Bogus War Eagle again

[watlingboy]

Item #6178575416 is claiming he is auctioning an original machine that was restored in 1989. It was put together in 1989. Repro case with wrong wood, wrong handle, repro back door and I'm sure repro castings. Mech has wrong strips. And it has that classic sticker on the inside of case which says it was remanfactured using new parts as needed. Bottom all they had was a mech. Sell these all you want but don't say the old man owned this for 50 years and it's original.

Watlingboy

[Dave]

Has anyone sent the seller (who appears to be an auction house) that they are selling a fake machine?

I see the price is at $1,850 and still has not hit the reserve.

This is probably the classic case where the buyer actually thought he did own an authentic antique because of the way the machine was marketed to him by the store who sold it.

In any case, the owner should be educated so the fraud is not perpetuated by accident.

If the machine does hit reserve, I am sure the high bidder will be notified by someone in this group.

[watlingboy]

Dave,

I contacted the auction house and told them the machine was a repro. Their response was "We didn't know, we only know what the seller tells us". With that being said, I notice they have done nothing to revise the description. I have not reported it to E-Bay. How long does it take for them to react?

Watlingboy

[Dave]

I have contacted E-Bay several times in the past. They usually don't respond until after the auction is over. In one case, the person continued to sell reproduction War Eagles & Golden Nuggets (and still does) and E-Bay took no action.

I will contact the seller tonight and also tell him he has a fake. Perhaps other people reading this forum should do the same.

[gurian_auctions]

I have been told by the owner of this item that I am selling that it was a restored original. Trusting someone for their word was my first mistake. I do not wish to sell anything that it is not. I apologise to anyone who is offenended by what I represented and have updated the auction to reflect that. I would like to get any advice on how I should handle this with the owner as well as how to properly list this. I don't know anything about antique slot machines nor do I claim to. I would like to go to the owner with a value as to how much this would get if listed properly.
Again......my sincere apologies to anybody who thought I was doing this on purpose. I am an honest seller as my feedback clearly states on eBay and I wish to remain that way.
I have left my e-mail to be visible so anyone can contact me if they wish.
Personal thank you to Dave and apologies.

[Dave]

I have been told by the owner of this item that I am selling that it was a restored original. Trusting someone for their word was my first mistake. I do not wish to sell anything that it is not. I apologise to anyone who is offenended by what I represented and have updated the auction to reflect that. I would like to get any advice on how I should handle this with the owner as well as how to properly list this. I don't know anything about antique slot machines nor do I claim to. I would like to go to the owner with a value as to how much this would get if listed properly.
Again......my sincere apologies to anybody who thought I was doing this on purpose. I am an honest seller as my feedback clearly states on eBay and I wish to remain that way.
I have left my e-mail to be visible so anyone can contact me if they wish.
Personal thank you to Dave and apologies.

I think your updated listing accurately describes the machine. If it does not sell I would call the owner and tell them to take the machine back and let them deal with it.

[watlingboy]

The guy made it right and revised his listing. He seemed like a nice guy and I believe he was completely unaware. Thanks to all who contacted him.

Watlingboy

[Dave]

The guy made it right and revised his listing. He seemed like a nice guy and I believe he was completely unaware. Thanks to all who contacted him.

Watlingboy

When I first contacted him I told him his machine was being discussed in a slot machine forum and that it was a fake.

His response was pretty nasty (I don't think he believed this forum existed), he threatened to contact E-Bay and say I was harassing him. I found that pretty funny since he was the one selling the bogus machine.

I responded and gave him the URL to this forum. He immediately apologized to me and updated his listing and posted in the forum.

Anyway, he did make it right.

[gurian_auctions]

I was also contacted by a person several weeks ago about some Jukeboxes that I was selling for another client. He informed me that one method of collectors to get a better deal on something they wanted was to intimidate a seller who may seem like an amateur in the field. Thus it also dawned on me that people who used these tactics were not being nice and were in fact trying to manipulate the seller.
I am still weary of those and their tactics. It was with this knowledge that I thought of the possibility of being strong armed by a couple of collectors.
This is not the case here!
I have contacted the owners of this Fake War Eagle and told them what has happened. Since the Father has passed away in 1998, the sons who own this, assumed that it was an original. I told them that any price they get on this, they should take. They have agreed with me and also apologised to my potential customers and clients for any mis-representation.
I hope that this one incident doesn't embitter others from watching or pherhaps bidding on my auctions in the future.
Thank you again to all who contacted me and provided their expertise and advice on this sensative matter.
Sincerely,
Jason Gurian
267-481-3200

[Dave]

Jason:

I think you have handled the situation very well and I don't think it will prevent anyone in this group of collectors from bidding on items you have listed.

I will offer the following (free) advice. Take it for what it is worth.

In general, I think one has to be very careful with the word "MINT" on any collectible. There are very few collectibles in real mint condition and unless you are very knowlegable in the field I would never use the word mint. The same goes for the word "RARE". If the collectible is in mint condition the collectors will know that from the pictures. They don't need to be told. The same goes for rare.