Introduction of Ebay Authentication
 

No word yet if they will include Sports Cards and Autographs. Seeing as Ebay is running it, does anybody see this as being anything other then a colossal disaster?

As of now, it looks to me like not much more then an extension of their VERO program for fashion designers.

I guess we can speculate what might happen if they decided to delve into Sports Cards and Memorabilia


http://pages.ebay.com/authentication/?rmvSB=true

This is where the real disaster is going to happen:

"To further bolster consumer trust in this program, if a buyer receives an item following inspection and it’s found to be inauthentic, eBay will refund the buyer two times the cost of the original purchase price."

I think I will buy an absolute crap load of stuff to easily double my money, lol.

Wow, this should be like printing money! I'll be buying myself some T206 Honus Wagner cards and 1952 Topps Mantles. It can't miss! Will I get to keep the fake card too?

The double your money part kicks in if their authenticators pass it the first time around (presumably from the pictures shown in an on-line listing).......and then fails after that.

A service you will have to pay for, according to the program.

I'm sure they'll cover themselves by only approving certain authenticators to re-authenticate the item (probably for another fee). Probably the same ones who passed it in the first place.

I would also guess that the bar for declaring something authentic will be set quite high. I foresee a lot of "uncertain authenticity" declarations coming.

Tee up 1928 Babe Ruth Candy and Froy Joy cards. IF "ebay" can tell authenticity on a few I have they are doing better than some graders and I :)....

It sounds like this is an area where one could look to for a big score. You would simply need to find those obscure hobby areas where the seller and Ebay both don't know what end is up, and the seller lists the item for a large amount of money and then sit back and collect the cash.

It sounds like it could be more profitable than flipping cards.

It also reminds me of another guarantee:

"If PSA, in fact, concludes that the card in question no longer merits the PSA grade assigned or fails PSA’s authenticity standards, PSA will either:

1. Buy the card from the submitter at the current market value if the card can no longer receive a numerical grade under PSA's standards or,
2. Refund the difference in value between the original PSA grade and the current PSA grade if the grade is lowered. In this case, the card will also be returned to the customer along with the refund for the difference in value.
The current market value is determined by PSA, based in part on Sports Market Report and SMR Online values and/or recent prices realized from the marketplace. PSA will be the sole determiner of the current market value."

It's like letting a school kid grade their own test or a restaurant do its own health inspection. What could possibly go wrong?

The way I'm reading it, the item is going to physically go to the authenticator first, because they mention then "forwarding" it to the buyer.


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Drew Max better get his magnifier ready...

Introduction of Ebay Authentication
 

I have bought a few authenticated/graded cards, but never submitted/paid for it myself. Although eBay will likely find a way to make this suck, I could potentially see myself using it on an ungraded purchase only if 1) buying ungraded makes sense due to price savings AND 2) I've already consulted some folks that can make a reasonable guess from the pictures alone, AND 3) the cost is comparable to the current prices for grading.

One relevant question: let's say they do use the big 3 for authentication. If the seller lists as original and the buyer pays for the authentication service that deems it fake, what then? Is the buyer refunded minus the authentication fee? Or does eBay refund the buyer entirely and charge the authentication fee to the seller as "punishment" for claiming the allegedly fake item was real? This could get messy.


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Possibly. They don't make it real clear either way.

If that's the case they also don't make clear a time schedule, or how long it might take for an item to go from seller, to authenticator, to buyer.....and how they adjust for a buyer getting antsy they haven't received their item yet.

Didn't they already try this with autographs a few years back. I remember it being a service where buyers could ask for authentication of autographs and if the autograph was deemed to be not authentic the seller would be banned from selling on e-bay or some such nonsense. I think it was part of a deal e-bay made with PSA and sellers were being harassed by PSA to submit all autographs to them for authentication or else face banishment. I could be completely wrong as I haven't heard about it in a long time.

Bill Avery