More details on eBay collectible book fraud
More details here about the eBay first edition forgeries, courtesy of the Philadelphia Inquirer. I can't figure out if this guy was brilliant, or one of the world's dumbest criminals:
"He'd take that signature to a stamp-making store," he said. "They'd take his money and make [the signature] into stamp."The article also indicates that the guy sold some of the books using his wife's account (without her knowledge) using the eBay name bev103162smith. He also used the name BigDaddy_Books. I found a Web site for BigDaddy books (don't know if there is any connection at all) but nothing on eBay for either names.
Smith would then stamp the books with the "signatures" of such renowned authors as Truman Capote, Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Clancy, Michael Crichton, Norman Mailer, Anne Rice, John Grisham, John Irving and Tom Wolfe, prosecutors said.
More tidbits are in the indictment from the Department of Justice.
Labels: book collecting
posted by Steve Weber at 5/20/2009
2 Comments:
I think on many different levels this is a lesson to be learned. Its a lesson that because someone is a powerseller or has a 100% rating doesnt mean something is legit.
I wonder if eBay is going to respond to this and how much impact this will have in sales etc of collectibles.
Well, it's always been "buyer beware", there have been hucksters in the book biz forever. Only now there are even more un-knowledgeable people in play, not only sellers, but buyers. I'm not too bothered by it all.
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