary to make a copy of it, and copying is prohibited under copyright law, therefore all derived images are also in breach of copyright.
It is quite highly probable that the other two gold kilo bar images were also stolen from somebody else's website, therefore APMEX could be in breach of three different lots of copyright, as could alma_banuelos.
Note that alma_banuelos would not be in breach of any rights belonging to APMEX, as APMEX almost certainly have no rights in the matter.
At the bottom of each page of their website, APMEX have the line:=

© 2009. All rights reserved.
So they are clearly aware of copyright law, and cannot claim ignorance. In our opinion, this makes their offence worse, because they are trying to pass themselves off as originators of all the material on their website, and claiming they own the Intellectual Property Rights in it. Effectively they are stealing our property, possibly along with that belonging to others.
They also have lots of marketing spiel on their "About Us" page, including:
Quality of our products
We purchase only the highest quality precious metals available. Our expert staff inspects every piece and decides if it meets our strict buying standards...
Therefore, you will be sure to only receive the highest quality products at very competitive prices. Give us a try today!
Reliability
We are efficient in processing your order promptly, packaging it securely and delivering it safely so it arrives on time as promised.
Reputation
Much of our business is repeat business and referrals from our satisfied customers. We do very little advertising. Many of our clients have referred their family, friends and business associates to us. We hope,once satisfied, you will too.
Memberships
We are active members of The American Numismatic Association and ICTA, The Industry Council on Tangible Assets. Both organizations help to protect the rights and serve the members of the numismatic profession and investing public for coins and tangible assets.
We are also active member dealers of PCGS & NGC Grading services. These companies help to bring consistency in grading to the numismatic industry.
Who would have thought such an honest (although they do not claim this) reputable company would resort to stealing images from their competitors?

Seller IDItem NumberDateDescriptionValue
alma_banuelos28030828008031st Jan 20091 KILO KG ( 32.15 OZ ) GOLD BAR - .999+ PURITY!S37,999

Repeat Offender
Alma_banuelos had at least two previous listings for a kilo gold bar, both of which failed to sell, and both of which we have reported to eBay.

Notes
Seller ID. There is nothing to stop eBay members changing their "Seller ID", or opening a new account.
Item Number. We may have shown only one out of many similar items.
Date = End date or date added to this page if item still current.
Description = Description as used by the seller as his item title.
Price = Final selling price if known, otherwise "Current Price", or "Starting bid".

What's In A Name?
If you get caught out too many times, eBay will always let you change your name. Some eBay sellers have as many IDs as Carlos the Jackal.

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

eBay Index

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

Three One Kilo Gold Bars Image from alma_banuelos's eBay Item 280308280080
Three One Kilo Gold Bars Image from alma_banuelos's eBay Item 280308280080

eBay Index

Our Credit Suisse One Kilo Gold Bar Photo
Our Credit Suisse One Kilo Gold Bar Photo

 


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