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Ebay again.

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wintonian

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Spotted some ticket blanks on ebay.

I know the transfer/ sale of tickets is prohibited but what about current blank stock and if not should the sale of such stock be prohibited?

Surely they could be used to make forgeries?
 
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deltic1989

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Spotted some ticket blanks on ebay.

I know the transfer/ sale of tickets is prohibited but what about current blank stock and if not should the sale of such stock be prohibited?

Surely they could be used to make forgeries?

Its possable but you would have to use the correct machine to get the printing to look genuine. I do fail to see though what other reason anyone would have to buy them. I do stand to be corrected though by one of our fellow members with a better knowledge.
 

Harlesden

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The seller appears rather an odd fellow.
His website, which presumably costs him a little money to maintain, is called <Link Removed> but it does not actually sell music. It does nothing more than redirect users to digital downloads on Amazon which appears a little pointless as he is basically offering free advertising.
 
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SussexMan

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I reported some blank stock being sold on eBay a few months ago. When selecting the reason I selected "stolen" because I couldn't see any other way you could have them. I got a quick response from eBay which clearly wasn't just an automated response and the item was taken off very quickly.
 

Jordy

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The seller appears rather an odd fellow.
His website, which presumably costs him a little money to maintain, is called <Link Removed> but it does not actually sell music. It does nothing more than redirect users to digital downloads on Amazon which appears a little pointless as he is basically offering free advertising.

I have removed the URL, browsing to it resulted in a security warning for me, so presumably the site is full of malware.
 

John @ home

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I reported some blank stock being sold on eBay a few months ago. When selecting the reason I selected "stolen" because I couldn't see any other way you could have them.
Blank tickets have occasionally been issued to me by a vending machine as well as, or instead of, the purchased tickets.
 

hairyhandedfool

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The description says "20 in a strip used blank train tickets mint condition". I suspect the term "used" is misleading, I don't think anyone is unfortunate enough to order 10-20 tickets and get all of them, in a row, as blanks. I think anyone who has would make an issue of it at the time and the stock would be replaced (leaving the traveller with only 'printed on' stock). The chances that someone had 20 tickets remaining from a machine and thought the TOC wouldn't notice it missing is quite high.
 
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calc7

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Blank tickets have occasionally been issued to me by a vending machine as well as, or instead of, the purchased tickets.

Same for me.
And without wishing to derail (forgive the pun) the thread, I wonder what the protocol would be if you collected your tickets a few minutes before departure and instead of a reservation coupon you were issued a blank ticket?
 

DaveNewcastle

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By clicking through a few links, it was possible to find the seller's name, mobile number and postcode, plus 'thanks' on EBay for 2 previous sales of a strip of 20 blanks in the past fortnight.
 

MichealPoole

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Me and the girlfriend recently took a train (or six) to Blackpool... We had paid for the tickets in advance and, someone will probably be more informative, and had large tickets with pinkish triangles printed on the front.

We flashed our tickets several times during the trip, but no one looked at them closely.
The tickets we had could easily be printed on a normal printer!

I think it's about time that tickets were made a little more secure.
 

The Colonel

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I've seen these advertised before and thought them very dubious . . .
If they are used they can't be blank and if they're bank they can't be used - unless they are irish ones :lol:
Really something BTP ought to take an interest in methinks . . .
 

dzug2

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Maybe 'someone' tore a few off before loading their machine? Or is that not possible.

Or wanted to reload before a busy journey and kept the oddments infrom the machine?
 

Clip

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Maybe 'someone' tore a few off before loading their machine? Or is that not possible.

Or wanted to reload before a busy journey and kept the oddments infrom the machine?

Yeah it is possible. The tickets just come in boxes all linked up with a set amount - I forget - and they just load them in. Must say that our RPIs always leave a stack around when they check the machine before they start and if they deem a new batch to be put in then the old ones just get left behind really.


Whilst selling them on ebay is a bit silly they are not counted out and in - stock just gets replenished when ever they deem it to be running low.
 

AndyLandy

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One assumes that since all ticket stock (printed or otherwise) remains the property of the TOC, these are not legitimate. That said, as people have mentioned above, I guess a lot of TOCs aren't too worried about blanks being accounted for. I've certainly got a couple of blank tickets, which were issued to me in-lieu of platform tickets at Southampton Central at one point.

As for why anyone would buy these, I imagine forgery is the most likely use they'd be put to, but I daresay there are people out there who'd buy them just because "It's cool to have some"
 

Brucey

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Me and the girlfriend recently took a train (or six) to Blackpool... We had paid for the tickets in advance and, someone will probably be more informative, and had large tickets with pinkish triangles printed on the front.

