New Chinese Scam to Watch for

[avionsunantiques]

I sell antiques and art.  One of the antique area's I specialize in it Antique Chinese Porcelain.  I also sell a few other small Chinese Antiques.   Recently I've noticed a lot of Chinese buyers have started sending me an email asking to return the item for one reason or another.   Usually they say they've shown the item to some unnamed "friend" or "specialist", who has told them the item is not antique, so they'd like to return it.  The email usually ends with "let me know".   This seems to be an attempt to get the seller to offer them a part refund to keep the item.  When questioned, they refuse to provide the name of the "friend" or "specialist".   When I point out that I know for certain the item is antique (based on its known history, combined with my own expertise), they drop their request - sometimes after leaving negative feedback.

It seems to me that one of several things is going on here.

1.  The buyer wants to try and sell the item to one of his clients, and if unsuccessful, then attempts to return the item for a refund.  OR

2.  The buyer wants to get the item in their hands so they can photograph and otherwise record its shape and decoration, so as to be able to make fakes.  OR

3.   Ebay Retailers of fake Chinese porcelain (of which I can easily identify several, but can't include their Ebay id's here), will quickly offer a part refund to any buyer who questions the authenticity of their purchase - which is why those sellers of fakes are able to maintain a 100% positive feedback standing.  This sellers of fakes, have conditioned Chinese buyers to claim the item is fake, with the expectation they will get to keep the item, and receive a sizable refund.

4.  The last option is the old ebay scam of trying to extort a part refund from the seller - but this has always been a problem, and occurs all over the world, which is why I'm drawing attention to something else - ie a new scam conducted by Chinese buyers.

[femmefan1946]

Interesting . Is China your primary market for these antiques? Would it be economical to Block bidders from China?

If most of your sales are shipping back to China, that is an interesting commentary on their economy. (Quite apart from your problem, of course.) It means that the Chinese are becoming wealthy enough to buy back the heritage they lost to economic invaders over the past century and a half.

[widgetc]

"It means that the Chinese are becoming wealthy enough to buy back the heritage they lost to economic invaders over the past century and a half."

That is the case with chinese stamps.

[ricarmic]

This is an interesting topic. I have sold to a number of folks from China, and I have had some "complaints" which also always end up including a notation that they'll accept a partial discount. The most frustrating was a fellow that bought 20,000 stamps which were in bundles of 100. Instead of counting the bundles he weighed them and based on his "vast experience" he claimed my count was off by 30%. I had counted out the bundles myself so I know it was right but I had to give him the 30% back to get rid of the "item not as described" case and negative he gave me....he did similar things to a number of other sellers too (I like to watch some of the problem children to see what they do to others). I also got a note from eBay thanking me for looking after the case promptly and a survey which I couldn't help myself from saying that basically he used the item not as described claim to rip me off for a 30% refund. Never heard back from that of course but it felt good to include it anyway. It is intesting that I hadn't noticed that the complaints from China tend to include an offer for a partial refund (normally for complaints from other places it is usually me who puts forward the partial refund option). Fortunately complaints are still fairly rare (aside from postal delivery slowness) so it will hopefully be hard to see if there is a trend but I'll keep a closer eye on it going forward.