We do purchase on ebay quite a bit.  With it we have found items we
would never have encountered through other means and filled some glaring
gaps in our collection.  Ebay is truly a realm where the buyer must beware.
There are a lot of fakes.  We see a lot of Buffalo Bill fakes and I am sure
that there are also a fair number of Civil War-related fakes as well.
I find that often the sellers with Buffalo Bill fakes will also have fake
slave tags and fake cabinet cards of Old West characters. I am convinced
that there is a cottage industry out there producing fakes specifically for
sale on e-bay.
        E-bay feels no obligation to stop the selling of fakes despite
complaints.  Some of us have started alerting sellers and buyers about
Buffalo Bill fakes but e-bay doesn't like that sort of thing.  Your best
protection is knowing your artifacts.  And such connoiseurship of artifacts
seems to be a dying art in many museums.  Museum professionals seem to be
better at coming up with new ways to number or store artifacts than they are
at understanding the artifacts themselves.  But that's another museum
discussion topic.
        If you know what you are looking for and are a cautious bidder, you
can avoid being burned.  "Sniping" is always a problem on e-bay.  I recently
lost an item because even though I was a high bidder through most of the
auction's term I was not able to monitor the auction when it ended and, at
the last minute, I was outbid.  I have lost out on items on e-bay within a
margin of only 5 seconds before the auction.
        I do believe that e-bay is a real boon to both collectors and
museums.  Just like with everything else, your best protection is knowing
what you are doing.

Steve Friesen, Director
Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave

-----Original Message-----
From: Hugh H. Genoways [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 3:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Use of e-bay



Does anyone have experience with buying items on e-bay for your museum's
collections?  Has it been successful?  Did you encounter any problems?
What were they?  Any recommendations for other museums looking to fill
specific needs for the collection in this manner?  We are particularly
interested in any attempts to purchase Civil War related artifacts in this
manner.

Thanks for your insights.

Sincerely,
Hugh

Hugh H. Genoways
University of Nebraska State Museum
W436 Nebraska Hall
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68588-0514

Telephone: 402-472-2012
FAX: 402-472-8949

E-mail: <[log in to unmask]>

Professor
University of Nebraska State Museum
School of Natural Resource Sciences
Museum Studies Program

Chair
Museum Studies Program
Visit our website at <http://www.unl.edu/museumstudies>

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