Alert: Fake Lucy Items on Ebay

Although I always have suspected items such as jewelry or "prop" items sold on Ebay and claimed to be owned by Lucille Ball have been fakes, one reader has alerted me to two sellers who hock these fake items.

He states, "For the past 7-9 months or so, countless alleged Lucille Ball owned and "I Love Lucy" props authenticated by a company known as Global Antiques have been sold on eBay. Unfortunately, it has been determined that all of these items are suspect for fraud. I personally, have been in contact with Lucille Ball's family who claimed not a single item reviewed was recognized as being from their mother's estate. Furthermore, a number of pieces have been found to post-date the "I Love Lucy" show, thereby disputing the claim that the items are original and authentic. You can review some of these findings below. I thought you might want to make your readers aware of this situation, in the event that they purchased any of these items. The two sellers involved were Auction Depot LA (auctiondepotla1) and Auction Shop USA (auctionshopusa). eBay has recently suspended the auctiondepotla1 account after numerous complaints about the illegitimacy of the items. auctionshopusa voluntarily closed their account prior to that."

You can read more about prop items on Ebay from Orginal Prop Blog, a non-profit that publishes articles and features on original prop items and other pop culture artifacts from film and television.

Several articles that featured Lucy items are:

I Love Lucy, Global Antiques, and Auction Depot LA

I Love Lucy, Global Antiques, and Auction Depot LA - Silver Creamer

Auction Depot LA & Global Antiques: I Love Lucy, Harmony Rose, and T.J. Maxx - Part 2

So if you decide to purchase something that someone has claimed as from the Estate of Lucille Ball or owned by Lucy or was used on the set of "I Love Lucy", please do your research and find out as much as possible as there are alot of scams out there ready to defraud you of your money.

If you may have purchased and of these items, PayPal has been issuing a number of buyers refunds providing that they paid via PayPal and no more than 45 days has passed since the auction closed.