Ebay Stepping Up - Agree or Disagree?

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Posted By: Matt

this was just sent to a seller (not me):

Your listing was removed due to concerns that we had about the authenticity of the item.

In this particular case, your listing included an ungraded 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth Card that is reportedly favored by counterfeiters.

Please understand that we are not in the position to verify the authenticity of trading cards and, as such, we cannot say for certain whether or not this particular card is authentic however; due to recent concerns with counterfeit trading cards, eBay now requires a select few to be graded or authenticated prior to being listed on eBay.

At this point, in order to prevent a possible removal of your card again, I suggest that you have it graded by a professional authentication company.

Here is a list of authentication companies that eBay recommends in this case:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/auth-overview.html>

Furthermore, please understand that this action is intended to be mutually beneficial, considering that a graded Babe Ruth Goudey Card, regardless of condition, generally, sells for much more than one that has not been professionally graded.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Regards,

Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)



I appreciate ebay wanting to help avoid the sale of counterfeit cards, but is banning ungraded cards from being sold the right way to go?

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Posted By: Mark T

If the seller sold counterfeit cards in the past i can see them doing that but how can they tell if its fake or not by looking at a scan. How can Ebay tell a raw card owner to have his cards graded. If thats the case then they should shut down all auction that offer raw cards.

A bit extreme for Ebay to shut down their auction. Hope it works out for the seller.

Edited: i just noticed it was not you Matt so i had to edit the word "you" to "seller"

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Posted By: Bob Pomilla

Well, they say it's just a "select few" they are requiring to be graded/authenticated and I could maybe live with that. However, if this blossoms into anything more extensive, some bargains in the way of ungraded cards are going to be lost. Not likely to happen, though.

Nice to know that they are concerned about maximizing profits for their sellers, though

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Posted By: Joann

Wow. Talk about the pendulum swinging the other way. First you can't get them to do anything about clearly fake cards from clearly shady-a$$ sellers. Now an auction gets shut down simply because the item is one "favored by counterfieters". Huh?

This should mean the end to any and all T206 Wagner auctions - talk about "favored by counterfeiters". Shoot. I'll miss them - they were fun.

Always good to see them try to get better, but I'm not sure this is the right way. I prefer to buy raw cards b/c they are cheaper and this kind of policy may make them unavailable in certain issue/player combos.

J

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Posted By: Jason L

Good for them, as you need to start somewhere, so let's see what happens.

Bad for me, because now I need to get all my Ruth Goudeys graded!

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Posted By: Matt

Jason L - it's not bad for you - you just need to sell them to me

The story actually has another twist.- I contacted the seller this morning asking what happened to the listing because I was watching it and was interested and I would make him an offer. He now thinks that I'm the one who reported the auction and had it stopped just to try and negotiate with him. bizzare.

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Posted By: Jeff Prillaman

I had a Jordan rookie card pulled earlier this year and in subsequent conversations with ebay I received this email. The list seems somewhat to very arbitrary - but if you see any of these cards ungraded and complain they will be pulled unless the card is part of a set in which case ebay seems to let it ride.


Dear Jeffrey,

Hi. Here is a copy of the current list of cards that have to be graded.
What I told you yesterday was apparently a bit of overkill on being
cautious. This certainly isn't a list of every high profile athlete.
However, grading cards, obviously, would only add value to your claims
of authenticity.

You are right, there are still a lot of items on the site that violate
policy. Any item in any category that is in violation has to be
manually reviewed by a trust and safety representative, it is not an
automatic process. It is also very difficult to find everything that is
fraudulent on the site and the trust and safety department welcomes
reports from members to help in finding those in violation.

Have a nice day!

1. 1979-1980 Wayne Gretzky Rookie Card (O-Pee-Chee and Topps #18)
2. 1985-1986 Mario Lemieux Rookie Card (O-Pee-Chee and Topps #9)
3. 1966-1967 Bobby Orr Rookie Card (Topps #35)
4. 1986-1987 Michael Jordan Rookie Card (Fleer #57)
5. 1933 Babe Ruth (Goudey - Nos. 53 and 144)
6. 1954 Hank Aaron Rookie Card (Topps #128)
7. 1952 Mickey Mantle (Topps #311)
8. 1909 Honus Wagner (T206)
9. 1948 Joe DiMaggio (Leaf #1)
10. 1949 Jackie Robinson (Bowman #50)
11. 1933 Lou Gehrig (Goudey #160)
12. 1955 Roberto Clemente (Topps #164)


Sincerely,
Rena

eBay Customer Support

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Posted By: Matt

1. 1979-1980 Wayne Gretzky Rookie Card (O-Pee-Chee and Topps #18)
2. 1985-1986 Mario Lemieux Rookie Card (O-Pee-Chee and Topps #9)
3. 1966-1967 Bobby Orr Rookie Card (Topps #35)
4. 1986-1987 Michael Jordan Rookie Card (Fleer #57)
5. 1933 Babe Ruth (Goudey - Nos. 53 and 144)
6. 1954 Hank Aaron Rookie Card (Topps #128)
7. 1952 Mickey Mantle (Topps #311)
8. 1909 Honus Wagner (T206)
9. 1948 Joe DiMaggio (Leaf #1)
10. 1949 Jackie Robinson (Bowman #50)
11. 1933 Lou Gehrig (Goudey #160)
12. 1955 Roberto Clemente (Topps #164)

That list is odd. Ruth has 2 other '33 Goudey issues that they don't care about, and Gehrig also has an additional '33 issue. Multiple Clemente RCs that are ungraded run weekly until their completion and I've never seen one pulled. Also, we all know how well they enforce this policy re the T206 Wagner.

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Posted By: Paul S

This issue is truly a double-edged sword.
To me it always benefits the seller to get this kind of card graded, except for when a card presents well raw and a grade would actually cast it in a poor light. On that latter point, the seller's getting the short end. Still, overall it is still "unfair" to make a seller grade their cards.
For the buyer, Joann for example, she's getting penalized for all the hard work she's put in as a collector, to be able to buy genuine nice raw cards because she knows what she's doing.
But any buyer with a cavalier attitude who goes after a card like this and doesn't even know in the first place what the card should look like...well, I can't say they "deserve" to be cheated, or should be cheated, but certainly they should know enough to call in a second opinion or whatever else they have to do. Caveat emptor. IMO, I think ebay is protecting itself and not really the buyer or seller, even though it's meant to "clean up the hobby."

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Posted By: TONY

I tried the link but it wasn't working
I'm glad to hear of these new restriction
But why hasn't Ebay advertised this fact more widely?
I wasn't aware of it
It is a good start
Obviously more cards that are prone to counterfeiters can be added as needed

Another simple rule that can really eliminate high $$ fraud is

any card with a Minimum value of say $25K or more

Has to be graded by one of the big boys to be on Ebay

I don't know many collectors willing to pay $25K or more for a raw card

That will eliminate most problems of fraud, overgrading etc

It's just another positive step to prevent blatant fraud

I know some collectors don't like graded cards but so many more scams on ungraded cards vs graded cards

Kudos to Ebay, a small step in the right direction

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Posted By: brian

I have a near mint Clemente rookie that is way off center. The "experts" at eBay must be off their rocker if they expect me to send it in for grading just for the privelege of listing it there.