I've seen a situation where someone sent in a card that almost certainly was in a Copperfield slab and expected them to confirm that, but they issued a new cert and reslabbed it. It was a 30K card too, at the time, now worth much much more.

I don't know much about the sneaker world, but if the side of the shoe or the box says "Addidas", I would guess it might be a cheap knockoff.

Me too! The guy that sold it to me lives about 2 hours away, yet the card went from NC to CA for authentication, now back to NC.

I beat you! I bought an SGC graded card from a guy who lives in the same city. The card went from NYC to Newark to Chicago ( it stayed there for a week. I guess it was visiting relatives) to Los Angeles to Santa Ana. After arriving to Santa Ana in the morning that afternoon it went to Los Angeles to Memphis to NYC (Queens) to Yonkers finally to NYC ( Manhattan).

I just got mine back today. I still would have just rather have the card back sooner, but I must say, the presentation sure is nice.

Nice....and totally unnecessary........us card collectors don't need a chaperone.

Agreed it's unnecessary, especially with a card that's already graded. The extra shipping is what worried me the most about the process. I mean, what could possibly go wrong with an extra 5,000 miles of shipping through the USPS?

HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAH!! Touche!

I am 100% for the eBay authentication program. I have sold about 10 graded cards so far that have gone through the process with no problems at all.

I think many are underestimating the sheer volume of scams / "bad" listings that were / are happening on eBay. Just because you think you can determine a scam listing or fake / "bad" card being sold, does not mean the vast majority of buyers can.

Some keep saying "why does a graded card need to be authenticated again?". The counterfeit holders are getting better and better every day - many buyers would probably have a hard time detecting a counterfeit slab these days. Also, a seller can picture a graded card and send a rock, an empty package, a different card in a different graded holder, an empty card holder, etc. And if you're the buyer and it says the package was delivered, good luck trying to argue your case that you didn't receive what you bought. Who should eBay believe in that situation? This program clears up that problem immediately.

And as far as raw cards go, the amount of problems that can be solved by involving an independent third party is extremely valuable. Buyers can't make up any condition excuse for a return, and sellers can't sell altered cards or cards with undisclosed damage to unsuspecting buyers.

It was clearly impossible for eBay to implement an authentication guarantee that would please everyone, but at least they are attempting to do something. I do agree that the program should be optional for buyers, but if you opt out, you void any buyer protection no matter what - you don't receive what you bought or are not happy with your purchase, you're out of luck.

Agreed...that was one of my problems when I first got into the hobby. I sold sold awesome 1961 Fleer basketball cards...all PSA 8's or 9's with qualifiers. The buyer claimed he didn't want qualifers after he bid on an won my auctions. I told him to return them for a full refund. Instead of returning the cards, he returned the empty slabs. He had cracked out the cards, apparently because he wanted high grade cards for his collection and wanted to get his money back at the same time. That was my lone experience with getting a "brick" in the mail.

Crazy! You can't make this stuff up.

authentication
 

the holders of the slabbed cards are being authenticated, the cards are not being re-authenticated....still I think it is a waste of time for slabbed cards in the newer, better, security holders....but perhaps authenticating holders of the cards encased in older, non security holders needs to be done to be sure the holders have not been tampered with...assuming the "authenticators" know what they are doing and what to look for....

Bruce Perry