I am sorry to say that it’s not fake news - I have hard evidence of the very same opals being put up for sale over and over again because the seller is using dummy accounts to increase the price of their listings. If you watch enough auctions and take notes you’ll see it. The Ethiopian vendors are almost all the same person: Le Harlequin, Estelle Jewels, Miners Direct, Unique Gems, Rough Direct, MarcMaissom Opal and Luxury Gems are ALL the same company: One Nine Success Trading whose owner goes by the name Kays Lee. You’ll see the seller’s fake accounts buying the same opal TWICE within a two month time span. And yes I know opals can look the same but these are not opals that look the same they are the exact same opal same vids same stats same everything.

There is most definitely widespread no reserve auction fraud going on on opal auctions there is no doubt about it. You could argue that maybe the owners don’t know but if that’s the case they don’t police their sellers and uphold their site policies very well because it’s RAMPANT.