and it'd take a month of Sundays just to really learn that one article about 'fine'.
Yes.
And that is why there are expertising services like those run by the Royal Philatelic Society or the Vincent Graves Green Foundation. And private expertisers like Sergio Sismondo. Expertisers and dealers have put in several months of Sundays learning the trade and most see millions of stamps every year they are in business.
It's not unusual for high value (or rare, which is not the same thing) items to be sold with a requirement for a expert certificate being obtained.
In buying estates, dealers like DH (and pierrelebel before he retired from active dealing, I suppose) constantly run into material that was oversold to the unwary collector.
My husband has several times seen the spot in an album decorated by a picture of the stamp clipped out of a magazine or catalogue. One can only hope that it was done by the collector filling spaces. It's one reason why dealers doing appraisals ask that the owner remain during the appraisal. To protect the dealer, not the seller.
Even someone who would not describe herself as anything but vaguely aware of condition and grading, will refer potential investors* in stamps at the very least to read the pages at the front of the Scott Catalogues which give a fast and simple overview of what the catalogue is actually saying about the stamps. If he also reads what is meant by grading, bonus!
And then there are the sellers, in every category, who refuse to use grading standards or who use them incorrectly, whether with clean hands or no.
And 'grading creep', like the term XF which came into the Canadian market from the USA about 20 years ago.
A lot comes down to 'caveat emptor'.
I agree with both the OP and pierre on this question.
Certainly, eBay should be dealing with sellers who blatantly misrepresent their goods. Including stamp sellers and Asian sellers of counterfeit Apple-like earbuds.
It's a hassle, but of course an unhappy buyer does have the right to return poorly described items through the Resolution Centre.
And eBay does restrict or even terminate selling accounts with many disputes.
Still, the photo shows up even on a mobile device and the intelligent buyer should be comparing the picture to the written description and asking questions or hitting the everpresent backbutton.
We have the right to be grownups and make our own decisions, no matter how faulty.
*For the record, stamps are not an investment, stamps are a hobby. Like golf or rocketry. Don't go into collecting stamps to make money.
