This is loony tunes on so many levels.
Three years ago a card over $750 would have gone to PSA and been back in 30-60-ish days, or SGC in even less. Selling it raw on eBay would have been a non-starter. With PSA effectively out of business selling expensive raw cards has become a real thing, I guess. And so many more cards are expensive now; lower grade T206 HOF portraits are going to four figures.
The USPS has been a shit show since that asswipe took it over. You really want to have an expensive card go through the USPS multiple times? How many orders are going to have to be undone when the USPS loses or wrecks the package? And who bears that risk? I have a sneaky suspicion it won't be eBay or the buyer. Can you say "mandatory shipping insurance, which eBay will gladly provide, for a fee"?
How on earth can CSG promise a quick turnaround on a card when it takes them 1-2 months to turn around a standard order? What will that do to the patient customers who are waiting for their cards now?
What is CSG going to do with the vast array of cards it does not grade? How will they authenticate a Babe Ruth Exhibit when they don't even grade them?
Last of all, this mandate with a limited time free means eventually it will be a cost someone eats. Probably the seller because that's what eBay always does. They are as bad as Lexis. Any time those pirates call my office to "work with you to lower your legal research bill" I
know I will end up paying more.
The only people who will benefit from this are the auction houses. Every layer of complexity and expense that eBay layers on just pushes more business to the AHs. Selling a card already costs me 10% of the sale price plus 3% of the sum of the sale price, the shipping, and the tax (yeah, eBay charges a transaction fee on shipping and tax). A few more points and we are at auction house pricing, and I don't need to deal with the fulfillment headaches of cards I consign, just mail 'em in ad pick up the check.
Just don't know what else to say except...
