Caveat Emptor, eBay warns! "Let the buyer BEWARE!"

And if it's an amazingly low-priced "rare antique" out of China, you can bet your bippy it probably isn't rare, and it certainly isn't a genuine "antique".  China is famous for its wonderful copies of ancient artifacts.

This lovely "Tibet Silver Antique statue of God of War " looks quite authentic.  It WAS made in China, but is definitely not from the 1600's.  I found thirty of these "rare" statues on eBay yesterday, and the going price was anywhere from $.99 to $195.00, with SH fees of anywhere from $68.00 to $230.00!   I seriously doubt that this is "solid silver". 

Recently I was looking for metal horses on eBay, and found some absolutely GORGEOUS "bronze" statues offered by merchants from various cities in China, all advertising these items to be "exceedingly rare" and "Old Antique China Warhorse of rarest type!"

As for "rare", here is another version in another color, touted as
"Solid Tibet Silver".

See Ancient Antique Breyer Big Ben War Horse below...hmmm.  Looks like our "rare antique" is a lot more recent that the Tang Dynasty.

Also, over two dozen different Asian sellers were offering the exact same item for various terribly low starting prices! (So much for exceedingly rare.)  Plus, the Chinese war horse "bronze" is simply a bronze effect, not solid metal as you are led to believe.

And beware of those items listed as "silver" or "gold".  They are painted silver and gold.  Only a rare few are really solid precious metal.

For instance, this "Exceedingly Rare Ancient Chinese Antique Tibet Silver God of War" statue sells for anywhere from $9.99 to $150.00, with SH of at least $120.00!  At last count, there were over 75 of these "rare antique" statues up for sale on eBay.  Also, it is silver coated, not solid silver as the item description says.

When sellers set a minuscule starting bid or "buy it now" price, and then slap you with huge SH fees, this is referred to as "circumventing eBay fees".  eBay only charges a final value fee on the actual selling price...not on the SH. So these sellers end up keeping a whopping profit that usually equals at least 5 times what the actual value of the sold item was.

So, again, just remember..."If it's TOO good to be true...it probably ISN'T true."

These sellers DO read these guides, and eBay DOES pay attention when buyers report such practices, so report these people to eBay so that eBay can take an active hand in stopping this kind of selling.