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Ban on sales of replicas starts on eBay Feb. 20

By Paul Gilkes-Coin World Staff | Jan. 19, 2012 12:00 p.m.

Article first published in Web Content, Market Updates section of Coin World

http://www.coinworld.com/articles/ban-on-sales-of-replicas-starts-on-ebay-feb-2/

Effective Feb. 20, eBay will prohibit the sale of replicas of U.S., world and other historic coins into the U.S. market on eBay.com.

Officials of eBay formally announced Jan. 18 that the firm’s major policy change in the coins category represents the online auction company’s commitment to improve the buying, selling and collecting experience on eBay, including reviewing listings that may violate eBay policy prohibiting counterfeit coins.

As part of the policy update, new listings and relistings will be prohibited beginning Feb. 20; listings will be permitted through Feb. 19. Listings that are still open on Feb. 20 will be allowed to run out to their closing dates.

The policy change extends to replicas marked COPY as required under provisions of the Hobby Protection Act.

The policy change also extends to contemporary counterfeits of U.S. coins produced to circulate alongside genuine issues. The policy does not exclude the sale of paper money replicas.

The policy change follows a number of meetings and discussions between officials of both eBay and the Professional Numismatists Guild.

As part of its collaboration with PNG, eBay officials anticipate establishing a program to better educate collectors about the PNG and its trusted member-dealers, and to ensure the coin experience on eBay meets industry standards.

Officials of eBay made a brief presentation about the proposed policy change Jan. 4 during a PNG members-only meeting held in conjunction with the Florida United Numismatists convention in Orlando.

Fuller coverage will appear in the print and digital editions of the Feb. 6 Coin World Special Edition. â– 

Fellow collectors - I guess there will be discussion whether forgeries or reprints with historic value should be allowed. Imagine a flood of replica historically important postal history!However, a blanket ban could be put on any "replicas" printed under the last 50 years.

The same should be done not only with replica stamps but also with medals for medal collectors.
I collect both both stamps and medals.

As a medal collector, I find it totally off puting seeing dozens of freshly struck replica medals offered by many vendors. The majority of medal collectors, like many stamp collectors enjoy the historical aspect of the hobby.

This makes a mockery out of collecting almost anything.

_________________
When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
- - - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Glen,

it is just a wait and see approach to what Ebay does. They are looking into it but so far have not made up their minds.
I would give it about a 80-20 chance they do ban computer replica stamps but as usual with Ebay nothing is certain.

I get annoyed when this subject is brought up and there is references to forgeries whether they be classical or modern and they are placed in the same group as computer replicas which are mainly made on home computers using, they are completely different material and have nothing to do with each other.

There is a possibility that Ebay may introduce a new category for replicas and any replicas noted in other categories will have to placed in the new category or cancelled,

David B.

Ebay ... take notice of anyone else?

All pigs are fed and ready to fly.

_________________
A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).

Delcampe just announced a tough new stand on the modern stamp Jam Labels -

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=34703

Good to see SOME action on this rubbish.

I have been involved with this problem since 1999 and they would have been banned in 2001 except that two members of the American Philatelic Society which were the President and the Ebay co-ordinator told Ebay that there was nothing wrong with including them and the APS co-ordinator even said that he would be happy to include them in his collection if he could not afford an original.

However times have changed and at that time the replicas were poorly produced on incorrect unwatermarked paper but now the replica makers have are producing much better examples The Chinese Revolutionary period is a good example) which cannot be told from scans and are almost impossible to tell from the actual items.

Some of then produced in Egypt of the 1866 1st. issue and the early high value Pyramids are on watermarked paper very similar to the actual watermark but the paper is too thick and can easily be told when viewed as the paper looks modern, however scans have fooled experts,

David B.

Glen,

what you are calling " Jam Labels " that Delcampe are banning are not Computer Replicas, they are produced on sophisticated printing machines of similar type that most country's used to produce their own stamps.

By mentioning them in the same articles as Computer replicas muddies up the decision as many confuse the two types, which is what happened in the early 2000's when the discussion between Ebay and the APS occurred.

I doubt that Ebay will ever ban them but will force all items into a special category,

David B.

Agreed! My opinion is that forgeries since 1970 are "replicas" unless the individual performing the act was indicted or doing so for postal use. If he/she is convicted then he/she belongs in the world of stamp-crook forgers!

An interesting thought to ponder is the difference between postal and philatelic forgery. Spain has HUGE premiums for classic postal forgeries - mostly evaluated by Gauss.

eBay is evolving, learning, and trying to adapt. We need to voice our concerns as philatelists coherently and concisely to allow them to accommodate. This is the same venue that deals with untold millions of lost dollars to Nigerian scams for Apple computers. Keep that in mind.