Fake: Forgery, Lies, & eBay
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.40 (813 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1416948058 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 304 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-02-15 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
From Publishers Weekly In November 1998, Walton was a bored, unproductive 31-year-old Sacramento attorney when a "boorish" army buddy, Ken Fetterman, showed him his eBay art auctions on the Internet, gave him a five-minute tutorial on "the world's largest flea market" and cut Walton in on an auction that doubled his $400 investment. eBay bans him for life; he pleads guilty to a felony and gets probation. When Walton forges Richard Diebenkorn's signature on a painting that auctions for $135,805 in May 2000, the result is front-page coverage in the New York Times and an FBI investigation. All rights reserved. The amoral slacker loses friends, lovers and his law license.
Reads like a suspense thriller - not just a book about eBay I bought this book because I'm a powerseller on eBay, and I thought it sounded like an interesting story. But let me tell you, it's far more than just a story about unethical selling on eBay. This book reads like a thriller, and is difficult to put down. It's a crazy story about a somewhat ordinary guy who is unhappy with his job and is desperate to try something different. A lot of us can relate to that. His problem is that the "something" he tries (eBay) tastes so unbelievably good that he. D. Woollard said fast read, interesting memoir. This isn't the most well-written book but it is a fast read and an interesting one. At times it got a little self-serving but that's to be expected in a memoir of this type. I'd definitely recommend for people interested in learning a little more about the types of fraud that can take place on eBay. It's a good cautionary tale.. So many lessons in one book. where to start? D. Smith I am a high end art collector at major auctions and have looked at ebay items up for sell. So many are obviously fakes that I have written to a couple of power sellers. They immediately threatened to sue me.However, that is not why I am writing this review. This is a story of someone who knew nothing about art but was slowly engulfed in a new world where profit opportunity was high and old rules no longer applied. The individual involved acted like a major corporation in slowly bending the r
Kenneth Walton was a lawyer when he began selling art on eBay in 1999. He was sentenced in June 2004, is no longer a lawyer, and lives in Northern California. You can visit his website at kennethwalton. Over time his online sales tactics grew increasingly fraudulent, culminating in the $135,805 sale of a forged Richard Diebenkorn painting in May 2000. This is his first book. The story of this infamous auction, first broken by an investigative report published in the New
Ripped from the headlines of the New York Times, Fake describes Kenneth Walton's innocent beginnings as a lawyer turned online art-trading hobbyist, whose satisfaction in reselling thrift store paintings for a profit soon became a fierce addiction to eBay. In a landscape peopled with colorful eccentrics hoping to score museum-quality paintings at bargain prices, Walton entered into a partnership with con man Ken Fetterman. When their deception was discovered and made international headlines, Walton found himself stalked by reporters and federal agents while Fetterman went on the lam, sparking a nationwide FBI manhunt. In this sensational story of the seductive power of greed, Kenneth Walton breaks his silence for the first time and details the international scandal that forever changed the way eBay does business.. Over the course of eighteen months they managed to take in hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling forged paintings and bidding on their own auctions to drive up the prices