eBay User ‘kearnie_123’ Using Stolen Images

kearnie_123 of Park Gate, Hampshire, stole our 1986 Commonwealth Games Commemorative Gold Two Pounds Photograph to use on eBay, without our permission, to try sell his own coins. Totally dishonest.
Image theft is endemic on eBay, and most sellers appear not to care whether their buyers are deceived.

High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member’s feedback was 5 with 100% Positive Feedback according to eBay.

eBay Copyright Thieves
Many eBay vendors use our coin photographs to sell inferior quality coins on eBay. These eBay members are dishonest and should be avoided.
We believe eBay profits from IP rights infringements (copyright theft), and does so knowingly, only removing infringing items reluctantly, if at all.

Sample Listing

1986 £2 pound coin scotland commonwealth games with scottish thistle excellent condition elizabeth II

12.5 Carat Gold

very good condition

happy bidding

12.5 Carat Gold
12.5 Carat Gold does not exist. We are not sure what the seller means by this, as a genuine gold £2 coin is 22 carat gold. Not only is the seller stealing images, but they are also misleading the customer.

Seller ID: kearnie_123
Item Number: 170659894068
Date: 25th June 2011
Description: 2 x 1986 £2 pound coin scotland common wealth games

Price: £7.03

What’s Wrong?

We invest a great deal of time, effort, and cost into creating some of the best photographic coin and gold bar images on the internet. We strongly object when lazy and dishonest people decide to use them without a by your leave or thanks, doing so in competition with us.
Copyright theft is dishonest. We recommend you avoid doing business with dishonest dealers.
It is always possible, even likely, that sellers who steal photographs do not own a similar bar, and have the intention to totally defraud potential buyers.
The vendor is not only cheating us by stealing our copyright images, he is fraudulently or ignorantly misleading and deceiving all potential buyers. Gaining pecuniary advantage by deception is the definition of fraud.

Price
The seller was asking for a Starting Price of £0.99.

Even without after eBay’s greedy 10% selling fees, and possible PayPal charges, the seller would almost certainly have been much better off selling the coins to us, instead of stealing our photographs.

eBay Guilty of Negligence or Complicity
We will be reporting this example of copyright abuse using our standard Statutory Declaration via the eBay VeRO programme, and wait to see if they chose to action or ignore our report. We look forward to taking legal action against eBay for their negligence and / or complicity if they fail to take down the offending material promptly.