eBay repro rules are hitting our sales say antique print dealers

David Tilleke has told the Antiques Trade Gazette that his business on the site has dropped by as much as 30 per cent since other dealers started promoting repros and CDs carrying high resolution images of reproduction prints. He believes that they should be promoted in the reproduction section of eBay’s site, but eBay say the vendors have not broken any of its rules and have the right to stay where they are because even if the items on offer themselves are not antique, the images they portray were created before 1900.

“Generally speaking, eBay has been a wonderful platform to sell through over the past recent years,” says Mr Tilleke. “However, [their] continued misguided policy of allowing modern reproductions to be listed amongst genuine articles will most certainly undermine and eventually decimate these categories.” He has called on eBay to move such items to the reproduction sales arena.

Whilst noting Mr Tilleke’s concern, eBay point out that they never actually handle items offered for auction. “Without firsthand knowledge of the item, we are unable to guarantee the accuracy of the listing information,” they told him, adding that they make it clear to buyers that eBay play no part in transactions which means it is up to the buyers to satisfy themselves that they are getting what they think they are paying for.

A US dealer who complained to eBay on the same issue was also told that the reproduction prints and CD Roms were entitled to be included in the antique section because they included reproductions of antique prints created before 1900. “If the item were a Andy Warhol reproduction or original print, it should be listed in another category as it was created after 1900,” they explained.

eBay went on to say: “The term ‘original’ is not a defining factor in the category you are defending. Whether the item is an original or reproduction, the creation date for the image in the print is dated pre-1900 and is allowed to be listed in the Antiques & Art: Art: Prints: Antique (Pre-1900): Botanical category.”

On checking the category, the Gazette found a number of prints listed, but it was not easy to tell which were originals and which reproduction at first glance. For example, one print listed as a red nasturtium, of 1833, by Pierre Joseph Redouté does not mention that it is a modern reproduction in the headline description of the lot. Only in the second, more detailed description, which appears below the illustration, and which those scanning the lots must scroll down to, does it state: “Measuring 131/2in x 10in this large botanical is 20 years old...”

One dealer objecting to the inclusion of reproductions among the originals says he knows collectors of genuine antiques who have fallen foul of the resulting confusion. “I know of several top-level-collectors that have been taken in… and hate to think how many buyers of quality goods have simply stopped using eBay rather than sort through the swill.”