Ebay can be a great place to buy quality, authentic artifacts from all over the
world. It can also be a place to spend thousands of dollars and find out later your investment is worthless, and that
you have assembled a large collection of very expensive fakes.
Authentic, rare artifacts are sold on Ebay
every day, and occasionally a rare piece is in fact sold for well under the market price for such a piece. However,
this is the exception rather than the rule. Most genuine, rare pieces, such as Clovis and Folsom type points and other
types, especially those with accompanying Certificates of Authenticity from well-known authenticators, will sell for above
the market value for those types. This is also true of more common pieces.
Some Ebay bidders will
find a Clovis or Folsom point (or any other type) listed as being "genuine" and pay hundreds to thousands of
dollars for it without knowing whether it is actually genuine or not. Later, after sending it to an authenticator and
being informed that it is modern, the buyer is not only out the costs of authentication, shipping, but now cannot locate the
seller on Ebay because they have moved or changed their seller ID, having already moved on to the next unknowing bidder to
continue selling their fakes.
It is wise to check the reputation of the Ebay seller, as well as their feedback
in the feedback forum. Everyone makes a mistake now and then, but there is no excuse for ANY seller to have continuing
poor feedback and still be allowed to sell on Ebay. In my opinion, if they have sold thousands of pieces and have
even a handful of bad feedback entries, it is best to avoid buying from them at all.
If a seller will not offer
AT LEAST a 30-day return period for authenticity, then it is wise to avoid buying from them. There are plenty
of AACA artifact dealers that will guarantee the authenticity of their pieces, some even offering a "lifetime
authenticity" guarantee on each piece they sell. It is best to stick with these Ebay sellers when looking to buy
good, quality, genuine artifacts on Ebay.
With Ebay, as with anything else, you usually "Get what you
pay for" and it is better to be safe than sorry when purchasing artifacts for your collection.
