Posted By:
MarkYes I do think PSA are jerks for haing my auction pulled with threats of havingmy accout suspended.
First, PSA did not allege keyword spamming to ebay, they alleged copyright infringement through eBay's Verified Rights Owner program (VeRO). That is only permissible where PSA has "a good faith belief that a listing on eBay infringes [its] copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights." Ebay gives the following example of trademark infringement: "For example, if a seller unauthorized by or unaffiliated with Nike® sells sports clothes called 'Nikestuff,' the seller is probably infringing Nike’s trademark." Obviously, I did not say the card was "PAS-graded."
Second, although I now realize that "not PSA" may technically constitute keyword spamming (not the ground alleged to ebay by PSA), I think paying PSA employees to go after collectors/dealers for this violation is heavy-handed because my auction was not injuring PSA. I am going to relist the card, perhaps getting a few dollars less for it because one or two collectors may not find the auction. PSA is not going to benefit from that in any way. I would think most if not all PSA collectors looking for a 1914 Cobb would want to know there was a GAI-graded example available. So even if this is technically keyword spamming, it is not within teh spirit of teh rule in my opinion.
In my book, PSA are jerks for their paying employees to harass collectors/dealers (misalleging infringement no less), many of whom (including myself) are PSA members, over a triival issue cush as this. They should spend those resouces improving their customer service or hiring more competent graders. This is certainly (IMHO) not an effort on PSA's part to foster a fun and propserous trading card community.