eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee Program Delays

[bcbgcbrcb]

Is it just me or over the past couple of weeks, has it been taking a week or more every time for PSA to get an item off to the buyer after a qualifying AG purchase. If PSA can’t keep up with the volume, maybe time to shut this program down, none of us ever wanted it in the first place.

[jayshum]

I haven't purchased anything recently that had to go through the Authenticity Guarantee so I can't comment on if it's taking longer, but I don't think it's accurate to say no one wanted it. I've never had an issue with it personally, and I've seen plenty of people (buyers and sellers) post that they are in favor of the program.

[cannonballsun]

It's getting as slow as PSA grading can be, mainly to California. I had one item that I sold take well over two weeks.
Another item, which I bought, I hadn't received in a month. It turned out the authenticators lost it. My money was refunded by eBay and the seller kept the money from he sale, as it wasn't his fault.

[bcbgcbrcb]

I realized today that it has all to do with the recent change to eBay’s funds availability policy for sellers. It’s in eBay’s best interests the longer the delivery process takes to ultimately reach the buyer since they hold those funds now until 3 business days after the delivery of the item to the buyer has been confirmed. That means at least an extra couple of weeks for eBay to keep those funds in their account and earn interest on it. That’s millions of customers doing millions of transactions a day times all of that additional float time on that money. This can be more lucrative for eBay than their 13.9% fee structure. The question is, how do we stop it?

[ValKehl]

Phil, the way to "stop" eBay is for some very-well-financed company to build a better auction mousetrap with policies that pleases sports card buyers and sellers more than eBay does. I can see an aggressive company such as Fanatics doing this. I can see this company offering Greg Morris, Probstein, and and a dozen other large-volume eBay sports card sellers a sweetheart deal to leave eBay and give their business to this company's new and better auction platform. Once this happens, I believe that most of the remaining eBay sellers of sports cards would also leave eBay. I, for one, most certainly would.

[hammertime]

nevermind, saw the other thread.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

I realized today that it has all to do with the recent change to eBay’s funds availability policy for sellers. It’s in eBay’s best interests the longer the delivery process takes to ultimately reach the buyer since they hold those funds now until 3 business days after the delivery of the item to the buyer has been confirmed. That means at least an extra couple of weeks for eBay to keep those funds in their account and earn interest on it. That’s millions of customers doing millions of transactions a day times all of that additional float time on that money. This can be more lucrative for eBay than their 13.9% fee structure. The question is, how do we stop it?

Not true, at least not for everything. When has eBay ever held funds for "weeks" as a part of their regular process?

I sold a card Saturday, got it in the mail technically because we have a mall post office that is open on the weekends. But it won't get into the system until today likely, and won't probably be delivered until later this week. I got a notification of my payout this morning.

[bcbgcbrcb]

John:

Read the accompanying thread regarding e-bays funds avaiability policy change.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Not true, at least not for everything. When has eBay ever held funds for "weeks" as a part of their regular process?

I sold a card Saturday, got it in the mail technically because we have a mall post office that is open on the weekends. But it won't get into the system until today likely, and won't probably be delivered until later this week. I got a notification of my payout this morning.

eBay is testing a few different payment policies now. It just depends on what one(s) they are testing on you. Even the seller selecting "immediate payment required" for BIN listings doesn't matter. In some cases they still give you the new(to me) pay in up to 7 days option.

[bcbgcbrcb]

After two email exchanges back and forth with eBay’s Office of the President, they claim that the reason for the recent slowdown from 1-3 days to 1-3 weeks for their sports card authenticity guaranty program is due to the influx of PSA submissions resulting from Pokemon and Magic recent drops of highly popular gaming products.

Obviously not what I wanted to hear and further evidence of what is ruining our hobby amongst vintage card collectors.

[bcbgcbrcb]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

After two email exchanges back and forth with eBay’s Office of the President, they claim that the reason for the recent slowdown from 1-3 days to 1-3 weeks for their sports card authenticity guaranty program is due to the influx of PSA submissions resulting from Pokemon and Magic recent drops of highly popular gaming products. Obviously not what I wanted to hear and further evidence of what is ruining our hobby amongst vintage card collectors.

How about calling a spade, a spade and saying that PSA has pushed SGC out the door and are now trying to handle the volume of two companies with the same manpower as before. And, as always, no need for them to panic or make any changes, us idiot collectors will continue to feed their business model no matter what they do.

[bcbgcbrcb]

Now you have two mega corporations, Collectors and eBay joining forces to battle the individual card collector. Who wins that one?

But, collect what you like, it’s just a hobby, right?

[balltrash]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

Now you have two mega corporations, Collectors and eBay joining forces to battle the individual card collector. Who wins that one?

But, collect what you like, it’s just a hobby, right?

Let's all keep in mind that, respectfully, this message board does not represent the hobby at large. A few dozen collectors griping about a policy can't really be extrapolated to represent the business as a whole which at this point encompasses what must be tens of thousands of collectors.

I would wager that in the long run the authenticity guarantee will keep more people enjoying collecting than not (and I would bet money it is not a little multiplier but many orders of magnitude). Just because you may know a resealed slab does not mean that others (and by others I mean the overwhelming majority of collectors) have that same knowledge. Having a stop gap in place serves to help these people (and sellers who are honest and could get wrapped up in shenanigans with buyers who are not) enjoy peace of mind.

I for one am a fan of program. I can sell higher dollar cards without worry. I have zero issue whatsoever if it delays things a bit. Nice to know that both myself and the buyer can rest easier at night. Further - I would imagine that if you (not you specifically Phil but anyone who is averse to Authenticity Guarantee) bought a card and found that the holder had been tampered with or there was otherwise a problem you would be up in arms if eBay did nothing to help.

Not to say this is some flawless program (it really never could be) but if it helps to elminate even 96% of problems we should ALL be all for it; it can only serve to encourage more collectors to have faith in a marketplace that makes our material highly liquid in ways that no one would have ever dreamed of even 20 years ago.

And I do not for a second believe that eBay has implemented their slower to pay out policy so that they can earn interest on the funds. In a world where everyone expects everything to be immediate this would cause more headaches than it would be worth. I am sure that they got left holding the bag too many times by too many bad actors and this is just a way to protect themselves. I don't doubt that some other companies will follow suit as needed.

Jeremy Kraft

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

How about calling a spade, a spade and saying that PSA has pushed SGC out the door and are now trying to handle the volume of two companies with the same manpower as before. And, as always, no need for them to panic or make any changes, us idiot collectors will continue to feed their business model no matter what they do.

You have perfectly described the phenomenon known as "sheeple" in our hobby. Or lemmings (take your pick). The PSA Apologists and Registry Addicts lead the flock, but 99% simply follow along because they don't have minds of their own. I'm stunned at how many otherwise smart people still support them. Leave PSA to Ultra-modern and Pokemon, and grade your vintage cards elsewhere or keep them raw (as they were meant to be).