When eBay started to come into the mainstream consciousness, the archaeological community was worried. They predicted that an online marketplace like eBay would make it incredibly easy for people trying to traffic in stolen antiquities.
One archaeologist has found that eBay actually helped to stop the traffic, rather then make it worse. While people have continued to purchase fake items (sometimes thinking they’ve got a brilliant deal on the real thing), the purchase and transport of genuine items has been slowed in general. Also, in many cases, people are knowingly purchasing cheap fakes for personal use, rather then risking buying the expensive (and highly risky) illegal authentic artifacts. Consequently, it’s become less profitable for looters to risk cleaning out real sites, and more profitable to produce fake items for the tourist and eBay market.
Bad news for me, I paid quite a lot of money for this crystal skull. To think it might be fake…