Whether an artist decides to offer only original paintings, prints or both, what in my opinion is most important when deciding to purchase art is whether the art is authentic or not.

There are many great artists offering their works on eBay in the form of originals, prints and even both, but unfortunately there are others which call themselves artists without getting even close to the business, whose main objective is to literally steal the images of honest artists from their listings on eBay and personal websites to offer them as "originals" for pennies on eBay flooding the market with badly and poorly produced copies which they try to pass as originals. These sellers commonly seen as registered in China and other Asian countries and even in the USA have hundreds of these apparent originals listed which sell for almost nothing with highly priced shipping charges.

Many new collectors and art shoppers looking for a bargain or something to match their decor would spend 10 - 20 dollars and even more on one of these so called "originals" later to discover they are terribly done or even if they apparently look good now in a year or two they would be so deteriorated that you would realize you had wasted 20-100 or even more. Not mentioning they are not one of a kind they are massed produced.

These unscrupulous sellers are criminals in the whole sense of the word, because they violate completely the Copyright Law and in many cases Federal Law, not mentioning they damage the careers of thousands of honest artists that chose to sell their art on eBay putting the art market on stake.

Then why waste 20 - 500 or even more for an illegal copy if you could get a REAL, well done AUTHENTIC print signed and dated by the ORIGINAL artist or an ORIGINAL painting that was made with the highest quality materials that will last and that will become an investment.

There is something as a collector and art shopper you can do to stop these criminals and help the real artists:

1. Use common sense when purchasing art even a print. Authentic prints or real Picasso’s, Dali’s or Monet’s are not to be found on eBay. 99% of all those found here are unauthorized re-prints or imitations that don’t come near the real thing. For 100 or 1000 dollars you are not getting the real thing. If you really want a Picasso look for them on prestigious galleries and museums.
2. Many of these criminals offer works done by many, many living artists not giving any guarantee that the artists they promote are in reality the original artists nor if they really exist. The majority of the REAL Original Art sold on eBay is offered directly by the artist unless the organization who’s offering the paintings is indeed an honest one promoting the work of many artists.
3. Check their ME page. Many, many self promoting artists on eBay have a biography and even links to their blogs, websites and other places where you can find more info about them. 
4. Check the country of origin from where the artwork is being shipped from. Many of these impostors say they ship from Australia for example, when in reality they are located in another country.
5. Check the feedback of the seller, and if you see comments like “poorly done” or “is not an original is a print” then stay away from them.
6. This is the era of the internet so 95% of the artists have a webpage, a blog or some presence on the web, so do a search for their name and check if in reality the artist exist.
7. Ask as many questions as you can, if the artist is really who they say they are, they would be pleased to answer your questions in a satisfactory manner.
8. Check on their feedback to see if they have repeat customers. Original artists do have repeat customers during different time frames which validates the integrity of both artist and artwork.
9. Real honest artists on eBay have become a community and have formed many prestigious art groups whose main object is to promote the works of their members all of them honest and real living artists whose passion is to create not to copy. Such organizations and groups strive in offering only the works of established real living artists whose main objective is to offer quality art on eBay.
10. Verify the shipping costs and hidden charges, you will find many of these scammers would try to sell you a frame and even have extremely high shipping costs for an item that is apparently ship inside the US. 

EBay can be a great place to shop for art despite all scams, just use common sense and look for real living artists.
 
Happy Shopping!
 
Manuela Valenti/MVStudio Art Gallery