Quote:
Originally Posted by glchen
I completely disagree with the comments in this post. Scamming is always worse than ignorance. It's outrageous to me that we can blame the victim of the scamming instead of the perpetrator. There's an entire thread on N54 right now on the scamming going on in the BST, and many of the victims are experienced and knowledgeable board members. it's the same thing with ebay. Buyers on ebay expect a safe marketplace. They shouldn't have to be on guard that they will be scammed.
Therefore, in general, I completely support the steps that ebay is taking with their guarantee authentication service. I have bought several items that went through this service, both graded and raw. I've never had an issue with the additional days that it took for the items to go through the service. Frankly, the biggest time issue was that one seller sent the item to the authentication service through USPS Registered Mail, that that took FOREVER. But everyone recommends Register mail for expensive items, so I was fine with it.
I agree that it makes less sense to have graded cards go through the Authentication service, but I'm fine with it. As others have mentioned, there have been scams even with graded cards such as empty box, bogus tracking numbers, cracked slabs, fake slabs, and so forth. Let me put it this way. Let's say the major auction houses said that as a new policy, graded cards would now be shipped directly from the consignor to you instead of from the auction house. if you have any problems after receiving the item, tough luck. I think there would be outrage against any auction house that announced this change because folks expect the auction house to do some basic sanity checking for even the graded cards as part of the service they expect from the BP they pay. It's the same thing here.
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The scams pulled off or attempted here are an entirely different situation than most of the ones on Ebay.
Sending to PSA or CSG is only intended to catch items that are not authentic or not what they are claimed to be.
They wouldn't preclude a scam where the item is never actually shipped and the seller vanishes.
In the case of bad cards, I believe it's up to the buyer to have some idea what they're buying and some ability to tell if it's real.
PSA themselves don't have as much ability to spot alterations as they claim, and I wouldn't expect CSG to be better because they're new.
I've bought a handful of fake or altered cards over 40+ years. All but one I suspected were fake or knew for sure it was altered/fake. The only one that fooled me was the first, when I'd been collecting more seriously for less than a year.
My own knowledge is the first line of defense, That applies to all my hobbies.
And I believe it should apply even more as the items become more expensive.
Not having that knowledge is, at least to me irresponsible.
Like saying "I don't need to worry about riptides despite the warnings! They have lifeguards."