Several months ago we began the feature Fakes Du Jour in hopes of eliminating the sale of dubious relics from eBay. Now, six months later, we must evaluate our efforts to determine if they have been successful. To put it bluntly, they have not.

A tremendous amount of time and effort had been expended every day to maintain the feature. On any given day there may be 200 or more purported relics for sale on eBay. The eBay pages are in a variety of languages - English, Italian, German, French. Reviewing each and every item was very time consuming and tedious work for Guido.. Once he had compiled his information it took some time for our Webmaster to have the information translated to English and then format it in html and post it on the Internet. That process frequently meant arrising at 4:30 AM to complete the task before having to leave home for work. Sometimes it meant skipping the lunch break at work to complete the job. It was a commitment both were willing to make if it showed results. Many other activities and commitments were put aside to maintain the effort.

In the first month or so there was a big decrease in questionable relics for sale on eBay but we have now returned to the previous status quo and many sellers have been actually emboldened. When one seller was questioned about his dubious offerings he stated, "Who cares? They know what they are buying." Other sellers have now seen the tremendous profits that can be realized from the sale of relics, real or fake, and have started to sell them. Many, out of ignorance, have no idea if their offerings are genuine. They simply see the dollars that can be earned. For the same reason, we have discontinue our Dealer Rating page. It, too, involved considerable time to keep up with the ever increasing number of relic dealers, especially when they change the name of their business every few months in hopes of avoiding scrutiny.

We will, however, continue to evaluate relics on an individual basis as we have done in the past. All the buyers need do is send us the eBay item number and Guido will evaluate it and you should have a reply within 24 hours. If you have other relics that you wish for us to check, just send us clear images of the theca, wax seal and document.

We will also continue to update our Detecting Fake Relics pages to reflect new information and to assist our friends to make wise choices.

We sincerely thank all of our supporters throughout the world and hope that our change causes no great inconvenience.