Hello folks. I have been selling Civil War relics on eBay for almost 6 years. I have been a collector since the age of 12 when my father gave me my first Yankee 3 ringer bullet. One of the major concerns today is the issue of fakes, replicas, and misrepresented items on eBay in the Civil War category. While there are sellers who knowingly sale modern or antiqued items as old ones, the majority of sellers are honest and outstanding members of the eBay community.

This leads me to my first point, take lightly the anonymous emails from eBay members who tell you that a certain item you are bidding on is fake or modern. First of all, the vast majority of these people are dealers and have a monetary interest in eBay's sales. These dealers try to anonymously hurt their competitor's business. Many dealers will tell you that an item is 'bad' hoping that your bidding interest will be steered toward their items. Secondly, how could someone be 100 percent sure that an item is 'bad' without holding it in their hands? It is impossible to accurately appraise an item by a photo alone. There are so many things you must look for, for example: is the patina original or chemically applied? It's hard to say from a picture. Thirdly, there are groups of people from northern Virginia who are bashing the names of the good sellers on eBay. This group consists of Civil War relic hunters, diggers, and downright criminal personas. They are harassing bidders, buyers, and sellers on eBay and are very disrupting to honest businesses. You should take their opinions with a grain of salt for a few reasons. First, the group is all dealers (see my example above). Second, only two or three of the members actually have collections. The majority wouldn't know a real Civil War D Guard Bowie Knife from a Philippines imposter! They consider themselves experts, but do not own any of it!

I would like to address the issue of private auctions and private feedback. Over the last 3 years, eBay has become a major player in the online ecommerce world and has attracted thousands of customers. Along with the customers are the criminals who search eBay night and day trying to make a dishonest dollar. Many of my customers have been sent fake 'Second Chance Offers' on items that I have sold. The criminals would include their mailing address or Paypal account name for the money to be sent to. The criminals will look at my bidder list, and my feedback, for winning bidders to send their offers to. Some of my customers have fallen for the trap and sent money to these criminals. The only way I can protect my customer's identity is to make my auctions and feedback private. Some eBayers want you to believe that sellers are hiding your identity to prevent you from being warned that an item is 'bad' (I refer you to my discussion above on appraising a picture). This is simply not true. The anonymity of the Internet allows people to say and do things that they would never say or do in person. We sellers have to protect our business from dishonest sellers.

I would like to thank you for reading my buying guide. Happy hunting!