Dear Banksy Buyers.
There's been a fresh wave of dodgy sellers pretending to sell Banksy prints on eBay. There is a few precautions you can take to protect yourselves against these common thiefs as sadly eBay seem a little slow on the uptake here despite being phoned and emailed when the listings are active.
Firstly, take a look at the feedback and the recent account activity of the seller. If they have feedback of only around 10 or 11 and haven't used their account for a good while then take care. I'm in no way suggesting that everyone with small feedback scores are dodgy (we all have to start somewhere!) but it's a common factor in this recent spate so bear it in mind.
There are some other points below which you might want to familiarise yourself with.
1) Seller won't accept Paypal - bank transer only. (Try suggesting that you will add 5% to cover their fees if that is their concern). Remember that Paypal is the ONLY way that your transaction will be protected. Love it or hate it - it has it's benefits. Ask yourself if you are you comfortable transferring huge amounts of your money into someone elses bank account with no protection at all from eBay or Paypal?
2) "Pre-arranged" courier. Again, no protection, proof or tracking.
3) 1 day listing. Wanting to get them up and off as quickly as possible without attracting too much of the wrong attention. Ask yourself why would you do that?
4) Listing "on behalf of my brother" or some other BS reason why they are happy for a £5K-£10K piece go for a tenth of that.
5) Rare signed pieces. These folk are so dumb that the pieces they choose to pretend to have stand out like a blind cobblers thumb when they go up.
6) Private listings. Avoiding people like me warning the bidders to get the hell out!
Point 5 is the most obvious. Don't get excited if you see a rare signed piece like Christ with Shopping sitting at £1000 with an hour to go. There is probably a reason for this. There are enough people buying and selling on eBay to ensure that 9 times out of 10 items get what they are worth, so don't think you are the only person that's spotted that elusive rare item!
Even a seller telling you that he/she has all the provenance/receipts that you are looking for it still does not mean they are not crooks. More often than not the listings are copied from somewhere else so don't be fooled by them when they use buzz words like "bought at Santa's Ghetto" for example. Ask them questions (try and catch them out even! - it's your money!)
Lastly, the good people at the Banksy Forum (http://banksyforum.proboards82.com/) are experts and really know the score. They have started a thread on there called "Dodgy Art on eBay (Read Before You Buy). Check on there if you have ANY suspicions about the piece you are looking at. Chances are someone will have spotted it and written about it. If not, ask a question about it and you will get a response very quickly.
The key to all this is probably 'if it seems to good too be true, it probably is'. Better let that 'amazing bargain' go rather than lose £2000+++ of your hard earned cash.
Sadly, if you really want a Christ with Shopping that's signed - set aside £10K+!
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