new low for the ebay authenticity thing

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by BobC

Great point and question. Here's possibly another.

If under the program a graded card gets sent to a TPG to verify that the card holder is real and hasn't been tampered with, what happens if in sending the card to the designated TPG the holder somehow gets damaged in transit? Or what if it gets damaged in the hands of the people at the designated TPG? Could it be possible for that card to be 100% legit and real, but now because of third-party damage to the holder that some examiner deems the damaged holder as tampered with, and therefore puts the legitimacy of the card itself into question?

Which leads back to Peter's and other's other question, what happens to the card itself in such an instance when the holder is considered fake or tampered with? Does it get returned to the seller, but now in damaged form? Since at the end of the day, whatever TPG is hired to review these holders is still only technically giving their opinion, I doubt they could ever claim the cards are truly fake or tampered with, and as a result confiscate them and not send them back to the seller. To my thinking, such an action would go beyond the mere rendering of an opinion, and confiscation of cards would put actual liability in the lap of the TPG and/or online seller, which they most certainly do not ever want if they can help it.

We all know it is not a question of if, but when, something like that finally happens. And at that point I can see a very upset seller getting everyone else all just pointing fingers at each other, and no one taking any responsibility for the whole issue, leaving the seller stuck.

The other part of this I've never understood is how you can pick one TPG group/company to be in charge of reviewing encapsulated cards and holders of other TPGs as well. Exactly how did those designated examiners suddenly become experts in the card holders of every other TPG? What training did they receive and/or school did they attend to gain such knowledge and expertise?

Also, one would think that there should be a sense of independence to this process as well. I can see hiring a TPG to look at raw cards being sold on an online platform as there is no independence question or issue in that case. But in hiring one specific TPG to examine and review card holders of cards they graded and issued, along with graded card holders of all other TPG graded cards, that can raise a bit of an independence issue and question in my mind.

The transparency in this entire program, quite frankly, stinks. Otherwise, people wouldn't have to be bringing up such questions, at least not so long after such a program was initiated and originally put into place.

Bob your conclusion is not valid. It is a long-standing tradition on Net54 to complain about anything new, whether it makes sense or not.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Gorditadogg

Bob your conclusion is not valid. It is a long-standing tradition on Net54 to complain about anything new, whether it makes sense or not.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

LOL that is funny and the correct answer to all the silly excuses on why it is bad for eBay to try and help people from getting scammed on their site.

I noticed many of the complainers about this program also complain about fraud in the hobby.

Those that complained about all the altered cards in PSA slabs in the PWCC threads mainly collect PSA graded cards.

If all else fails it is a fun thread to read.

[Exhibitman]

Maybe the solution is to allow eBay purchasers to create a 'safe list' of sellers who do not need to send their slabs to PSA for review? I know I would (and have) trusted Scottsdale baseball Cards (Brian Marcy) with some of the most expensive purchases I've made. Why can't I safe list his stuff?

[Peter_Spaeth]

If you people think this is going to do much of anything to stop fraud, more power to you. Then again, I guess there are people who feel better with a fox guarding their henhouse, after all it needed to be guarded.

Again, I like the idea for raw cards.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

If you people think this is going to do much of anything to stop fraud, more power to you. Then again, I guess there are people who feel better with a fox guarding their henhouse, after all it needed to be guarded.

Again, I like the idea for raw cards.

This. PSA would have to be reliable and competent for it to even possibly do anything. The thousands of altered cards they miss, the PSA 8's that magically are 10's the next day, the thousand scandals and errors (if errors they all be) do not suggest serious competence.

Even if PSA were competent, they would have to look at the card to do much. PSA authenticating that SGC or GMA did slab a card doesn't do anything for a card collector.

I don't like it for raw cards either, but that's a separate debate.

My spending on eBay has been reduced about 50% (total card expidenture is on pace for 157% growth YOY but that will temper down and is spiked by a large deal) the last year as I switch more and more to private deals to dodge their 'improvements'. The destruction of their categories is far worse than this, this policy is a minor inconvenience at present as it is not charged yet. It is mostly amusing for the absurdity of the graded card policy. It may prove problematic for me on the raw front as some of my raw buys in that price range are very unusual items that I don't think CSG will even know what they are, and are often listed wrong by the seller with false information. I really don't want CSG nixing a deal, without any input from myself, and stopping me from getting a card I want at the price I agreed with the seller.