Banksy's on eBay • Real or Fake?

[ziggy]

Looks like someone needs to get out more... I have seen loads of prints with 'Banksy' in the title being pulled off eBay in recent weeks (including my own). Even listings that are giving Banksy items away with the main item. I personally am not offended by a bit of cross selling (selling that is, not dressing). I've discovered many a new artist whilst searching for a particular artist. What are your thoughts?

Also, are eBay checking Banksy listing with a fine toothcomb or are there 'eBay Banksy Police' out there spending all their time finding offending listings and reporting them to eBay!

[saltandiron]

I've never reported a listing to ebay but it is annoying when you put 'banksy' into the search box and you get a lot of rubbish back. I go on ebay to buy things not to have find new artists, that what I use this forum/ebay forum/other websites for.
but thats just me.

[hexagonsun]

Personally I think it can get a bit annoying looking for banksy's on ebay with hundreds of people 'cross selling' and listing items: 'Not BANKSY' etc.

[bombshelter]

saltandiron , i agree with that, loads of rubbish under banksy search most of the time, but sometimes i forget to look for other artists when on ebay and only look at banksy ,and have seen some nice stuff by people cross selling in banksy search.

[romanywg]

My wife and I are wel into cross dressing... oops sorry read that wrong!

[corblimeylimey]

It's about time they started doing this, it was getting out of hand IMO.

As long as it's applied to everyone it's fair, and that way when you search for Banksy, you get the right results.

[rabbitlegs]

Im sick of all the daft T-shirts, cups, fridge magnets and flippin eastern promise repro canvas tat. What next "Girl with balloon" balloons.....? or perhaps "Love is in the air" bedsheets and curtains...? Hang on... I think Im onto summat here.

[corblimeylimey]

rabbitlegs said:

Im sick of all the daft T-shirts, cups, fridge magnets and flippin eastern promise repro canvas tat. What next "Girl with balloon" balloons.....? or perhaps "Love is in the air" bedsheets and curtains...? Hang on... I think Im onto summat here.

I agree with that too, I do a search for Banksy, then whittle it down to Prints, I don't expect mugs and tee shirts etc to be classified as prints (photos maybe as they are photographic prints)

[ziggy]

rabbitlegs said:

Im sick of all the daft T-shirts, cups, fridge magnets and flippin eastern promise repro canvas tat. What next "Girl with balloon" balloons.....? or perhaps "Love is in the air" bedsheets and curtains...? Hang on... I think Im onto summat here.

I agree about the mugs, fridge magnets, etc but I don't think those items are being pulled as they actually feature Banksy images (that's a copyright issue for another thread). It's more the Banksy 'stablemate' type of print's being pulled even when they include Banksy items in the auction, like postcards.

[corblimeylimey]

I've just looked on ebay for Banksy > Prints and it's the lowest amount of items / pages I've seen (135 / 3 pages) and that's including loads of magnets, mugs, tee shirts, eelus, insect, nick walker, cauty, Lucy McLauchlan, Chiho Aoshima, Dave Kinsey, Jamie Hewlet, bast, ghostboy, Jamie Reid, non Banksy POW postcards, etc

Take out all the crap, and you're left with 49 prints (around one page worth) I'd like to see that in the future.

[tomhills1]

i agree with the removal of wrongly listed mugs t-shirts etc in prints, clearly not are they. i'm unsure about say a micallef being listed as banksy, pow, hewlett stablemate etc. so long as what's being sold relates in some way. although it would be infuriating to those seasoned pro's who know exactly what they're looking for, to any newbies it may broaden their horizons.
good from a seller's point of view to advertise to as many people as possible, catch 22 a little bit for me.

[policeaware]

There's way too much s**te listed with Banksy in the title. 'Banksys Mate' 'Banksy stablemate' 'Banksys Neighbour' ' Banksys dentist'.........

If its not a Banksy print then it shouldn't be listed as such. If you want to cross promote items Ziggy then get an ebay shop and pay for the function otherwise put up with the consequences of breaking the rules.

Giving free items to enable keyword spamming is now against ebay rules as well so giving a crappy free Banksy photo with a floral dress is not on.

Re Banksy ebay police:

I can't be asked to report keyword spamming but I do put time in ridding ebay of scammers riding the Banksy wave, would you prefer me and the many others that do this to stop?

Take the rough with the smooth

[tomhills1]

good point, otherwise where do you draw the line?

[hexagonsun]

What i do is set the list to highest price first, that way only the decent stuff comes up

[corblimeylimey]

policeaware said:

There's way too much s**te listed with Banksy in the title. 'Banksys Mate' 'Banksy stablemate' 'Banksys Neighbour' ' Banksys dentist'.........

If its not a Banksy print then it shouldn't be listed as such. If you want to cross promote items Ziggy then get an ebay shop and pay for the function otherwise put up with the consequences of breaking the rules.

