They'll be the first to tell you: "We're JUST a venue...we have NO IDEA if something is authentic."
AND...they are under NO legal obligation to ask a seller to PROVE anything. Ha ha. Caveat Emptor.
They rely, in the case of celebrity swindles, on the celebrity to see the fraud and report it, or the celebrity's VeRO (Verified Rights Owner) rep to notice it and, out of morality, send in a DMCA.
Since most stars don't even have a VeRO rep on eBay, and many who do have to PAY for every stoppage, it's no surprise that fraud happens on eBay. That includes faked autographs, and most especially "memorabilia" on dead people from history.
Lookie Lookie. Here's a supposed art expert with a thousand auctions, and he's saying he's got a rare, valuable portrait of MORT SAHL!
You remember Mort Sahl? Bulb-headed guy with glasses and a receding hairline?
A guy with weird floppy ears and a squat, bulbous nose?
Let's see that again...
Now let's see a picture of Mort Sahl, taken around the time this portrait was supposedly painted:
The seller was sent a PM and told it's NOT MORT SAHL, and did the seller remove the item, or reply? Nooooooo.
Why did the seller think this is a potrait of Mort Sahl?
Oh. On the back, or on a piece of paper somewhere, there's the notation, "Portrait of Mort."
So who ELSE could it be? There's only ONE guy named MORT in America. RIGHT?
The painter is from New Orleans. The only connection Mort has to New Orleans is when he worked for Jim Garrison down there. The photo above was take around that time. Gosh, Mort is NOT wearing glasses, does NOT have a receding hairline, does NOT have a weird domed bulbous head, and his famous nose is not squat. Well, uh, artistic license??
Let's take a look at some of the other GEMS this seller is offering.
AMAZING. He's somehow acquired bits of hair from the two most famous Presidents: Washington and Lincoln. AND the most famous actress, Marilyn Monroe. HOW did he do ALL THAT?
These items come with a COA (Certificate of Authenticity) and EBAY does warn bidders (somewhere, buried on a website page) that a COA is not worth the paper it's printed on, unless the authentication comes NOT from the seller, but from a very, VERY respected third party.
If you've got the imagination and the nerve, YOU can go on eBay and offer forgeries of dead people, go to a thrift shop and pretend some item was once worn by a celebrity, download fake nudes and claim they are real, or play any number of other games. It may take quite a while before legitimate autograph dealers start saying "BEWARE" and dare to name the crook. It may take a while before an irate bidder thinks to actually authenticate an item, declare fraud, and contact the Better Business Bureau or Paypal or eBay and demand a refund.
Ebay tends to yawn, suspend the seller, and if the seller comes back, rinse and repeat. You think Paypal is going to go to the police and huff that maybe all the seller's items were frauds and the seller should refund everybody? Ho and hum.
Get a few strands of hair, look up a bio of Lincoln or Marilyn, name-check somebody who may have known them and who is also long dead, and you've got a story and a BUY IT NOW for $400. Who is going to pay $400 to have that $400 purchase authenticated? What kind of sucker would simply trust EBAY and PAYPAL and pay the money to show off a worthless item? There's one born every minute.
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