Buyer purchased a tortoiseshell hair comb on 6/24/13 and subsequently claimed it was fake to get their money back via Paypal. They claimed to have sent us an email message but no such message was found on our server.

Buyer provided no evidence to support their claim other than an anecdotal tale of having taken the item to a provincial antique dealer in a town I have never heard of who was clearly no specialist. No documentary evidence from a reliable expert (major auction house or museum) was supplied despite requests to do so. Nor would she supply any evidence (email with full headers) of the message she claimed to have sent us.

Distinguishing real from fake tortoiseshell is a skill which many experienced dealers fail at. We are specialists in this area with a lifetime of experience in the British antiques trade and have written an academic paper on the subject.

Paypal gave us no choice but to return the money of this scammer who now has both our goods and their money back. Buyer now has our merchandise plus $226.00 of our money which we intend to assign to a debt collection agency in their country if the goods are not returned within 30 days.