myfeedback,

I know you mean well...however..it'll never work.

I finally gave up reporting brazen errors in listings...fake items..and blatant mis-representation...to no avail.

At every turn in the road...eBay cries about not having the man-power to 'police' the auction listings..
Yet...until recently..if you as much as whispered the 'F' word here on any of these forums..your post disappeared with the speed of light ?

Of course that was BEFORE the report buttons were installed..now they don't need to police the boards..

Face it....anything goes as long as they are making money !!

JMHO.

"1. Hire new or additional eBay.com Antiques Category Specific Quality Assurance Manage that is more interactive with the community."

To be fair, they would have to hire an assurance manager for every category. An increase in listing or fv fees would ultimately follow, so I don't like that idea.

"2. Create additional categories for “antique like items”. Maybe called antique replicas."

Sounds nice and it should be considered. But what happens to sellers who have reproductions but don't have a clue that their item is not legit? Knowlege only comes with time and research.

"3. Require decade entry for all listings."

Sorry, but I totally hate that idea. It would be a listing nightmare & I suspect that most sellers would just type any old date in. Besides, a collector should know their subject, and a date would seem to be unnecessary.

I would have the same concern with number 4 as I did with the first one. It could be applied to any category, and I don't really want an increase in fees.

Lastly, I think that a resale certificate is about as useful as a certificate of authenticity. Useless.

But I won't trash them without any ideas of my own. I think the category can be expanded. There are many items which now wind up in different categories, such as housewares, which would be better suited in the antiques category. It would save a lot of improper cross listing anyway, and provide better convenience.

1) The QAM is not needed for every category. Several online appraisal teams with the addition of hired part time individuals are needed to cover the variety of categories. The new items listed everyday in the antique category is not too big to be handled. The QAM is to create plans to ensure the end product of the antiques categories is quality. Part of which would include organizing the process for these teams to work upon. Reorganization of some personnel would be necessary and the cost is minimal in the overall picture the future of antiques on eBay.

2) Categories for antique replicas would be a bin for new furniture and other items. Sub-categories beyond antique replicas would be needed. Everyone knows it’s needed.

3) The decade idea helps to dynamically set the category structure. If a seller knows the decade of the item their selling and most do, choosing a date before a category tree will eliminate irrelevant category choices. (Stemmed off your idea in the other thread)
Hence, If you’re selling a dishwasher and you choose 2000-2010 the categories that appear next would not have to include antiques and there sub-categories.

I don’t think I could handle another fee increase unless eBay had plans to do something about the issues. Then again I would pay a small increase for basic insertion into a decent list rather than have to pay for a feature to put a quality item at the top of a cluttered list.

In addition there will always be items that are unidentifiable and there will always be unknowing sellers. It takes baby steps to get to the big picture and fixing a small percent is better than neglect it altogether.

Thanks for the feedback!

I understand that a replica category would be desirable, but my concern remains about what happens with sellers who list things that they honestly don't know about? Or is the category to be "specifically" for brand new, manufactured items? I see no problem with a category for a dealer offering new reproductions. But if it were to apply to replicas across the board I have serious concerns. User A decides that user B is selling a repo and it's in the wrong category, etc., etc., etc.... I've read posts about it happening before under the current setup. I'm just a firm believer in the old adage "let the buyer beware".

I don't like the decade insertion idea because I think it would be ineffectual. Ebay is full of yard-salers who's only notion of an antique is that "they know it's old". I doubt that they would take the time to put dates on things.

Lastly, why would the other categories not require a QAM? Most of ebays categories are cluttered. I can see the boards now "antique dealers get special ebay treatment"!! Everybody pays fees, despite the category, so everybody should get the same services.

Antique selling is a highly specialized field of knowledge. And I suspect most dealers only know a lot about a few things. I know my knowledge is pretty much about table ware, specifically silver. Beyond that I have bits and pieces, but nothing really helpful.

