Ebay Authentication is a real head-scratcher

[conor912]

I just bought a graded card on eBay for first time in a long time. I knew about the Authentication process, but this is my first experience with it. I bought and paid for the card on 4/10. It shipped 4/11 and arrived at the authenticators 4/13. It’s showing an eta to my door for 4/25. That’s essentially a 12 day delay in me receiving my card. I find it very hard to believe that they’re catching enough bad slabs to make it worth holding everyone else’s slabs hostage for two weeks. This feels like it’s going to get very old very fast for buyers. Is that a normal turn around time?

[rjackson44]

thats why i buy cards under $250 ..just my two cents

[conor912]

Originally Posted by rjackson44

thats why i buy cards under $250 ..just my two cents

I see why. This whole thing just leaves me with so many questions. It can’t be cheap to ship thousands of cards all around the country, repackage them, then do it all again - let alone labor costs….and for what? Catching the .01% of cards they send back?

[BobbyStrawberry]

I recently purchased a card that went through this process, and had a similar issue. It took more than twice as long to get from authenticator to me than from seller to authenticator.

[mrreality68]

ebay is ebay

Will this program last or not looks like it will but adds time

[BobC]

I think it is really more the problem of WHO was selected by Ebay to review the graded cards going through their Authentication Program (AP). I've only had one Ebay purchase have to go through their AP, but it was for a raw card, that goes to an entirely different TPG. And it got to me a lot faster than what everyone else who's had a graded card go through the AP has said it took for them to finally get their cards. Still, the ultimate, overall fault/responsibility lies with Ebay, since they're the ones who selected the TPG to do the review of graded cards for their AP, and not you or I. But the specific fault seems to lie with the TPG doing the review of graded cards being damn slow!

Maybe the worst part is, you can't even directly complain to this TPG since you didn't hire and aren't paying them. And if you try complaining to Ebay, I'm guessing they'll just blow you off and say something like they leave the authentication work up to, and don't otherwise control, this TPG doing it, and/or that you aren't being charged for anything, so there's really nothing for you to be complaining about.

Now, if more and more customers did start complaining to Ebay about the long delays, and even more importantly, figured out a way to start cancelling purchases because of these delays, THEN I think you might start to see Ebay pay a little attention. But we all know that when it comes to card collectors it seems, "Stuff trumps all!", and Ebay knows that very, very well. So, people may complain, but until it somehow actually begins to have an effect on Ebay's bottom line, don't go holding your breath on any changes to how long the AP process may take, anytime soon, IMO.

[JimmyC]

I recently bought two PM10 pins on eBay in one lot.....Seller was unaware of the fact that when he listed, they would be sent to Authenticator.......It took 15 days to get to me after being sent from Seller to Authenticator....eBay sent me an email when they hit Authentication that they couldn't authenticate......the pins were real and vintage and I had no issue with them....when they arrived, eBay included a note that they were sent to the Authenticator in error.....

I needed both pins for the collection and knew I would have to wait for them a while if I won....

WAFJ.......

I stay away from auctions on eBay where Authentication is involved...

[dmats33312]

Originally Posted by conor912

I see why. This whole thing just leaves me with so many questions. It can’t be cheap to ship thousands of cards all around the country, repackage them, then do it all again - let alone labor costs….and for what? Catching the .01% of cards they send back?

. It does a lot more than catch .01%. It catches people that never send the item. It catches buyers who say they never received the item or wrong item. I really see no problem with this.

[Jim65]

To me, its worth the extra time to be sure the slab wasn't tampered with and is genuine.

People complained for years that EBay did nothing to stop fraud, now EBay finally does something and then people complain about minor inconvenience.

[refz]

What happens to a slab, for sale again, that already authenticated and has the stickers on it? Does that have to go again, second time thru the (AP) or does this sell normally? I’m sorry if I missed this in another thread.

[conor912]

Originally Posted by rjackson44

thats why i buy cards under $250 ..just my two cents

Originally Posted by dmats33312

. It does a lot more than catch .01%. It catches people that never send the item. It catches buyers who say they never received the item or wrong item. I really see no problem with this.

I see no problem either. It’s just that I have literally never had an issue with any of those scenarios. Maybe I’m just lucky.

[conor912]

Hahaha. Just received this from ebay. This is laughable. What a waste of resources.


“Hi Conor,

We wanted to let you know that your order (below) is on the way, but unfortunately we can’t provide the Authenticity Guarantee you were expecting. The item was miscategorized when it was listed and isn’t eligible for this service. We know this may be disappointing and we’ve contacted the seller to let them know about the error in their listing.”.

[Clutch-Hitter]

Originally Posted by conor912

I see no problem either. It’s just that I have literally never had an issue with any of those scenarios. Maybe I’m just lucky.

It happens and this authentication covers both seller and buyer. Buyer’s remorse (?) results in claims of case tampering, post office failing to scan as delivered results in buyer claiming he never received the card, purchase results in a psa graded card is a raw 80s reprint upon arrival. I’ve had all these scenarios, with Net54 threads for each. This fixes that B.S.