High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member's feedback was 1433 with 100% according to eBay, and he was a Top-rated seller.

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

GOLD HALF SOVEREIGN QUEEN ELIZABETH 1983
GOLD HALF SOVEREIGN
1983
WITH QUEEN ELIZABETH ON ONE SIDE AND WHAT LOOKS LIKE A KNIGHT OR A ROMAN ON HORSEBACK ON THE OTHER SIDE.
THIS WAS BOUGHT AS A GIFT FOR ME, BUT AM SELLING TO INVEST IN SOMETHING ELSE.
FEEL FREE TO ASK ANY QUESTIONS
IN MINT CONDITION, I HAVE NEVER TAKEN IT OUT OF THE PLASTIC CASE.
Visit shop: POKOJEC BOOKS

Seller ID	Item Number	Date	Description	Price
pokojec69	120555746983	11th Apr 2010	GOLD HALF SOVEREIGN QUEEN ELIZABETH 1983	£99.99

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 high quality images of our Our 1980 Gold Sovereign Obverse Photograph, he used it to sell his own coin on eBay. He did not mention to potential buyers that the high quality photograph of a mint condition coin was not his own photograph.
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 item, 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.

Price
The seller was asking a starting price of £99.99.

Stupid or Crooked?
If pokojec69 had posted his gold coin, we would have been happy to buy it.
Selling it through eBay, he will have had to pay eBay a selling fee which is a commission of 10%. If the buyer paid him through PayPal, he will also have had PayPal commission to pay (between 2.9% and 4.9%), so he would receive less than selling direct to us.
eBay is full of sellers stupid enough to think that they will get the best price selling by auction on eBay, often they are wrong because they have not checked market prices (perhaps pokojec69 tried to sell them to a local gold buyer and was only offered scrap gold. If he managed to find the photos on our websites, it would have been simple for him to pick up the telephone and ask what we were paying. The only downside for his is that we would expect his to pay the postage to us. The advantage to his would be getting more than using eBay, not having to create the listing, and getting paid more quickly.

Ignorance is Bliss for this Top Rated Idiot
Where to start?...
pokojec69's coin is unlikely to be a 1983 half sovereign. Only proof ones were issued that year, and they look different. (See our Proof v Uncirculated page).
The proofs wee not issued in a plastic box, but in a plastic capsule inside a leather box, complete with an informative certificate
The photogoraph pokojec69 used in his listing is in fact of a full sovereign, not a half sovereign, and was dated 1980 not 1983.
Considering pokojec69 lives in Berkshire, he is remarkably ignorant, and proudly so from the reading of his description, of the patron saint of England, St. George.

Top Rated Sellers
It does not surprise us to see a eBay's "Top-rated seller", with a 100% feedback, stealing copyright images without permission or credit, and giving totally false and inaccurate descriptions.
What appals us is that eBay appear to apply no moral considerations to who they nominate as a TRS or Top-rated seller. To get the accolade, you simply have to get most of your customers to say they are happy. It does not matter if the goods you sell are stolen, or if you are reported for copyright abuse.

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
• Gold Sovereigns:
  goldsovereigns.co.uk
• 18 Carat Gold Jewellery:
  www.18carat.co.uk
• 9 Carat Gold Jewellery:
  www.9carat.co.uk