To vet the categories, eBay would have to really step outside the box and find people who may not have great computer skills but really know some category. And then the category could be quickly cleaned up. But that involves giving knowlegable people more or less dictatorial power, which has problems of its own. I really don't know if eBay would be interested in hiring a bunch of crabby, idiosyncratic antique dealers for this. But no one else knows enough about narrow, complicated and esoteric items to do the job.

I don't like the decade idea either. My main interest is silverware, which frequently is made for long periods of time. Gorham's Chantilly has been produced since 1895. Reed & Barton's Tiger Lily was made for over 90 years. I can't look at any given piece and assign a decade to it. Rather, just the pattern name and year of introduction seems logical. That would work for silver, china and glass but not for other things. Dating is not a straight forward proposition; it just looks like it would be.

One thing that might help would be for each category to have the dating tree myfeedback suggests. And having a QAM who can also answer questions would be a great help to the person who really doesn't know much.

meridenmor,

Hey...who are you calling crabby & idiosyncratic ...LOL !!
I usually just lurk here..sometimes I'll put my oar in the water..
This however..is a problem dear to my heart...

I am an antique dealer..35 years in the business both here and in England..

Yes..I agree with the OP...this is a huge problem and it desperately needs attention..
When I am in the mood to buy an antique.....and have money in my pocket...it can be a turn-off for me knowing that I must weed through hundreds of mis-represented items, and fakes on eBay....just to find a genuine piece of china to bid on..

I applaude 'myfeedback' for attempting to bring everyone together to try and solve this dilemma....however..eBay has made it very clear in the past that they do NOT intend to address this problem.
Seems it's our problem...not theirs !!

I agree...buying antiques on eBay...or anywhere else for that matter can be frustrating for anyone..even those of us who consider ourselves fairly knowledgible..

As for the problems involved in vetting...here is a 'for instance'..

In 2000 during a trip home to England to visit family and to shop for china...I
spent an hour or so attending one of the larger antique markets in the North-East...
I stopped at a booth selling Stafforshire..and talked briefly with the dealer...
She had a couple of lovely Staffordshire piggy-banks for sale..old re-productions of items originally from the late 1700's..quality pieces..but re-pro nevertheless..
She offered them at a good price..so I bought both of them.
They were very attractive, well made reproduction pieces..probably manufactured about 1897-99.
Few people realise that reproductions have been around for well over 100 years..and if they are over 100 years old...technically that makes them ANTIQUES !!!
Arriving back in the States...I decided to take them with me to a small show I regularly set up at...
I usually determine my re-sale price according to price paid, age, condition etc.,
Well..I priced the banks and listed them as early reproductions and set one of them out for sale....and within an hour a lady strolled into my booth..and quickly moved over to the bank to examine it.
As a dealer I never push..and usually wait until the customer approaches me..rather than approaching them..
She studied the bank for a few moments..then walked over to me and in almost a whisper said " Are you aware that you are selling this bank way too low...this is an antique..not a re-production "
I tried to explain over & over to the lady that it was indeed an early re-production..but she would not hear of it...she just kept insisting I didn't know what I was talking about...that it was a rare antique..and not a fake !!
As a smile slowly started to creep over my face...I thought about the pure irony of this situation....
For 35 years I had spent the better part of my time trying to convince a customer that an item WAS old and genuine....and there I was exhausting myself trying to convince a customer that the item WASN'T old & genuine...!!!!

Yes..I do see lots of older re-productions listed on eBay as being genuine 1700-1800's pieces...and in many cases the dealer is not aware of this discrepancy..?

Boggles the mind....doesn't it ...LOL !!

Keep up the good work myfeedback...

t.t.f.n.

Christine.

eBay had a reproduction catagory but they did away with it because it was never used. The sellers knew their item would get more looks if it was in Primitives so thats where they put it. My biggest complaint isn't with the reproductions, its with all the craft items like Gruby candles and grapvine wreaths and stuff that should be listed under new homemade crafts.

There is a rule in place that ebay can move items to proper catagorys if they choose to. If they would just inforce that rule it would help clean up the Antiques catagory....