4 Months ago, I posted a rather waggishly titled, “Ebay Discovered to Have Socially Redeeming Value,” citing an investigation in Archeology magazine that suggested that the explosion in counterfeits was actually driving real (stolen) antiquities from the market, because manufacturing frauds was more profitable.

Well, a collector of such objects, and a frequent purchaser on eBay, one Bill Stelzer, disputes this in the letters section (scroll down to Cheaper by the Millions).

He says that eBay aggressively monitors and vets such sales, and as a result, there is very little, if any fraud in this area.

Personally, I have no clue as to where the truth is, but when someone says that, “The eBay sites that auction antiquities are among the most vetted sites on the Internet,” my bullsh%$ meter spikes to 11.

I have had good luck on eBay, but what I tend to purchase are things like toner cartridges from stores with addresses and phone numbers, and I verify both before purchases.

The output of pot hunters being “vetted” sounds a bit strange, but I am speaking from a position of profound ignorance here, so YMMV.