new low for the ebay authenticity thing

[GasHouseGang]

Will you still have to pay the tax on your purchase if you put your cards into the Ebay vault? That was supposed to be an advantage of one of the other vault storage facilities, right? As long as your purchase was delivered to the address of the vault you could avoid being taxed.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by GasHouseGang

Will you still have to pay the tax on your purchase if you put your cards into the Ebay vault? That was supposed to be an advantage of one of the other vault storage facilities, right? As long as your purchase was delivered to the address of the vault you could avoid being taxed.

I believe that was one of the only upsides If I remember correctly...but there was a bunch of other possible fees you could accrue, that the other fellas didn't have.

[BobC]

I've received the Ebay messages on their vault as well. Of no real interest to me from a collector standpoint.

As for the sales tax savings aspect of vault users, as others have mentioned, that only works if you have the seller send your items directly to a vault you are using that is located in a state with no sales taxes. If you live in a state with sales taxes, and have a seller send an item directly to you first, and then you turn around and forward/deliver it to your vault yourself, you are going to be liable for paying the sales tax due to your state, where the item was originally sent by the seller.

Aside from that aspect though, I can see another possible reason for Ebay getting into providing such a vault service as a way of positioning themselves for future business as they see the landscape of collectibles such as cards starting to transition from just being regarded as hobby collectibles, to truly being regarded more as investment type assets by an ever-growing portion of the population. We've had numerous threads on here where the idea of more and more new money coming into the hobby is looking at cards for primarily flipping or investment purposes, and not truly viewing them as prized collectible items. As such, these new generation collectors, as I'll call them, aren't really all that concerned about having physical ownership of these cards and items. Think of it like your 401(K) or other investment account(s). You own interests in numerous companies and funds, but don't have a single share of stock or any other physical items to prove or show your ownership or otherwise document your ownership. You leave it to the investment firms and managers handling your IRA, 401(K), or other investment accounts to watch over and guard your holdings for you. You don't have to worry about losing or misplacing your stock certificates, or having them secured in a safe or safe deposit box against theft or destruction. As part of this, can easily see Ebay starting their own vault to offset and possibly squelch attempts by competing businesses, such as PWCC and Goldin, from making inroads to starting to take away some market share and future business from them by getting sellers to buy into and use their selling platforms because of the advantages their vaults have to offer. These Ebay competitors were offering something that Ebay was not, but not anymore.

It also sets Ebay up to become a significant future player in this new type of alternative investment market as well, should the growth of investors/flippers in the card collecting hobby continue to grow and expand. It potentially adds another income source to Ebay's bottom line, while providing a service to the collecting/investing community. What with NFTs, digital assets, and fractional share investments all seeming to become more and more the norm, it kind of makes sense to have such vault services to offer people still collecting such tangible collectibles as rare cards. Take the SGC 9.5 '52 Topps Rosen/Mantle card currently up for auction. Very few people could afford to buy it in this day and age. But what if you got a group together, say all the Net54 members, to pool their money to bid on and end up winning that card currently at auction? Rather than having everyone fighting over who would be in charge to hold onto the actual card, and keep it safe and protected, it would probably make the most sense to have an independent third-party vault hold and protect the card for everyone. And knowing how much everyone on here just adores some of the other vault providers out there, I can easily see Ebay's vault getting serious consideration to be the one to hold on to such a card for the buying/investment group.

In fact, I'm kind of surprised we haven't really seen different people/entities already publicly advertising for and forming groups for the specific purpose of combining participant resources to go out and specifically start buying these big-name cards as investments. And if they are, I can see that using an independent third-party vault provider would probably make a lot of sense to the fractional investors, as opposed to the person(s) who set up the group purchase of these rare assets also acting as the custodian. Too many people still remember and know the name Bernie Madoff. LOL

And there probably are groups out there already that are formed/forming to go after and acquire these cards that the participants cannot otherwise afford to purchase themselves alone. They just don't seem to be publicly advertising it to the general hobby community, at least not yet. I can see that possibly changing in the future though as some cards look to continue setting record prices, even in the face of inflation, economic woes, and recession fears.

[drcy]

All the cards are exposed to light

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by drcy

All the cards are exposed to light

How else are they going to be able to see out of their windows?

[G1911]

Went through my first round of this process for a graded card. I had high hopes, as it is a recognizable card from a major set with no fakes and so it should be pretty hard for them to find a reason to fuck up my deal for me and not deliver my card.

After a three day delay due to the middle man, I got my card. It comes in a box. I was very pleased that they included the other cheap cards I bought from the seller, and placed her kind, handwritten note to me in the box as well instead of throwing it out. I do actually appreciate that they did not mess this part up.

It's packed well, with a bubble mailer holding the other items on top, and then the item they are validating beneath it. It came with the teal insert,
"Authentic without a doubt", expressing that they are "thrilled to deliver the latest addition" to my collection. "Your card has meticulously inspected by a team of experts" is promised, which I believe is a lie. They are to validate the slab is a real slab, not re-inspecting the card within the slab is how this extremely useful program was announced and billed. I'm sure they are experts on SGC slabs. Considering how many fake T227 Johnson's are out there (0, that I have ever seen! Only the baseball's have been counterfeited thus far as far as I am aware), this felt like an incredibly valuable service.

