Tommy GG 101

[bighomer]

What I wonder is, are the same buyers buying from him over and over? If they are they must have deep pockets.I have read that a lot of our members selling legitimate knives can't generate those kind of prices, that is what makes me wonder if he has a small buch of followers.

[tongueriver]

It has been my experience that all attempts to report sellers for any infractions whatsoever elicit absolutely zero response. I have tried many times, everything from keyword spamming to counterfeiting. Nothing ever happens. I don't think that the mechanism even exists. It is just there to create an image of responsible oversight. Are the ebay listings in the millions or are they in the billions? I don't think Ebay could hire enough employees to take care of this problem. The only mechanism that is active is feedback, and I don't think I will buy a knife from Tommy in order to leave feedback. I have always been a consumer advocate but gradually I am understanding that there are no protections from predators (and it is getting worse) so I just concentrate on protecting Number One through experience and knowledge. Many decades ago, a person like Tommy would be 'taken care of.' Nowadays criminals and dirtbags pretty much run free, and even first degree murder generally results in short-term prison sentences.

[espn77]

So, I posted a hubertus switchblade on eBay. It took them about 12 hrs to shut me down. I had no key words just said it "functioned properly". They even restricted Mr from buying or selling for about A week. I assume someone turned me in but i dont know. Them I got a bad email from eBay.

[gsmith7158]

So, I posted a hubertus switchblade on eBay. It took them about 12 hrs to shut me down. I had no key words just said it "functioned properly". They even restricted Mr from buying or selling for about A week. I assume someone turned me in but i dont know. Them I got a bad email from eBay.

Keith i had no idea you were a purveyor of such lethal weapons. I bet you've been carving up snail darters and chopping of the heads of desert tortoises with those instantaneous killing machines.

[just bob]

Only my 2 cents worth here. Ebay isn't going to do anything at all about counterfeit knives. This has been posted before but ebay is the agent and determining the authenticity of an item is up to the seller. Here is the agreement you read and check off on prior to selling. It Is no doubt stored on the cloud.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/compliant-listings.html

That being said there is a sure fire way to stop the counterfeiting. Ebay wants the community to police itself and not dedicate a lot of customer service resources to these type of issues and that's just what should happen. So long as sellers are selling spurious products and aren't getting bad feedback ebay assumes these sellers are Sunday school teachers. Feedback is an opinion and doesn't have to be based on fact. Ebay customer service will tell you they can not possibly be the arbitor of opinion. I get that - seller says great snap - buyer says weak snap. Who knows without examining the knife who is right. Then one person needs to step up and buy a Tommygg special. Keep it a few days and tell him you have had it examined it and it is a counterfeit and you want to return it. He has no choice but to take it back and give you a return. Once you have the return money back in your account leave him negative feedback and be sure to mention the word counterfeit in the comments - like - sold me a counterfeit knife. Again it is your opinion the knife is counterfeit and not a statement of fact. Just like he says a knife is authentic and genuine - that is his opinion. When it is seen one person has done this then another person step up and repeat the process. Again and again. In short order Ole' Tommy goes from Sunday school teacher to black sheep of the family and ebay starts to look at his feedback and why he is getting these comments. His regular buyers also start to examine the knives they are buying from him and get on the band wagon as well. It grows like a snowball rolling downhill. If Tommy wants to get with the program and stop his unethical selling then cut him some slack. You will no doubt be blocked from bidding on his items if you leave negative feedback so it will take a group. No need to make a pledge or sign a petition. One person start the process and then another pick up the cause. Within a few months we'll never have to read about Tommygg again. Of course the other side of the coin is people are buying these jacked up knives and are not leaving the man bad feedback. A certain part of the blade for this mess is on the buyers and not the sellers. They must be happy with their purchases?

[gsmith7158]

Here's part of the problem. People buying stuff like this from this seller.
http://m.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1975-Case ... v=WATCHING
While they are not counterfeit and only rehandled there is no mention of that in the listing. People are not knowledgeable about the knives they are buying. And there are a bunch of them out there.

[Gizmo1211]

I'd like to add my stupidity on this. I like to combine collect (example a Coca-Cola case xx knife, did great on that) but I bought a 1933 world's fair Disney design knife. Then I found an article about this "fantasy" knife...about the 70s someone started stamping Disney knives with World Fair on them..Even sent article to eBay, yet it's still filled with them. Oh well, didn't get soaked, and it still looks cool, but can only resale as a fake..but, I'll probably just keep it, if nothing else, it's still Disney. Silly I know...it's that impulse buying devil in my head lol!

[KnifeSlinger#81]

So, I posted a hubertus switchblade on eBay. It took them about 12 hrs to shut me down. I had no key words just said it "functioned properly". They even restricted Mr from buying or selling for about A week. I assume someone turned me in but i dont know. Them I got a bad email from eBay.

I've rarely seen switchblade listings last long enough to be sold or the bidding to end, and most of them have no key words in the description either, much like yours.

If ebay can take switches down that efficiently, they can at least make an effort with counterfeits. Especially when it's reported by multiple people. But they won't.

[just bob]

I was sitting at home minding my own business and got a call from ebay. They told me they had a problem with one of my listings. I asked and they said I failed to specify which type of handle material the knife had. I told them I didn't know. It was a Rough Rider made in China knife with white bone that I assume was water buffalo or camel? The caller said it didn't matter I had to specify the handle type or the listing would be taken down and gave me an hour to edit the listing. What I assume happened was that the knife had scrimshaw and someone brought it to eBay's attention as being ivory? Anyway I went to listing and put bovine bone and never heard anymore about it. For the record I have looked at many listings where the handle material is not specified, so they must have thought mine may have been ivory and were trying to clear themselves of any wrong doing. They can find a switchblade in a dark room with a candle and get overly concerned about a $25 China knife, but let sellers like Tommygg continue to steal hundreds of dollars from innocent buyers and not see the hypocrisy in their policies. Sad indeed.

[cbfd]

Just an idea,but maybe if these counterfeit knives were reported as being switchblades,Ebay would remove them. Bill

[Mumbleypeg]

Just an idea,but maybe if these counterfeit knives were reported as being switchblades,Ebay would remove them. Bill

Great idea Bill!

I'd be surprised if the snowflakes at ebay would know a switchblade from a machete. I like it.

Ken

[cbfd]

I don`t think they would know the difference either. Bill

[americanedgetech]

The only way to pull a seller from Ebay is to buy, return, and bad feedback him/her off.
This all depends on how deep your pockets are, and how committed you are.

Like Just Bob said IF you get a group to work together it can be done.

[cbfd]

What I meant was maybe Ebay would remove the knife,not the seller.If it were done often enough,these sellers may become discouraged.

[americanedgetech]

Well the obvious trend with this seller is to ignore the nay sayers, and he HAS to know what he is doing is wrong so IMHO a seller such as that should be removed.
Morals are not a thing that is switched on or off. Either you are an honest, hard working person or you are a parasite feeding off of honest people.

Reporting a knife as an auto is a false report in itself so... take it for what it's worth.

Buying them off with returns, and bad feedback is the only method that I know that works.
About 5 years ago a group from 4Chan forced a seller off w/ returns/feedback. I wont say what the seller was accused of but he sold kids clothes...

[cbfd]

I like to fight fire with fire,and if I`m mistaken about whether or not a knife is a switchblade,well,I`ve never claimed that I was an expert. Bill