eBay To Combat Counterfeiters With Professional Authenticators That Inspect High-End Goods 64
To many, eBay serves as a convenient conduit for shifting unwanted goods and buying items at a fraction of their MSRP. But the online shopping emporium has long been a popular platform for fake products, with luxury goods such as fashion accessories and jewelry high on eBay counterfeiters' agenda. eBay is attempting to fix that. From a report: To counter this, eBay has revealed plans to introduce a new authentication program later this year, with a broad focus on "high-end" goods and launching initially as a trial with fashion items such as handbags. Dubbed eBay Authenticate, the new service will be powered by a "network of professional authenticators," and is ultimately designed to encourage buyers to part with cash on expensive items, safe in the knowledge that the merchandise is legitimate.
Re: so they will buy stuff to test? (Score:2)
Should have started with old videogames. (Score:2)
If you look up pretty much any old videogame from a cartridge-based system on eBay, you're more likely than not to find at least one seller selling reproduction cartridges at full price, with no warning that they are reproductions. Often, there's no easy way to tell the difference short of opening up the cartridge and comparing it to a known real one. This is especially bad for games that go for a high price, such as Conker's Bad Fur Day on the N64 or Earthbound on the SNES.
Re: Should have started with old videogames. (Score:2)
It's a problem for collectors who are paying anywhere from $100 to $700 for certain cartridges, and expecting to get original hardware and not a Chinese-made reproduction.
Reproductions usually go for a fraction of the price of the real thing - you can get a repro of Hagane (SNES) for $20 US when the real ones go for $700. The problem is when repro sellers start charging $700 for a Hagane repro and someone buys it thinking it's the real thing.
The jewelry analogy would be like buying a diamond ring for $3000
Re: (Score:2)
For the same reason a poster of the Mona Lisa is worth much less than the actual Mona Lisa.
Re: (Score:2)
For the same reason a poster of the Mona Lisa is worth much less than the actual Mona Lisa.
In this particular case, I'm not 100% certain the analogy holds up, but I think you two are discussing different aspects.
It all depends on what you are actually buying... if you're buying it to play the game, then a repro cartridge and the original are of equal value. If you're buying it for purely aesthetic purposes, or for bragging rights (...umm, really?), then it would make a huge difference.
All that said and done, who the hell is paying for this authentication? Ultimately, the buyer, natch, but is eBay
Re: (Score:2)
Except that the Mona Lisa is hand crafted.
The "original" cartridges were, themselves, mass produced duplicates of an original. They were, in essence, the posters of the Mona Lisa already....
Re: (Score:1)
These "collectors" are so stupid, stockpiling things nobody gives a shit about and that are going to be buried with the collector..
I know what mean...just like coins, stamps, firearms, sports memorabilia, porcelain dolls, classic automobiles, and all the other shit that nobody would every find interesting or of historical value. But here's the thing man, not everyone can be interested in cool things like SETI and Linux.
I'm gonna go comb my beard now.
Re: (Score:2)
The jewelry analogy would be like buying a diamond ring for $3000 only to find out that the diamond is artificial.
Except when you discover that the artificial diamond is identical to the "real" ones, a structure of carbon atoms.
It's far worse to discover that the $3000 "real" diamond is not worth anywhere near $3000. Just a huge marketing scam to sell one of the most common "precious stones" as if it is scarce, at hugely marked up prices.
This article is fairly long, but a good read.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ma... [theatlantic.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Flaws/inclusions are of a different nature, so they can be told apart. The artificial ones are generally cleaner.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, if you are buying ego and not function, what different does it make if it is fake and long as it convinces the fake people you pose for, that it is real. No matter how much money and resources are wasted on marketing, poseur crap is still poseur crap and fake or real, seriously who gives a fuck. Certainly should not be wasting tax payer dollars on those marketing lies. Add radioactive elements to diamonds and create really long life batteries, great, cut them and wear them and think you shit don't sti
Re: (Score:2)
Now, if you're buying it for its 'collectability' shouldn't you feel some responsibility in vetting the vendor's credentials and/or enter in to terms by which you can return the item if you determine its fake?
Well, here's my experience as a non-collector with fraudulent merchandise.
Order DVD set. Price is actually pretty steep but less than some other sellers. Seller guarantees it's "not counterfeit" on their page, of course.
DVD set arrives. Nice box, good silkscreening.
Play first DVD. First episode subtitl
Re: (Score:3)
Are you buying these cartridges for their 'collectability' or 'playability'.
Well if you're paying $700 for the original instead of $20 for a report, chances are you're going for collectability.
Re: (Score:2)
If you're buying a physical cart, not downloading an image for an emulator, chances are you're collecting.
Re: (Score:1)
You can't block this, not if you choose to use ebay. If you do, then you don't get emails from ebay after a purchase, interacting with people you buy from on ebay, you name it.
See? It isn't normal spam. It's spam you MUST take...
It *is* a problem.
Re: (Score:2)
You quoted the whole damn thing, and now it's open to question which side you're actually playing for.
This one is ripe for moderation into the sin bin. For included content alone.
Re: (Score:1)
Included content was paramount, in order to see the bull they spewed.
We have a paid ad here for ebay, on /., blathering on about how great ebay is.
If my email about them spamming people non-consensually with political crap isn't on topic, nothing is.
