posted 06-04-2013 10:56 AM               

The seller described it as being the STS-3 AB Emblem variant 2 patch, whilst in my view it is the regular commercial AB Emblem patch.

Indeed, by looking at the scan on her listing, I just cannot see any pale yellow inner flames although, in the description, she wrote that the scanner used for this patch did not bring out the proper coloring.

Furthermore, in the variant 2, the Canadarm seems to be attached inside the payload bay, whereas her scan clearly shows it attached to the left edge of the payload bay (as the standard version).

posted 06-05-2013 11:13 AM               

Kevin, the first lot # 121116488729 was listed by using pictures taken from a recent auction (# 181112127481 ) of another well known cS'er (mama04). I advised Maarten and also asked the seller why she was doing that, pointing out that this was misleading and also not allowed by Ebay rules.

She agreed to change photos, hence the early ended listing.

So, she did not sell it privately. Also because she did not have any STS-3 Crew patch. Indeed, when she relisted the item (# 121120900121 )and uploaded the correct photo, her patch turned out to be the standard AB Emblem.

At first, I was believing her to be in good faith, so explained why that patch was not the Crew patch but just the standard version, and also suggested that she could take a look at crewpatches.com and then contact Chris Spain to get his opinion about her Patches (indeed, she listed an STS-4 Crew patch as well, once again taking pictures from Maarten's auctions).

Nonetheless, she did not contact Chris but just took a picture from his website (I guess without any permission) and used it in her current listing, describing the patch as the AB Emblem variant 2.

I have never told her about this variant. On the contrary, I clearly told her to have the standard version and clearly explained why.

Despite that, she decided to describe it as the Variant 2, intentionally neglecting my advice, so I am starting to believe that she might not be in good faith and trying to deceive uneducated buyers.

To sum up, she tried to sell her standard STS-3 and STS-4 AB patches as "Crew" patches (stealing pictures from Maarten as well).

As she couldn't, because of my remarks, she changed descriptions and pictures and is now trying to sell her standard STS-3 by passing it off as the Variant 2.