Giving free items to enable keyword spamming is now against ebay rules as well so giving a crappy free Banksy photo with a floral dress is not on.

Re Banksy ebay police:

I can't be asked to report keyword spamming but I do put time in ridding ebay of scammers riding the Banksy wave, would you prefer me and the many others that do this to stop?

Take the rough with the smooth

I'm glad the photo trick won't work anymore too, I bet there isn't one anyway.

They really must get Mugs, and Fridge Magnets etc out of the Prints section too.

[corblimeylimey]

ominoustom said:

What i do is set the list to highest price first, that way only the decent stuff comes up

Good point, but won't work for new listings that start off at 99p.

[policeaware]

Ebay don't do anything themselves. If stuff is listed in the wrong catergory users have to report it otherwise it will continue.

I know that quite alot of that rubbish is produced and listed by known sellers of Banksy prints who have set up new accounts for the sole purpose of selling junk. Some visit this forum.....

You know who you are and so do I!

[corblimeylimey]

How do report stuff in the wrong catergory, any link?

[BK83]

I have reported banksy ebay spammers in the past, but I've come to the realisation that there are too many of them and we can't win, so, sadly, I've given up. unless of course it's a blatant fraudulent Banksy print/'canvas' in which case I report it immediately because there are many people out there who don't know much about Banksy prints and getting provenance, and I know I'd be absolutley gutted if I spent loads of cash on a fake print.

[slowmo]

Policeaware, you sound like a real policeman! Just like when I was a kid 'you know who you are'. Appreciate your work. Not that I've ever bought anything from ebay, but nice to know people like yourself are out there looking after others in a selfless manner.

[slowmo]

Ziggy, what did you have listed?

[ziggy]

policeaware said:

I can't be asked to report keyword spamming but I do put time in ridding ebay of scammers riding the Banksy wave, would you prefer me and the many others that do this to stop?

I think this service is valuable and I'm not knocking it, never have. Just wish people would not take everything so seriously when it comes to Banksy. So someone sells a Micallef print with a Banksy postcard, photo, sticker, etc. So what! there are only a few people that REALLY care. Pick virtually any other type of eBay listing and cross selling is the 'norm'. Chill!

[policeaware]

ziggy said:

policeaware said:

I can't be asked to report keyword spamming but I do put time in ridding ebay of scammers riding the Banksy wave, would you prefer me and the many others that do this to stop?

I think this service is valuable and I'm not knocking it, never have. Just wish people would not take everything so seriously when it comes to Banksy. So someone sells a Micallef print with a Banksy postcard, photo, sticker, etc. So what! there are only a few people that REALLY care. Pick virtually any other type of eBay listing and cross selling is the 'norm'. Chill!

Giving a free Banksy item with a non Bansky item is the way users try and get round the keyword spamming rules. Whether we like it or not they are the rules & they are there for a reason.

Of course you won't see it is a problem Zig beacuse you do it, but I see it as rubbish littering my searches & so do many others.

Lol Slowmo..... I'm not a real policeman

[sputnikeye]

Police state! ain't there enough of this in the U.K like neighbours shopping the council on each other Ebay CCTV

[ziggy]

Like it or not a 'Banksy mug' is a 'Banksy mug' and when you search for 'Banksy' you will get a 'Banksy mug'. Don't be so elitist, not everything Banksy is a limited edition silkscreen print made by POW. And for the record I only discovered giving away misc Banksy items with auctions was forbidden in the last batch of auctions I did, don't sell that much stuff anyway so I'm hardly the main offender. policeaware... I still don't mind Banksy cross selling regardless of my own auctions.

[saltandiron]

I don't mind banksy mugs coming up what I find annoying is the obvious 'comes with a free banksy sticker' listings. the way I sort out the prints from the dross is by listinging them with the highest value first.

[saltandiron]

and by annoying I mean - urgh, got to filter out the rubbish again, rather than anything I've ever lost sleep over. or really care about. 'internet in full of crap and misrepresentation' shocker, hold the front page!

[irf2112]

Homework for everyone - Lets all find atleast one non-banksy item with Banksy in the title and report it to ebay... If all do just one it'd make a big difference (and p*ss the profiteers off at the same time). Its a win-win situation...

[sputnikeye]

I would have hoped the main purpose was to avoid fakes arising on the bay, not policing, so what if something is sold with a sticker, it all stinks of school prefects

[irf2112]

I have a new game. Its called "Happy Bidding". Ive got a friend in Malaysia who's created a couple of ebay accounts. As these can't be traced to myself I shall start bidding on such items that mention Banksy but aren't. In fact i'll be very generous - and bid 10 times the street value. Here's how the game is played out. Please send me ebay item ids so i can start the bidding frenzy...