By Jack D. Young
In my normal dumpster diving on the internet I ran into a rather nasty counterfeit on Etsy.
Just looked off to my “fake” eye, I started my usual due diligence starting with the PCGS cert look up. The image of the genuine one does NOT match which then lead me to the slab and inserts themselves.
Etsy listed example on the left, Genuine certed example on the right
PCGS on-line cert with image
Bar code scans of the Etsy example- as usual the front barcode read an entirely different cert #. In fact it doesn’t even exist in the PCGS on-line data base!
And the reverse–typical read for these fake holders, the QR code scans as the correct Cert number but for the “CN” (Chinese) PCGS site!
On-line bar code reader image of the reverse QR code
So, I sent the seller a note; that went well.
Back and forth messages with the seller
So now what? Well I remembered that “Report this item to Etsy” link on the listing and took that approach.
Reported through their process
Really no way to know if this would get any interest at Etsy. I waited and continued to check the site for this item and seller. But the seller appeared to just add more bad items to his listings.
Only $599.99 for the Walton 1913 Liberty nickel!!! But I also noticed he now started to hide the cert number with his new 1883-CC listing.
OK, let’s try this again.
Reporting process for Etsy
Just a note, “Counterfeit” is a reportable violation on Etsy unlike AliExpress!
And another report through their process
At this point I decided to let PCGS know about these. I contacted my contact there as well as posted on their CU Forum. Like many of my posts there I don’t appear to get much traction although someone did alert the Mod there to my post.
My post on PCGS’ CU Forum
I also notified some friends involved in counterfeit reporting as well, and then waited. I even considered purchasing one of these to see what I actually would receive, had it in my cart but couldn’t pull the trigger. Didn’t want to aid the seller with no assurance I would get my price of admission back…
I did take another shot at reporting through Etsy on his bad Trade Dollar.
Bad Trade form the same seller; now he tried to partially block “PCGS”
Waiting, checking and then this!
Really? Success? And how or why may always escape me but the seller is GONE. I looked up my saved links for his bad wares and all are now gone.
So, I tried to message the seller, and guess what? He’s GONE as well; hopefully in a cell block somewhere!
Persistence or stubbornness? Not sure, but I’ll keep on keeping on as the Beatles said “with a little help from my Friends”!
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