Ran across some counterfeit items

[Sinister Colt Cloot]

Hello everyone, I've been lurking on this board for awhile now just reading and learning. Went to my first shoot over the 4th of July weekend with the Eldorado Cowboys in Las Vegas, NV and I loved it. What a great bunch of guys (and gals). I ran across some counterfeit items on ebay (go figure) that are being marketed as "antiques" and I didn't want my new friends to be scammed so I'm posting my findings here.

While searching ebay for various "western" themed items I found a seller advertising an original Colt padlock that was reported to be from the old factory in Hartford. The lock looked old and had a brass plate on the front that said "Colt Factory" with the number "46" under it. The amazing thing is the lock worked and actually had two keys with it. I was a little skepticle of the item but I was watching it anyways to see where the price went. A few days later I'm doing more random searches on ebay and I find another seller with the EXACT same lock except that this one has a "buy it now" price around $90. Now red flags and warning sirens are flying and I know this isn't right.

I decide to do a little investigating and simply typed "colt factory padlock" into yahoo. I find multiple sites detailing how people are buying antique looking padlocks that are imported from India (for about $5), they apply the brass plate of their choice (many are for firearms manuf and historic jails), then hawk them to unsuspecting buyers. These are whats known as "Fantasy" locks because there never was an original of the type. Also being imported from India are replicas of the old Winchester Six Lever pad locks and the sited I found showed how to tell the counterfeits apart from the real deal, buyer beware!!

If interested check out this site http://www.wclca.net/repro.htm

Sorry for the long first post guys but I could see a bunch of people trying to replicate an old west look for campsites or other things and being fooled and the cowboys I've met don't deserve that.

Thanks
Jim

[Angel_Eyes]

Well done SCC, good of you to take the time to expose this scam.
I think Western memorabilia collectors will be very grateful.
I don't use e-bay personally, but isn't there someway you can highlight this to them??

AE

[Sinister Colt Cloot]

I've reported the listings that I've found but so far the listings haven't been removed. I wonder if Winchester / Colt already know about this.

[Curley Cole]

For those of us that collect coins, a recent article in CoinAge magazine reports that a good 40% of the coins on eBuy are conterfiet. (I personally know of 1-2 coin dealers in the local area that sell on there, and I would trust them.

I do know that any Trade Dollars you find on ebuy are suspect. The cost is not the deal buster. I know a lot of those trade dollars come from China and they are not marked with the required "copy"...so buyer beware

the real good deals of ebay are pretty much a long gone memory....

good shootin, and shoppin

curley

[Sinister Colt Cloot]

Well I'm more than a little disappointed with Ebay. They let the sale of these items go through without so much as making the seller edit the add. One lock sold for $90, others for $72 and $80. Crazy.