On Sun, 25 Jun 2006 04:35:16 -0400, Night Diver
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Aloha,
>
>I posted the address to some painted valentia on ebay last week.  This
>week I see instead of the shells getting pulled, their evil cousins came
>out. All my favorite candidates for painting are up this week.
>
>http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZpatricianashellsQQhtZ-1
>
>I know that these guys have been told time and time again that their
>shells are fake.  The only conclusion I'm left with is they are pure
>crooks.  Most of us on here can spot this stuff, but some collectors
>can't.  It's important to talk about it on the forum.  A few months back I
>met a collector selling off all off some of his cypraea.  I emailed him
>inquiring where the shells had for sale had originally come from.  Turns
>out many shells in his collection were from a notorious distributor of
>fake and painted shells.  Let's just say they weren't just "gem",they were
>Diamonds.  He was insistent that none could be fakes, but I used sources
>like past conch-l postings to educate him.  After a while he was able to
>identify many fakes in his collection and confronted the dealer.  He wound
>up getting some compensation, but more importantly, a good education.
>
>Good Shelling,
>Shea O’Neill
>Honolulu, HI
>
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Good Call,
The shell collecting community needs eager beginners to ask questions & keep
our hobby alive. They are very trusting to accepting information regarding
this hobby. To see self-styled "established dealers" advertising shells that
are obviously painted fakes puts other seasoned dealers on a questionable
pedistal. For if a new collector puts his trust into shell collecting & gets
ripped-off, it sends a clear message that he needs to find a new hobby.

Sometimes a dealer may not know his items are faked. After all no-one is
perfect. But in this case when you send repeated messages that go unanswered
it shows a certain carelessness. I had friends & customers also trying to
contact this guy by emailing but again no responce. One ebayer even called
his number only to find it was disconnected.

I pity anyone buying obvious fakes at full price. There is a ebayer bidding
on his fakes but I guess he knows what they are with a name like "fake and
painted shell connoisseur". In this case he obviously knows they are fakes
so it's ok. But the items should be marked as such. If you feel that you
might own a painted fake put any solvent(gasoline, acetone, etc) on a Q-Tip
swab & swab a small area repeatedly. This will start to desolve most
enhancements.

It's good there's a tool like CONCH-L that brings these matters to light.
                                                            CHRIS:)

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