... as well as a liar. I have had email correspondence with him for more than a year regarding his false claims about swastika chips. Unfortunately, I lost all of the email when my hard disk crashed last year, so can't just cut and paste. But, I did print out copies of some of the most recent round and will recap the original exchange and retype what I have of the second round.

When I first saw the ad (early in 1999), it was similar to the current ad, but without the disclaimer regarding the Third Reich. I wrote to Snyder and gave him accurate information from Dale Seymour's book. He wrote back saying, "These came from overseas in the 1930's and came with documentation as to their origin. In a sealed wrapper .. etc, etc."

I then asked for a copy of the documentation and he refused to provide it.

Then, in July 1999, he ran the ad again. I bid on and won the auction so that I could actually see the chips and so I could post feedback if I believed the ad to be deceptive (eBay had changed the rules on feedback, requiring it to be transactionally related). When I won, I sent him an email which said, "Would like to receive a copy of the documentation referred to in an earlier message you sent me."

His reply was: "Well Jim that is all I know.. a GI brought them back after the War .. c" [note: he signs his email "c"]

On July 31, 1999, I wrote him a letter which read:

>> I am somewhat confused by your ad description and your messages:

>> The ad description calls these chips "authentic and original set of three World War II era swastika gambling chips".

>> In your previous correspondence with me regarding these chips, you stated: "These came from overseas in the 1930's and came with documentation as to their origin. In a sealed wrapper .. etc, etc."

>> Now your most recent message says, "a GI brought them back after the war".

>> On what information, precisely, did you base the claim that these are "authentic and original" WWII ear chips? Surely you must have something in writing to support this claim -- if so, I would appreciate receiving a copy of that writing.

>> Also would appreciate clarification of the conflicting statements that these chips "came from overseas in the 1930's" and that "a GI brought them back after the war". Do you have any documentation to support either of these claims?

His response came on a hand-written note, with the chips, which I received in mid-August. He sent a copy of my email with the "came from overseas in the 1930's" description circled and noted: "Sorry for the confusion. This is the correct story as I understand it."

No documentation.

I then emailed him as follows:

>> I have received the three swastika chips you sent for this auction. Now that I have seen them, I have two problems with the chips:

>> First and most serious, they are obviously NOT "authentic and original WWII era" chips, as advertised in your auction description. They are generic composition inlaid chips produced by U.S. Playing Card Co. sometime during the first third of the century (production of these chips was stopped in the late 1930's, after the rise of Nazism in Germany and prior to the start of WWII).

[I then recapitulated the correspondence described above, reminded him that he had never answered my questions or provided copies of any supporting documentation.] The email continued:

>> The conclusion is inescapable that you do not have any documentation to support these claims. And that you had no good faith basis upon which to make the claim that these are "authentic and original" World War II era chips.

>> The second problem is that the white chip you sent is not the same chip shown in your ad and is of an inferior quality to the one shown. And you are running the same ad again, with the same scan, even though you obviously cannot sell the same chips again.

I then requested a refund. His email response was: "geeze louise send them back soonest...c" I returned the chips and he did send a refund, less shipping charges.

I was delayed in taking care of this auction due to the death of my mother-in-law and a lengthy trip to Memphis to be with family. The end result of that was, by the time I was done with this guy, the time period for posting feedback had expired and I could not do it. So, could not post negative for him, which I surely would have done otherwise.

BTW, the scan in his current ad is the same one he has been running all along.

I filed a complaint with eBay's Safe Harbor and got the usual mealy-mouthed, "sorry you are unhappy with the auction but there's nothing we can do about it" message.

There is a lot of phoney WWII "memorabilia" out there. I would be suspicious of anything this guy sells, primarily because of his evasive and uncooperative responses to my inquiries. ----- jim o\-S