eBay increases trade in fakes, reduces trade in real antiquities

Jake Widman
Wednesday, 06 May 2009 02:38

Business IT - Technology

When collecting antiquities was only for the wealthy, the buyer would also have some expertise in the field, or hire an authenticator.

That left the market for fakes to tourists.

But now, counterfeiters have direct access to a world market for their goods and can make more money selling fakes than they could searching for the real thing.

The result? "Because the low-end antiquities market has been flooded with fakes that people buy for a fraction of what a genuine object would cost," writes Stanish, "the value of the real artifacts has gone down as well, making old-fashioned looting less lucrative."

The change in the market has even begun to creep upscale. As the counterfeiters get better, their wares have become good enough to fool even the experts, but the price still undercuts the real thing.

"Certainly, looting will continue," concludes Stanish. "But it is just conceivable that online commerce will actually put a lot of antiquities looters and traffickers out of business by the sheer volume of sales and quality of products that fool even the experts."