I wanted to touch on the topic of extortion sales on the site.  Specifically, gold jewelry being sold from Hong Kong China CLEARLY STATING that the item is either 10K or 14K gold, when they clearly are NOT.  I have continually asked ebay to remove these bogus auctions, but ebay's unresponsive stance tells me that ebay would rather line their pockets than save their community against fraud.

How the extortion works.

You see, bid and win an item on ebay which is described as either 10K or 14K gold.  The cost of the item is $x.xx plus $36.00 shipping from Hong Kong.  You do the math and send a paypal payment to your Hong Kong seller.  The item arrives and you quickly notice that the piece of jewelry is beyond junk and is not even PLATED with gold.  You leave a negative feedback to warn the ebay community of the seller selling bogus counterfeit jewelry on ebay.  Your seller retaliates and leaves YOU a negative feedback.  When your seller leaves you a negative feedback, it also files a mutual feedback withdrawal.  (This process, if both parties approve, removes both negative feedbacks respectively.)  Ebay would prefer both parties to mutually agree to remove their respective negative feedback as it saves their site a tremendous amount in legal fees.

On the flip side, there is the extortion hostage, and this is how THAT works:

As the above, you win the item for $x.xx plus $36.00 shipping.  When you receive the item and discover it to be a garbage piece of trash, you write the seller.  The seller tells you to return it for a refund, and so you do.  The seller refunds you the $x.xx but does NOT refund you the $36.00 you paid for having the item shipped TO you -nor- for having to send the piece of garbage back.  OR... You determine that it is cheaper for you just to keep the piece of junk, thus falling into the extortion hostage realm and further line ebay's pockets.  (Read the listing from Hong Kong... it clearly states they do not refund shipping charges).

Here are a few examples I found just a few minutes ago relating to the mutual withdrawals, blanketing the ebay site in record numbers.

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Item:  Rare men 14k white gold roadside chain yellow necklace (#xxxxxxxxxxxx)
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  I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THIS SELLER AGAIN, NO, THE JEWELRY IS NOT REAL (Dec 11/2007)
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Item:  Lady Gorgeous Emerald Diamond 10KT Yellow Gold Ring (#xxxxxxxxxxxx)
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Item:  ESTATE VINTAGE RARE 14K YELLOW GOLD VICTORIAN BRACELET (#xxxxxxxxxxxx)
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Mdse. is not 14K. Listing is fraudulent. Costume jewelry w/excessive shipping (Dec 11/2007)
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This isn't even the tip of the ice-burg.  Why ebay continues to allow this type of crime on their site only cements the fact that they would rather line their pockets than protect their members.

If you ever see a piece of jewelry you wish to bid on but would like a second opinion, please PLEASE do not write ebay... write me, and I will be more than happy to save you a few hundred dollars.

I hope that this becomes an eye-opener to the ebay community.  While ebay may continue to shut its eyes on this, I will vocalize this realm until the cows come home.  People HAVE TO BE ALERTED to this, and I am doing through this ebay Guide.

If you found this guide to be enlightening or informative, please do click the appropriate box below.  Thank you.

May your eyes see through the junk that ebay has turned a blind eye to.

Good luck,
Blissmeister, Esq.