Ebay Authentication - It Gets Personal
 

On November 16, I purchased a 1921 E121 series of 80 Ty Cobb graded a 4 by BVG hosted by Ebay and listed by Rick Probstein. It was a card I had been looking for a fair amount of time so naturally pleased. It was due to be delivered today so I was quite excited. This morning when I opened my mail Ebay notified me that the sale was cancelled and my money refunded without any explanation. Needless to say, I am pissed. I emailed Rick to ask if he knew anything about it.
Does anybody know if there is an Ebay number I could call to rattle their cage?
I try not to be suspicious but I smell the faint odor of a rat here.

oh man...that sucks donkey d$ck! I'm so sorry that happened to you...and weird they waited til delivery day to inform you of this? And sadly you likely have no recourse.

The card should have been shipped to the 3rd party authenticator at PSA since it was a graded card and sold for over $250.

Why did you think it would be delivered today?

Ebay should be able to help you through their contact information but the bottom line is if you got your money back they probably will do nothing.

The seller can cancel and refund any item but they have to give some reason for doing so.

Being out of stock is the usual one used but with a consigned card that would be doubtful.

Maybe consignor just told them he did not want to sell at the final price.

Any crack/damage to the slab?

I found the listing. Not sure, unless there was an issue with the slab we can't see.

Sorry about all this.

I suspect your last sentence is the real reason. Not exactly a buyer friendly Ebay rule. No reason was given, except "the item did not match the description" nonsence.

What does the tracking say? Was the card shipped to authentication? If so, you should have received an email stating that it failed authentication and sometimes it gives an explanation.

From the eBay listing, nothing about the slab or listing make it look like a card that would fail eBay's authentication.

So it is strange, unless it was just never sent from Probstein and was cancelled on their end.

The tracking said it was due to be delivered today. I was like a kid at Xmas until I opened my email and saw their bombshell. I assume it went to their Authentication Team who cancelled the sale and refunded my money. They gave no reason except their canned boilerplate stuff about item misdescription. Coal in my stocking instead of Tyrus.

I hope you can get to the bottom of this and get that Cobb. If so, please let us know. I've had a few purchases from Probstein in the past with no issues, let's hope there's an easy explanation and a completed transaction (in the end).

Was it delivered to Santa Ana or not?

I've had them punt (non PSA) cards for barely visible scratches. I don't think there's anything nefarious involving Rick here, until proven otherwise.

Not sure if relevant, but I've had two relatively high end cards get lost or stolen at the eBay international shipping hub within the past 3 months. Situation where the cards were shown to have arrived at the shipping hub, but then there is no update on the order for something like 10 days or 2 weeks. And then eBay waits until the day of expected delivery to refund your money.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are some insiders at eBay's internal waystation points stealing higher end cards.

I won a 1955 Topps Willie Mays PSA 2.5 from Rick P about a week ago. It went out to California for the review, and I got it a few days ago.

A bit of background:

The exact card (same cert #) was auctioned in october by Heritage, and I was the underbidder. It then showed up on ebay via Probstein, where I won it for less than my bid in the Heritage auction.

So whoever took the loss on the card didn't create any shenanigans about it.

Steve

Rick isn't canceling any sales because the seller didn't like the hammer price. So let's just kick that conspiracy theory to the curb.

The card almost certainly failed authentication for a one of a variety of reasons. Perhaps the same reason that landed it in a BVG slab and not a real TPG slab. But we can only speculate.

I thought it would only fail authentication if there was a problem with the slab. They're just supposed to be making sure the slab is ok. They're not regrading the card in the slab.

USPS Registered Mail ?
 

In the Registered USPS system every person that touches and handles the package has to sign off-- if this was the case there will be a paper trail. Did the cards show arriving to the authenticator, then missing after that?

To be clear, my cards went missing at the eBay international shipping hub in Illinois, not at the authenticator. But I thought the same principles might apply.

Yes, the cards were tracked to the shipping hub -- and then no more.

Is this the card? I couldn't find a series of 80 sold by Rick. If this is the card, I can't tell if the scratch is on the case or the card. Either way though, I can understand why they would say the card doesn't match the description of a BVG 4 with both the staining and scratch. Now whether they should reject the card in this situation or not can be debated.

the plot thickens. DJ...to me the scratch is ON the card. So the card is overgraded. I thought the process was just an authenticity check...not a grade check?

here's a cobby cousin.

It is not a scratch on the card. A portion of the cards printed had some debris or something on the printing plate and leaves some areas of no print. I have atleast one if not two E121 series of 120 with the same exact appearance of a scratch.

If you would look at VCP images there some examples as well, in the exact same place. It is not a scratch on the card but can appear that way to an untrained eye.

i stand corrected...an unsightly print defect then.

Ebay closed my case today and only stated that the item didn't match description or player misidentified. Since my dear card has been returned to the consignor, I guess I am something out of luck.
As the card was slabbed and valued over $500, shouldn't it have gone to PSA? As someone suggested, maybe they kicked it out because of the scratched holder or stain on the card or just didn't like the BVG slab.
Rick did actually respond (minor miracle) and just repeated back what Ebay said.
If I had bought at a show, it would have been a done deal.
Oh, the perils of dealing with Ebay.
Thanks to everyone on the Board for their support about this minor tragedy.

I had the same thing happen to me involving the same seller and I was disappointed as well because I thought I got a really good deal on the card. But then I had a thought. What if they just sent the authenticator the wrong card on purpose knowing it would get kicked back and the buyer refunded? Then nobody really knows but the seller seeing as how eBay is vague on their reason. Just my 2.

Joe Kemmett

Can you and Rick work a side deal off Ebay? My thought is that if fleabay stopped it once, then he shouldn't be able to sell it on that venue (again) therefore he should be able to sell it off fleabay without any repercussions from fleabay. Perhaps you two could split the savings on the card.

Hmmm, food for thought.

I won a card from Probstein (last year, I believe) and he cancelled the sale around the delivery due date. It was an auction which ran for a week or so, so not a listing error or anything like that. He then relisted that exact card (same cert number and all) a couple weeks later.

So, there”s that.

I just received a card from eBay. It went through their AG program. Everything went well and the card is great.

They even sealed the graded card sleeve with this cool sticker. Since it came off the sleeve so cleanly (and easily) I figured it would be neat to save the sticker as a keepsake.

+1. I have seen it on a high grade E121 Cobb that's been on ebay for a while.
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