As long as the chunk of copper got posted with a return address, the customer can go get his pound of flesh. All's fair. You know the saying "Ignorance of the law is no excuse"...here's another: "Ignorance of human reaction is no excuse".
If only the seller of this item was as responsible and actually used the word FAKE in their listing instead of having the ethics of a maggot .
I dont like that these bars are sold but it clearly says they are 100 mills. If someone is willing to drop this much cash on something they should google all terms they dont understand. That said I hope if anyone was silly enough to make fake bids they atleast used protection (proxy server or vpn)
Why bother ? The listing is made under the category's of Coins > Bullion of which it is neither under the common definitions of the terms. Refunds by law: In Australia, consumers have a legal right to obtain a refund from a business for goods purchased (but not at auction) if the goods are faulty, not fit for purpose or don't match description. More information at returns - opens in a new window or tab. Now if it was described or listed under Fake Bullion it would be accurate dont you think?
The seller has clearly listed the product is a base alloy mix. Either way all the SS members out here who have bidded on the auction have just helped the seller extract the maximum amount out of the genuine bidders. IMO very counter productive on what they wanted to achieve. It also makes the product look much more genuine when you see if selling for $330+ vs it selling for $20.
MMMM...... Gave my lawyer a ring about this and he advised that while I would have a solid case with the above mentioned points, If the person in question was prepared to push the matter in a court of law, while he was confident of a win the cost's could be quite substantial and would not necessarily be awarded . I might be stupid sometimes but I am not dumb , as a result i am now going to hiss and boo from the sidelines of this and back away from all my ranting and raving . And regret to inform you all that I have retracted my bid on this outrageously priced Item . Such is life
That's probably the best and most powerful thing to do. The underbidder will now get curious as to why someone retracted their bid and may do some more research. Let's watch this price fall now!
IMO this seller has cleaned up his listings (of this albeit junk). In previous auctions, The wording "100 mills" was buried somewhere near the bottom of the listing in small writing. In these recent auctions, it is clearly stated. People need to DYOD.
That's because he's worked out that the bidders are so damn blind, they won't even question what 100 mills actually means. '100 mills' is a fairly ambiguous description anyway. The '100' component could easily be interpreted as 100% in some fancy speak. People also will look at 'mills' and assume another large number, perhaps 100 millimeters which being 10cm, sounds about 'right' on a 10oz bullion bar, does it not? We are getting into the psychological analysis here and after a history of 'successful' auctions from these sorts (further giving the potential bidder comfort), there's very little reason to continue being ambiguous about it all. Especially now he makes the auctions private and contacting potential bidders is not possible. It's a scam in full public view that you cannot warn the potential victims about, aided and abetted by Ebay themselves. Even if the majority of potential bidders work out that it's a scam, there will always be a few clueless individuals that have no idea and bid their little hearts out and that's ALL this guy needs to turn a profit. As always DYODD on these purchases, ESPECIALLY with Ebay as Ebay is a known supporter of fake gold and silver sellers. There's absolutely no way Ebay can say 'we didn't know about this' as they are told time and again by people here and continue to ignore it. DYODD! DYODD! DYODD!
Yeah, no matter how you dress it up, the obvious intent of the seller here is to fleece the unwary or uneducated. It's still unethical behaviour ho matter how much they might scream that they are abiding fairly by the law. It's like having a fiscal school yard bully trying to beat the lunch money out of the gullible kids. Sad, pathetic, and deserving of a good kick up the arse....
But it does point strongly to the underlying ethics of modern business the world over. Profit derived from extortion, manipulation or misinformation is much easier than to achieve similar success through industry or improvement of process/product. It's also a major reason why the system is in spiralling decay as well IMHO. It's not just limited to the likes of these fake bullion sellers on Ebay and Ebay supporting them. We see this pretty much everywhere now, all going on aided and unchecked and people are actually generally okay with it. If people are too stupid to understand what they're buying or realise they're over paying, they deserve to get fleeced is the underlying philosiphy.
"Mills" products are becoming more common online. Its terrible for people who don't know better, but that's why novices need to stick to basics like government coins and well-known assayers like credit suisse, johnson matthey, englehard, etc. If you just buy the first shiny thing you see on the internet you are bound to get burned.
...and if you are the high bidder and don't pay you can get a negative feedback strike. Then if you want to buy or sell on Ebay... you wont be able to open an account. The only way that you can help the "uninformed" is to educate them... Write a review or guide like I have to let people know exactly what they are buying.
Heres another lowlife , http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220741948459&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT . Check out the postage rate !!!
