Several thoughts:

1. Where are the eBay police? Right here. You and me.

It is practically and physically impossible for eBay to scan every new listing for accuracy, so eBay relies on its user to report any suspicious auctions. I once calculated that if eBay hired 2,000 new employess to do nothing but take a quick look at every new auction listing, it would cost over $100,000,000 per year, and each auction would get a one time, 40 second peek.

Before anyone says that eBay should have it's own police force, take a few minutes and do the math yourself, and that's assuming that you could even hire a police force that had the neccessary expertise to make these determinations.

Just like real world police forces, eBay does not station a "cop" in every business, they rely on citizens to report crime, and then they investigate it.

If you see an auction that you feel contains a misrepresentation, report it to safeharbor@ebay.com, with a detailed description of what you believe the problem is. SafeHarbor staff WILL look at the auction. If there is a CLEAR violation or misrepresentation, the auction will be ended by eBay on the spot, and I have been told by eBay staff that this happens several thousand times per day.

2. Many "misrepresentations", however, are not clear. This seller never refers to Binion's Horseshoe in his description, and says that he can't prove it's from any specific Horseshoe club. Therefor, it's going to be impossible for eBay to jerk the listing, since it's basically being presented as an "unknown" chip. The fact that it's listed for $9.99 with no reserve doesn't help things.

I've noticed that many chip collectors seem to want eBay to nuke these auctions that IMPLY that the chips are something that they are not, and also expect eBay to take their word that a chip is being misrepresented.

You have to remember that eBay is the prime trading community for virtually every form of collectible out there, and casino chips represent only a tiny fraction of all the collectibles offered. In many categories, sellers are constantly reporting the auctions of their competitors for imaginary violations, hoping to get their auctions cancelled. Everyone claims to be an "expert", and as any attorney will tell you, for every expert who says the sky is blue, there's another expert who will swear it's green, and yet another who will claim that the first two experts are completely wrong.

Any policy eBay develops has to be fair to all sellers and buyers, and in this case, you will say "this seller is implying that this chip is from Binions in Las Vegas, which would be a very valuable chip", and the seller would respond "I have no idea where this chip is from, as I clearly state in my auction, but it did come from a collection of Vegas chips".

Since eBay is, by neccessity, a "caveat emptor" environment, what can eBay really do? Take one user's word over another? Assign a staff member to immerse himself in the minutia of a particular collectible, in order to make a value judgement that might or might not be correct, but is sure to anger someone?

Let me make myself perfectly clear, I think this seller is a creep, and is walking a fine line between acceptable presentation, and outright misrepresentation. I am not defending his listing practice, and if he was a CCGTCC member, he would certainly be in violation of the Club's Code of Ethics.

However, I understand that eBay cannot go around cancelling auctions based solely on the word of another user, especially when the listing contains a disclaimer about the origin of the item.

I also understand that ultimately it is up to the buyer to protect himself against fraud, eBay cannot be everyone's Mommy and Daddy, and any buyer so naive as to bid on this chip thinking it is some super valuable chip from Binion's will get what he or she deserves.

It is, after all, a chip with $100.00 and a Horseshoe stamped on it, nothing more, it's listed for ten bucks with no reserve, and no guarantees are made as to its origin.

Now, these are complicated issues, and just like in real life, many potential "fraud" issues fall in the grey areas where personal judgements will have to prevail over facts.

Please, don't anybody jump in with the old "eBay makes money off of fraud, so they don't care about stopping it" argument, which is absurd.

eBay does care about fraud, a lot. But they also care about the rights of individuals, and their own legal status as a "venue" rather than an auctioneer.