CoinTalk member says eBay no longer acts on his counterfeit coin reports
On the collector forum CoinTalk, member Jack D. Young shared an article he wrote about his frustration that obvious counterfeit coins cannot be removed from eBay. He also described a counterfeit purchase for which he did not get his money back, and other members posted their own reports and opinions. These are the members' own accounts and views, not verified facts.
Correction (Oct 13, 2026): We rewrote the headline, summary and body to match the source, a CoinTalk forum thread. We removed statistics not in the source (such as 10-15% annual growth in fraudulent listings and 15-40% authentication premiums), passages on Roman coins, grading services and regulation, and the advice to buy only NGC/PCGS-certified coins; we made clear that the content is members' own accounts and opinions, and that the source gives no posting date. The previous headline was "eBay Struggles to Remove Counterfeit Coins Amid Numismatic Frustration."
This article is based on posts in the CoinTalk forum thread "eBay obviously doesn't care about counterfeits!!!". The source does not give the date of the thread. The URL of the article linked in the first post contains the date "2025/04/20." Everything below is the members' own account or opinion, not facts verified by GNJ.
"Obvious counterfeits" stay up
Member Jack D. Young shared an article on proxiblog.org that he said he wrote to sum up his frustration with eBay and the inability of many to have obvious counterfeits removed.
He wrote that he used to have 10 to 15 listings removed every day, but that eBay no longer listens.
Another member, johnmilton, wrote that when he told eBay that an obvious counterfeit of a 1794 silver dollar without "COPY" on it was offered on the site, eBay replied that the offering was "consistent with their policies."
One member's purchase
Jack D. Young wrote that he did not get his money back on his latest purchase. By his account, the seller used genuine images from a genuine listing and sent him what he called "a common CN counterfeit large cent."
He wrote that he submitted the evidence to eBay, which removed the listing and the seller and told him to contact the seller for a return. The seller gave an address in China and no label, and he wrote that returning it would have cost as much as it was worth. He added that he cannot leave negative feedback because the seller is "no longer registered."
Members' views
- JoshuaP wrote that eBay is quick to refund money with its guarantee if someone buys a counterfeit. - Barney McRae wrote that eBay's buyer protection is pretty good, but that eBay charges sellers 13%, and said he thinks looking the other way on counterfeits is a conscious business decision. - Barney McRae also wrote that the Chinese fakes are all "buy it now" and priced below silver and gold bullion prices, and that the best way to avoid seeing them is to look only at auctions. His biggest concern, he wrote, is novice collectors buying and reselling fakes without knowing it. - KBBPLL wrote that there is far more grift than 20 to 30 years ago; -jeffB asked whether that is really so, or whether it is just easier to find and share. - Randy Abercrombie wrote that the problem is causing long-term damage to the hobby, and that if he were younger he would not enter the hobby now. - JoshuaP suggested that with enough information eBay could be sued; Kentucky replied that he thought you could only sue if you had a loss yourself.
Source: CoinTalk, "eBay obviously doesn't care about counterfeits!!!".
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