PSA selling cards on Ebay!?!?!?
 

I may be late to the party, but when did PSA start selling cards on Ebay?? Is that not an incredible conflict of interest??? Where do they get the cards from?? Is that where our missing PSA sub went??

I think those are sales from their vault that they list on behalf of the owners.

PSA will now sell any cards you get graded, directly to eBay upon grading.

This is a snippet of a current pending order of mine at PSA. As you review your order, each card has a dropdown with three choices. You can have the card returned to you, submitted into your vault, or listed on eBay.

My only interest is in having my cards returned to me, so I can't speak for the eBay option, but it certainly should raise some eyebrows.....

I think it is a great thing. Almost every single card I have ever submitted to PSA was to sell. Now they will not only make my card worth WAY more with their awesome Magic Plastic Slab they will also take all the BS of having to list it on eBay away and do it for me. Seems like a win win to me. Anyone know their fees for being so helpful?

Ah, yes. I forgot that it no longer has to be vaulted to list it. Either way, it's the same thing, I guess. They are selling cards for other people, not their own cards.

We did this recently. Don't see the issue.

What were the fees Peter?? How did it go?? How long did you have to wait for payment?

I would never refer to myself as we lol. I meant we, the Board, discussed this recently.

I am going to start calling you "Bruces"....

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So they grade it BEFORE they know they’re gonna sell it for a percentage ?
Is that correct ?

Do we know that PSA gets a percentage of the sale? I'm asking because I don't know.

I don’t know either , I was making an assumption 😐

This seems a strange thing to wonder. Is PSA your best friend or are they a business?



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Good One.
 

I'll go make popcorn. It's not paranoia if they really are out to getcha.

I believe ebay owns the psa vault or psa owns the ebay vault. Something like that. So it's not that strange to wonder whether they charge each other fees. They are in business together and likely have another arrangement worked out.

Now if you look at the link posted above, PSA charges the consignment fee "WITH NO ADDITIONAL EBAY FEES". So it appears I was correct in my assumption that there is no additional fee involved.

Unless I can’t comprehend words, you actually asked or wondered if PSA gets any $$ from the sale and of course they do.

I agree. On the surface, it appears PSA charges no additional amount. My assumption (only that) is that PSA receives a significantly discounted rate from eBay and that's how they cover costs+. With that said and if my assumption is true, there is absolutely a conflict of interest on PSAs part. They are incentivized in the short term to provide higher grades in order to generate higher eBay sales which generates higher consignment fees. Is it enough to matter to PSA? Its a bit impossible to say - particularly with the lack of transparency on PSAs agreement with eBay. Obviously, a $50 card probably isnt worth them messing with. But a $50,000 card? Yeah, buyer beware.

Yeah, I wasn't commenting on the propriety of it. Just that since I knew there was a business relationship where ebay sold its vault to PSA, that it wasn't unreasonable of me to ask if they charged fees over and above ebay's fees. That's all I asked, and was accused of asking a strange question.

Quote:
Originally Posted by CardPadre View Post
This seems a strange thing to wonder. Is PSA your best friend or are they a business?

The following quote was in response to the above quote:

I'll do you one better:

I'll go make popcorn. It's not paranoia if they really are out to get your dollars.

It's just business... Remember the Godfather movie quotes: "it's not personal, it's business"

I still abhor what grading has done on one side of the hobby, that being shoddy subjective slabbing which has led to a price gauging/hiking mentality. But it can't be ignored that a positive side of it is it allows those that like to collect this way a bit of joy in their collecting habit/niche (even though it's costing an arm and leg more to do so :p ).

Yeah, sorry - I used your point of conversation to launch into my own take on PSAs practice. We should be asking all kinds of questions about PSAs income take on this because it absolutely matters. Maybe its just a ploy to buy even more market dominance. Maybe they're taking 10 of the 13% eBay traditionally charges. I cant tell based on what has been posted and I feel confident that is by design.

I miss the Bruces...

Which Bruce do you miss? :p I'll speak for myself - don't we miss the pluralis majestatis? Looking back, it's all kind of funny now.

It would be interesting to try and guess how the Bruces would have responded to this topic.