Inside the flip envelope/stand/holder/thing with it's magnetic flap was finally my card, in a clear slab sleeve, lest the slab get damaged, and secured to the blue cardboard for display. I took it out of the display (I'm a rebel like that) and flipped it over. There is a QR code on back and a void if damaged sticker. The sticker is another valuable addition to my security of mind. I just peeled it back, taking 0 care to preserve it, and then slapped it back down closed again, as you can see. It takes literally 0 effort to put any slab or card you want in here and just seal it again, seeming to produce yet another absurdity of this entire waste of time. I mean, it gives me peace of mind! Peeling it up leaves part of the text on the sleeve, but as soon as you close it, it's covered up until someone peels off the "VOID" sticker; they will never know you swapped the item.

Jack is now sitting in my stack of recently acquired slabs for the next time I break out the pliers to crack it out, and throw the slip and shattered slab into the garbage can, so I can enjoy the card I wanted without all of these layers of holders, displays, and authentication of.... something (the slab? The card? Who knows!). If I run out of money, I'll ask whoever has been submitting marquee cards for gift grades to submit it for me for a blatantly bullshit SGC gift grade so I can triple the value.

Taking out that I could personally give a crap what SGC, PSA, CSG, or any random employee of any company in card land thinks of an item I am buying, I fail to see, more than ever, any actual value to this junk. Even if I loved slabbed cards and was buying this for the slip and not the card, this gives me absolutely nothing. The comically terrible "void if damaged" seal that you can re-use on anything is a waste. If I am an investor, this also adds nothing to my investment; the value is in the slip. If I am too dumb to tell my nose from my ass and can't tell a fake from a real, this adds nothing. SGC already did that part (if one believes they are competent), and this card does not have counterfeits anyways. If the slab is fake and they inspected the card not the slab, like the included marketing sheet claims they did, then I'd still get a fake slab. Nobody would gain anything from this service on this deal.

But I got my Johnson. 2 backs down, 1 more to go. Really should have got these back when Johnson was worth considerably less than Baker, Bender and Marquard, not more.

[Buythatcard]

Actual photo of the eBay Vault.

[Yoda]

I don't man to belabor a subject that has been examined backwards and forwards.......but. I just received a beautiful raw '65 Topps Yogi bought from Greg Morris. Rather than the usual nice, easily-opened envelopes from Greg, I received one of those flat Ebay packages that are guaranteed to produce a cut when opening with a box cutter. There was Yogi ungraded with all the usual crap, including the prized purple sticker.
I am going to send Larry to SGC for grading and in a courageous act of valor
am going to remove the prized sticker. Aren't I brave?
A couple of points I am pondering:-
1. I thought the authentication service was for graded cards to see if the case had been tampered with.
2. Where is Ebay sending cards, SCG. Ebay or Jupiter?
3. Whoever thought of this dumb idea should be ex-communicated.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Yoda

I don't man to belabor a subject that has been examined backwards and forwards.......but. I just received a beautiful raw '65 Topps Yogi bought from Greg Morris. Rather than the usual nice, easily-opened envelopes from Greg, I received one of those flat Ebay packages that are guaranteed to produce a cut when opening with a box cutter. There was Yogi ungraded with all the usual crap, including the prized purple sticker.
I am going to send Larry to SGC for grading and in a courageous act of valor
am going to remove the prized sticker. Aren't I brave?
A couple of points I am pondering:-
1. I thought the authentication service was for graded cards to see if the case had been tampered with.
2. Where is Ebay sending cards, SCG. Ebay or Jupiter?
3. Whoever thought of this dumb idea should be ex-communicated.

Raw cards over the threshold go to CSG. Graded cards go to PSA, who look only at the holder and not the card (we all know what matters )

[D. Bergin]

Kind of concerning that these cards appear to be getting shipped back out in sub-optimal packaging.

Who gets left holding the bag in a case of damage from the authentication facility to the end user...particularly in the case of the over-sized SGC slab, shipped from PSA to the buyer, a couple posts up?

I've bought relatively few graded cards from other sellers compared to most here, but have bought enough to know, it doesn't take a whole lot to crack a PSA or SGC slab in shipping.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by G1911

Raw cards over the threshold go to CSG. Graded cards go to PSA, who look only at the holder and not the card (we all know what matters )

What is the threshold? I think I am getting a raw card sent straight to me that cost almost 3k.
.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Leon

What is the threshold? I think I am getting a raw card sent straight to me that cost almost 3k.
.

For raw cards, it's $250 or more that the seller is given CSG's address to ship to. If it's going straight to you, it probably has "set" in the title of the listing. There's a few tricks in the keywords to dodge the program (though some sellers are surely just using those words without knowing that's the result).

[Dead-Ball-Hitter]

Originally Posted by Buythatcard

Actual photo of the eBay Vault.

Lol love it Howard