Out of interest, where did you buy the tickets to get them issued on this type of stock?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
A bit of Googling found the seller may be a cleaner in Reading (it doesn't say whether a railway employee or not)
https://profiles.google.com/paulheritage1968/about
 

mirodo

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The seller appears rather an odd fellow.
His website, which presumably costs him a little money to maintain, is called <Link Removed> but it does not actually sell music. It does nothing more than redirect users to digital downloads on Amazon which appears a little pointless as he is basically offering free advertising.

The links are for Amazon aStore which offers an affliate scheme. He'll be making money (albeit not very much, I would imagine) for anything purchased via a clickthrough from his site.
 

Kingsbury Jn.

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Just noticed this thread. I looked up the listing and registered a query with eBay regarding their sale on the site. I will hopefully get a definitive answer in the near future and post it here.
 

Roylang

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Just noticed this thread. I looked up the listing and registered a query with eBay regarding their sale on the site. I will hopefully get a definitive answer in the near future and post it here.

I have reported the item as I believe it does contravene the eBay rules. The ebay rules state:

The sale of all UK train tickets (including Eurostar tickets) by unauthorised persons is not permitted under the railway byelaws, made under Section 46 of the Railways Act 2005. Therefore, unless you are an authorised seller as described below, you may not list train tickets on eBay.

In Ireland, the sale of all train tickets (including LUAS and DART tickets) is not permitted under the relevant railway bylaws.

An authorised person means someone acting in the course of his or her duties who is an employee or agent of the relevant train operator, or any other person authorised by the train operator or a person operating any railway assets.

Any person who is authorised as described above must make it clear in the listing that he or she is authorised to sell train tickets.

Does not explicitly state that they have to have been printed on, and the item decription calls them train tickets.


Roy
 

headshot119

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Does not explicitly state that they have to have been printed on, and the item decription calls them train tickets.
Roy

A ticket is defined as "A paper slip or card indicating that its holder has paid for or is entitled to a specified service, right, or consideration"

Do 20 bits of orange card constitute that description. No. will eBay care, probably not.
 

Minilad

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They only become tickets once something is printed on them surely. At the moment they are just a piece of orange card. When I worked in a ticket office we had boxes and boxes of them (APTIS in them days) They were not accounted for at all
 

Darandio

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Well, given he is selling them on multiple accounts, does that mean that he knows he probably shouldn't be doing it then?

And what is the policy of Ebay about multiple accounts anyway? Surely, the main reason people would have them would be to circumvent having negative feedback?
 

wintonian

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Assuming they work on the railways (how else would they get hold of that many blanks?) the isn't that technically theft from your employer?

Well, given he is selling them on multiple accounts, does that mean that he knows he probably shouldn't be doing it then?

And what is the policy of Ebay about multiple accounts anyway? Surely, the main reason people would have them would be to circumvent having negative feedback?

Not necceseraly,

I have 2 accounts because I hadn't used ebay for a few years and couldn't get back into the account and ebay wouldn't help unless I still had the same card registerd to the account, I have since managed to work out the password and now have 2 usable account although I only use 1.
 
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lyesbkz

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I reported some blank stock being sold on eBay a few months ago. When selecting the reason I selected "stolen" because I couldn't see any other way you could have them. I got a quick response from eBay which clearly wasn't just an automated response and the item was taken off very quickly.

On trying this:

The sale of stolen goods is forbidden on eBay because it's against the law to sell stolen property. eBay strongly supports law enforcement efforts to recover stolen property listed on its website. However, we can only investigate such a serious allegation if it comes from the police.
 

Temple Meads

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I have 2 accounts because I hadn't used ebay for a few years and couldn't get back into the account and ebay wouldn't help unless I still had the same card registerd to the account, I have since managed to work out the password and now have 2 usable account although I only use 1.

There's nothing wrong with that, but you are only using 1 of your accounts, this guy is advertising the same item on 2 accounts.

Definitely dodgy in my opinion, especially considering the dubious nature of the item itself.
 

Sun!

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Under ebays T&Cs you are allowed two accounts only if they are seperate business and personal accounts. Both his accounts are personal.
 

Kingsbury Jn.

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Received this from eBay

{Thank you for taking the time to report a seller who you suspect is offering stolen goods on eBay.

The sale of stolen goods is forbidden on eBay because it's against the law to sell stolen property. eBay strongly supports law enforcement efforts to recover stolen property listed on its website. However, we can only investigate such a serious allegation if it comes from the police.

If you believe that an item on eBay may be a stolen item, please inform your local police and ask them to get in touch with us. The investigating officer can then use the contact details provided in our Safety Centre:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/safetycentre/law_enforcement.html

We know your time is valuable and we appreciate you taking a moment to express your concern to us. Thank you for helping to keep eBay a safe, fun place to shop."

Thanks,

eBay}

It appears to be a standard response to such a query. Unless one can be completely sure that the blanks have been obtained by illegal means, not much can be done about it.
 
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