Spurious Ebay Photos of the Imperial Family. Beware.

[grandduchessella]

Also, on his feedback all previous items are listed as "private" which shows he is covering his tracks. This is one of the reasons why i avoid eBay, unless I know the seller!

His feedback for up to one year is public. Only one person has left a negative comment (probably because you can only leave feedback if you purchase an item--not just spot fraudulent ones). That comment was about the fakery though: All his photos are fake. They are available in Moscow for $10 each. Beware buyer.

Where they can get you is that you can't force them to leave a comment/question that you send to them so there's no way to warn other potential buyers.

[mishaxenia]

I am also a collector, I am a pleasure to try and to acquire original photo of the Imperial Family,  from we admired and loved,   many vendors ebay are honest but this is a shame. They are happy for your signallings and we hope  end up these sales.

[blessOTMA]

Thank you for this post...the items routinely go for 100's of dollars. It's criminal

[jalm]

Beware of fake photographs - check the credibility of the seller. Why sell private and accept no returns ? Does one offer huge numbers of photographs ? Does the cardboard corrseponds with that one of the photographer who made the photo ?
People are selling photographs who look like antiques - do some research first !!
Jan

[blessOTMA]

This eBay seller is now offering a photo of Marie in her uniform with the  same scratches as another copy of this photo had which they sold some weeks ago.... Lord, at least put on new scratches! lol!

[mishaxenia]

An obvious fake. Observing its auctions I have since that offering and prices are diminished . We hope in the end of these dishonest sales

[blessOTMA]

An obvious fake. Observing its auctions I have since that offering and prices are diminished . We hope in the end of these dishonest sales

Indeed and the prices have come down, so word must be getting out thankfully. 

[GrandDuchessIzabella]

I have just looked and some body is paying $76 for a very well known photo of Maria N, not including p&p.
Even odder, is that the seller has a 98.8% positive rating. How could this have happened if he is selling fakes?

[clockworkgirl21]

He's now selling photos with "autographs!" That's risky. People would notice the autograph ink wasn't from a pen, but from the same ink as the rest of the image.

[blessOTMA]

I have just looked and some body is paying $76 for a very well known photo of Maria N, not including p&p.
Even odder, is that the seller has a 98.8% positive rating. How could this have happened if he is selling fakes?

lol no one wants to admit it ...or risk a negative rating in return? Also never underestimate the power of bold lying.
People think it must be real photos , because none would dare to lie so openly. But the seller  has  gotten sloppy  lately. Before they were careful not to offer  so many at once or copies  of the same photos close together in time. The Olga and Marie in thier uniforms were offered not long ago...and as I say, the Marie photo has the same" scratches" to fake  age. 

[Forum Admin]

I checked OceanicVoyager's ebay feedback rating as I wondered the same thing.  It seems he sells a lot of innocuous regular items to actually increase the positive feedback rating!

It seems his game is up and the word is spreading that his photos are all fakes.

[Eddie_uk]

I did fire off a few messages to his previous buyers informing them he was clearly selling fakes & to be aware, most replied saying they where aware of it.
Perhaps they where the buyers of regular legitimate items......

[blessOTMA]

A photo of Anastasia recently sold for over 400.00  and another copy of this photo is now for sale that looks exactly the same

[GrandDuchessIzabella]

I am pleased to say that no one has, as yet, placed a bid for this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Antique-Russian-Photo-Tsar-Nicholas-II-Tsarina-Alexandra-Family-Romanov-Framed-/220907281083?pt=Antiques_Decorative_Arts&hash=item3

$1,499.99?

[Joseph_Kaiser]

I looked at this seller after reading this and there is, besides many "antique" pictures, a large silver ring with the imperial eagle on it, which is also listed as antique and rare....