deceptive ebay sellers

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Posted By: steve

There recently have been multiple posts regarding deceptive sellers on ebay. This forum has many good people advising on what to look out for regarding grading, etc. I have learned much from the wonderful people who share their knowledge and it is appreciated. I have been doing a fair amount of buying and selling on ebay for almost a year now. Here are some of my favorite “red-flags” when it comes to ebay sellers.

1. Sellers who sell antiques or other items as well as baseball cards - they claim their scanner or camera isn’t working or not working properly, or the image of the card is like looking at it from ten feet away and there is an apology for the poor dark picture. Yet on their other items such as a vase worth $5, the picture is close up and crystal clear.
2. Sellers offering valuable cards who won’t spend an extra 75 cents for a “supersize” so you can see the card better, and won’t spend an extra 15 cents for a picture of the back of the card. One of my first ebay purchases was a PSA 8 card which turned out to have badly smeared printing on the back.
3. Sellers who have bought 50 items worth a few bucks apiece so they receive a 50 feedback number and have a 100% feedback rating, then suddenly have a near mint condition 1933 Ruth Goudey for sale accompanied by the usual BS story of how they just happened to acquire it. I don’t bid in this situation even if they have a picture of the card with a PSA serial number. That picture in my opinion could very well be a fraud of some type.