On The Amorality Of Some eBay Sellers

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

New Cigars




PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Status
Not open for further replies.

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,625
44,836
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
Earlier today a questionable Dunhill pipe for sale on eBay was highlighted in a thread. Fake Dunhill
I contacted the seller to make him aware of the questions surrounding his listing and included the link to John Loring's article on fake Dunhills, Loring On Fake Dunhills, which describes this specific fake, on the chance that he was unaware of the nature of what he was putting up for sale. After all, many sellers are not knowledgeable about what they're listing. Sometimes they're selling stuff they picked up at an auction or a garage sale.
Here's the seller's response:
I am NOT trying to fool anyone!!!! It is just a pipe. We are NOT saving lives here , or changing the course of history! I am just selling stuff. If you think this is not real don't bid. I have a full return policy . ?????????????????????
I responded that I had no interest in bidding as I don't collect Dunhills. I asked the seller if he didn't think that someone paying upwards of a grand for an unsmoked 1930's era Dunhill should be entitled to the real thing as opposed to a fake. I also let him know that his listing had created quite a splash in several forums and that collectors take this kind of thing very seriously.
The fact that he's selling a fake doesn't compute. He's just selling stuff. That it's fake stuff doesn't matter. I don't know about you, but under such circumstances I would pull the listing and do some research. It's one thing to make an innocent mistake. It's another to continue on a questionable path once alerted.

 

uncleblackie

Starting to Get Obsessed
Dec 20, 2014
280
10
I've encountered a few sellers like you describe as well. They really have a criminal mindset. No amount of sense or decency can penetrate their brains.
I can only picture them as gross, twisted people whose lives are joyless and hateful.

 
Mar 30, 2014
2,853
78
wv
Sounds like the guy forgot to take his meds. There is a big difference between not knowing what they are selling, like something they've bought at a yard sale, and someone purposefully deceiving a buyer. Ask questions, study the photos as best as you can. That's all you can do. I've only been burned a couple times. Here is pic of my last burn. It was listed as a "Barling TVF" Terrible pictures should have been my first clue. I asked the seller questions and she confirmed it had no cracks, breaks, etc, and was indeed a "Barling." Close but not a Barling. Its a T.V. pipe, whatever the hell that is... The good news is, I now have real TVF. I had Sable take a look at it before I pulled the trigger this time. Thanks buddy! When I sell pipes on ebay I try to be as accurate as possible, but therein lies the dilemma. The more accurate you try to be, the more likely you are to make a mistake. This example was just plain fraud.
EUovVIvl.jpg


 

tarak

Lifer
Jun 23, 2013
1,528
15
South Dakota
My favorite is when you see someone selling a pipe with the stem clearly inserted upside down. When I see those, I get a sneaky suspicion that the seller knows jack.

 

menuhin

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 21, 2014
642
3
Agree

... There is a big difference between not knowing what they are selling, like something they've bought at a yard sale, and someone purposefully deceiving a buyer...
If I were to sell a pipe like that (first of all I wouldn't esp. this is such a bad fake :wink: ) I would post it on an eBay site where people speak a non-English foreign language, and I would, tarak said, insert the stem upside down to display that I am apparently a novice. And that any incoming e-mail would be replied with some rare non-grammatical foreign languages. But the safest way is not to list it as a genuine Dunhill pipe. :puffpipe:

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
I worked for decades in "communications," which is a sort of hybrid of public relations, press agent, writer/editor, and fixer. In dealing with the public, which is what you are doing on the internet in general and ebay for certain, you have to expect anything and everything. I once spent thirty or forty minutes talking on the phone to a guy, obviously suffering from some kind of mental health disability, who wanted me to connect him to a "sublime physicist." I could have just cut him short, but as a public servant, I felt I couldn't be rude based on someone's disability, and this was clearly that. Also, I found his strange concepts pretty poetic and intriguing. I almost connected him to a colleague who was actually a Ph.D. in biophysics and fairly sublime, I guess. Anyway, the ebay is the world, and all the people in it, plain shysters to time travelers and beyond.
If we had an hour, I'd tell you about my adventures with a Japanese public TV crew, who came for what we assumed was three hours and stayed for a week, with progressive cultural collisions the whole way.

 

buroak

Lifer
Jul 29, 2014
1,867
14
This fake Dunhill seller wrote a disclaimer of sorts on the auction of the pipe after being bombarded by "knowers".
That is a strange and hostile "disclaimer."

 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,625
44,836
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
The disclaimer is pretty funny. It's the righteous indignation of the unmasked crook. "How dare these busybodies complain about the fraud that I'm perpetrating!"
I wonder how high the bidding will go. There's a brain donor that put in an immediate high bid that's getting revealed, nibble by nibble, by the other fish.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
'Tis sad. Buyer beware, or not. Then there will be a gaggle of people who will be downhearted because they missed buying this "Dunhill". The human condition.

 

lochinvar

Lifer
Oct 22, 2013
1,687
1,632
What's great is he just listed another Dunhill and is being upfront (and very pissy) about the fact that it may be a fake. And, of course it is a fake.....unless Dunhill made a smooth Shell.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dunhill-Shell-Pipe-Unused-Another-Fake-/271866952355?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f4c887aa3

 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,625
44,836
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
I suppose that were I an advanced Dunhill collector I might buy this fake as an amusing curiosity to add to the collection, as long as I could get it for pennies. But of all the fakes in Loring's article, this one gets the Loring finger, even posthumously, for being the dumbest of them all.

 
May 7, 2015
17
0
He might have a couple of movie props on his hands. He should take them and the paperwork to a prop house. If they were used in a movie by a famous actor they could be worth more than a real Dunhill.

 

okiescout

Lifer
Jan 27, 2013
1,530
6
I am NOT trying to fool anyone!!!! It is just a pipe.
I guess the subject and amount trumps honesty! You would think he would have thanked you for giving him a heads up, sablebrush.

Guess his response would tend to indicate prior knowledge or a very compromised integrity.

 

monty55

Lifer
Apr 16, 2014
1,722
3,560
65
Bryan, Texas
Wow, so the guy comes across an envelope from an estate sale with euorpean letter head from the 60's with some fake Dunhills in it. Sounds like the original owner either collected fakes, or was getting these off the market. Either way, this clown is quite a piece of work.
Thanks for pointing this guy out, Lady of the Dunhill! :lol:

 

lochinvar

Lifer
Oct 22, 2013
1,687
1,632
So...now that we have the Saint in Our Lady of the Dunhill, do we get to start our own knightly order like the Templars or Hospitallers? The Knights Cumberland maybe?

 

blueeyedogre

Lifer
Oct 17, 2013
1,552
30
It always amuses me that the same guys saying "I'm not trying to fool anyone" or the "Oh, I didn't know" also happen to list the item as one of the most expensive name available. That's like a car salesman looking at a car with no names badges and say "Ok.... I don't know what kind of car it is so I'm gonna go with Ferrari!" lol Obviously he did enough research to know that calling it a Dunhill will bring a better price then calling it a Grabow.

 
Status
Not open for further replies.