These clowns have a load of lobby presence on Parliament Hill. They don't need to spam me, to have a word into that forum.
(Note lobbyist details)
https://lobbycanada.gc.ca/app/... [lobbycanada.gc.ca]
I can sign up to a no-call list, from all sorts of non-profit and political groups
For sale on ebay - Shroud of Turin (Score:2)
I double-dare you to Authenticate it.
Re: (Score:2)
Authenticate it as the genuine old fake? Shouldn't bee too hard. Carbon date it, if it was made in about 1000AD it's the 'real thing'.
Expert Examiners (Score:2)
I understand the best counterfeits are often so good they pass 'expert' monitors. Does that mean if you're sufficiently good at it, your stuff is now ok?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Score:2)
QED
Re: (Score:2)
That's because the best counterfeits are sold out of the third shift run of the same factory that makes the authentic ones on first and second shift. The line between fake and counterfeit gets really hard to draw in those cases.
it's the real thing (Score:2)
Once the very last person in the world who can still tell an original from the very best of the fakes suddenly kicks the bucket (the real thing), then what?
When a tree falls in the forest, does anyone here it?
Re: (Score:2)
No, because unless there is an ear drum to interpret the pressure wave it is not a sound.
Does this mean I can now sue eBay for allowing fake goods to be sold ? Once they start vetting some doesn't that imply a liability or responsibility to verify them all ?
Re: (Score:2)
Once the very last person in the world who can still tell an original from the very best of the fakes suddenly kicks the bucket (the real thing), then what?
As opposed to kicking a counterfeit bucket, you mean?
Re: (Score:2)
By the time that happens, it's highly likely that the item in question isn't going to have a market for it.
Loom at it this way: There's a reason why there are a lot of people around today who can credibly authenticate either a real/fake centuries-old Rembrandt painting or Stradivarius violin, and get paid somewhat handsomely to do so.
Re: (Score:2)
When a tree falls in the forest, does anyone here it?
Only if I'm hear to here it.
Just marketing (Score:2)
Dubbed eBay Authenticate, the new service will be powered by a "network of professional authenticators," and is ultimately designed to encourage buyers to part with cash on expensive items, safe in the knowledge that the merchandise is legitimate.
I'm wondering if these "professional authenticators" will be independent of the companies that made the products and have the ability to overrule them. As it stands if you want to sell a Louis Vuitton purse on eBay, LVMH (the company that owns the brand) can have the auction pulled just by claiming to eBay that it is fake regardless of the truth of that claim. I used to make my living selling stuff on eBay. I've had auctions pulled for luxury goods which I know for a fact were 100% authentic and had the
Re: (Score:2)
I'm guessing it'll be a "guilty until proven innocent". They'll shut you down until you can provide you are clean.
I have a better idea (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Nobody cares if it's real 'designer' crap.
If it fools their friends, it's good.
Re: (Score:3)
Electronics compare poorly with women's purses in the subject of counterfeiting. How many fake Gucci handbags didn't impress friends with the owner's level of chic is harder to measure than how many 1TB thumb drives don't actually hold 1TB.
I bought counterfeit Gameboy Advanced Games there (Score:2)
I've bought them on Amazon too. I was hoping for a used copy but got a knock-off instead - worked great, the cases are a bit brittle and don't last in a backpack like the real ones do.
I never intentionally bought them counterfeit. I approve of this "certified real" program, but I'm guessing the certified as real guys are still going to be a little higher priced in the end. It's worth it to me.
Re: (Score:2)
I once bought a counterfeit Pokemon Emerald off of Ebay and it did *not* work great.
Pokemon Emerald uses flash memory for its save file which is a pain for counterfeiters to make, so they hack the game to use battery backup instead. When the game is hacked to use battery backup, you can't trade Pokemon to generation 4 or the Gamecube games (since those are external programs which don't know that the save file is stored in a different way so they look for it in the nonexistent flash memory) and in fact usin
Re: (Score:2)
I once bought a counterfeit Pokemon Emerald off of Ebay and it did *not* work great.
Pokemon Emerald uses flash memory for its save file which is a pain for counterfeiters to make, so they hack the game to use battery backup instead.
Why would counterfeiters have trouble with flash memory? They don't have to make it themselves, it's a traded commodity now.
Re: (Score:2)
An obvious solution for this is to not buy things Made In China.
It has become increasingly difficult, but as much as possible, I'm voting with my wallet, until and unless China gets its counterfeiting problem under control.
Foolproof (Score:2)
"Show Me the CarFax" Model (Score:2)
The authenticators are to be paid by the Sellers, not by ebay or the buyers. It's offering the service to someone who already owns the piece and wants to sell it, and presumably is willing to take the risk that what they are selling isn't faked, in order to give buyers more confidence. This "certification model" paid for by the businesses in the hopes that enough will adapt it and it will become mandatory "professional licensing". Ebay is already in that business, via "Powerseller" status.
It appears too
Legislated Safety (Score:2)
I couldn't give 2 rats if your Gucci handbag was real. In fact I wouldn't even know; to me it shows shallow consumerism with probably a matching personality.
What I do care about is mains connected devices manufactured with poor creepages and insufficient protection that can catch fire and electrocute people. I would guess this would apply to the majority of plug packs, power supplies and battery packs.
Thus they should be concentrating on devices that have mandatory safety and legislative standards requireme
Too Little Too Late? (Score:1)