Who's the "oddball" around here?

Here's our choice for eBay's seller of the week: "oddball-books", with 2,000 plus positive feedbacks. What happened?

At top above is an authentic signature of African American blues singer Billie Holiday, a rare $500, up signature.

Beneath it appears a gem offered by eBay seller "oddball-books" - a pathetic (at best) forgery that does not even approximate Holiday's erratic hand.

Now, booksellers have been known to make mistakes in identifying autographs, because, after all, they sell books. But there's something a bit fishy when we look at oddball-books' eBay feedback. The majority of their auction feedbacks are for public, reviewable auctions for unsigned books. HOWEVER, many of their feedbacks are for "private" sales, which are often indicators of foul play. In "oddball"'s case, when we read the comments, it appears that a significant number of the "private" sales were for signed books and cut signatures. And some of the buyers mentioned their concerns about the authenticity of their purchases!

Why would oddball-books be so open with the legitmate books it sells, yet remain secretive with other iems (autographs) which it doesn't want the public to see once sold?

Two lessons we should all remember: Feedback count is important but can be a false indicator of a seller's legitimacy. And beware of "private" sales - in many cases, "private" means "bogus".