How did this many Zenith signs end up in India? He has been selling these for at least one year.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=po ... Complete=1

His negative feedback suggests bait and switch with a fake sign....

Looks like the same seller with different eBay names. How can so many people pay so much for those repro signs? Shills maybe?

I see where that zenith robot dial sign came from

This.

The signs in the pictures seem to be authentic, or at least the couple I enlarged did. He's probably swiping images from the net and sending repro signs when someone purchases it as authentic.

Personally, I'd never buy anything from India or China unless I knew for sure what I would be getting.

I filed a fraud report.

I wouldn't think that there would be that many American signs in all of India, maybe English.
But all his seem to be Americana. cool signs, LOTS of bids, crazy money

I'm usually pretty good at spotting a repro sign quickly, but lately have been fooled for minute. Caveat emptor for sure in that area.

We have several of these "old" signs in the kitchen of our radio club. They are of modern manufacture. I see a guy selling them at the local flea market every weekend. The tip-off that they are fake is that some of them advertise products that never actually existed. At our club some of them are old print ads that I am certain were never committed to metal signage back in the day.

The manufacturer has some method of making the signs look distressed and used, a la American Pickers.

It's pretty easy to tell that they're fake when you're right in front of them, but it's probably not too easy from a photo.

Fakes are getting better in quality all of the time but their still fairly easy to spot. One thing that gives away a fake is it's controlled aging. This Zenith sign shows strong physical damage along the edges and has extensive damage around the mounting holes, yet, the rest of the sign is virtually unscathed. So the sign shows a controlled amount of expected aging yet the sign as a whole is still very presentable. It's more evident when a series of signs, from the same seller, all show a consistency of the same controlled aging. Another thing these Zenith signs don't show is any actual rust, just lots of chipping in the enamel.

It says "Reproduction" in the title. Am I missing something here?

What title? Where?

Beats the hell out of me! I thought I clicked on the link in the first post but now I don't see it. I know I saw a listing that clearly had the word "Reproduction" in the title. Strange...

Good news! I think I stopped the Zenith signs with my fraud complaint. Usually they are listed every few days for months. Currently there are none for sale.

Small victory, that's just one sign. There's still a slew of other fake signs that the seller is currently selling. I get the feeling that the Zenith sign will reappear in the not so distant future.

No offense, but how can you report this as a fraud complaint unless you actually ordered one of the signs pictured and received a fake instead?

I agree it's questionable there are that many Americana signs in India and his feedback has a lot of issues. But I think the only person who could responsibly file a fraud complaint is someone who was actually scammed, or at least had some solid proof that he is misrepresenting what he is selling.

I do applaud you for bringing it to our attention so buyers can be aware of what might be going on.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-ZENITH ... Swi4laaj~h

Fake sign from a seller of fakes?

Complete with a thin layer of cinnamon rust to make it look all that more authentically old.

Add in "Fake Bids" aka Shills.
The bidder with the 11 feedback
30-Day Summary
Total bids: 35
Items bid on: 12
Bid activity (%) with this seller: 28%
Bid retractions: 0
Bid retractions (6 months): 0

John k9uwa

He must have been called out on the fake sign and changed his listing. It now shows as "antique style" instead of just "antique" in the listing title

new link
https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-RCA-VI ... 2668472701