Pennsylvania Clock Scam Continues to Bilk Online Bidders. Offensive exploitation of Black Americana being faked on vintage and antique clock dials continues to fool both sellers and buyers.
News-Antique.com - Nov 30,-0001 - Black Popeye, Black Casper the Ghost, Black Sambo, Aunt Jemima are to name just a few. The ugly truth is that certain individuals have been cashing in on a sad period of our history by fooling online bidders with fake clock dials. Ground-Zero for this scam is the Harrisburg/Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania. Almost all online sellers you see advertising Black Americana Clocks will be from Pennsylvania or surrounding areas. Most are unaware that the clocks they are selling are fake, and they themselves most likely overpaid for the item to begin with. Sadly, many vendors have become aware that the clocks they have are fake, and do little or nothing to change their advertising in order to avoid monetary losses.
The concept of this scam is very simple. You purchase common, easy-to-obtain clocks for cheap, change the dials, and resell them to unsuspecting vendors at a big profit. The individual or individuals involved do not retail these clocks outright. They actually sell them to flea-market vendors and such. This makes the original source harder to track. Eventually, these clocks pass so many hands and end up in the hands of online sellers who think they have discovered a rarity. As a result, online buyers have been paying big money for basically forgeries, and worthless clocks.
Most of the dials found on these clocks revolve around Black Americana. Although, other such famous dials as the 1939 Worlds Fair, Harley Davidson, Coca-Cola and other famous advertisers have been used. The dials are of high, believable quality either being done on laser printer or through a printing company. They have an authentic aged look and are very well fitted to the clock. Although, one of the tale-tell signs is the fact these dials don’t replace the originals. They are just actually placed over the originals.
Collectors and casual buyers should view such clocks with a grain of salt. We have concluded a 2-part article detailing examples of these clocks, with a 3rd part scheduled to be published in November 2006. Our article concludes a 4-month investigation of clocks found on that major, online auction site. This article includes many examples of these clocks, and unscrupulous tactics used by some online sellers to garner bids.
For read the details on this topic, click onto the link at the top entitled Fake Clock Dials: Red Flag Signals in Description
