Posted By:
rrrowePlease forgive my lack of optimism concerning this idea.
A multi-billion dollar company wants free help in cleaning up the mess that their own past greed has created? Somehow it seems to me that if they had been less greed-driven over the past 10 years and more concerned with the quality their service provided, this would not be an alternative being considered today. For years, I along with many of you have reported listing which were OBVIOUSLY fraudulent....only to see the item sold and the seller listing another one. AND WHY? Greed for the revenues these sellers (often POWERSELLERs) was adding to their bottom line.
The solution would be to HIRE personnel, and specifically a "Sportscard and Memorabilia Manager", that is knowledgeable about this product. (Major auctions houses do it, why not eBay?) Someone who is proactive and not reactive. Someone who will stand up to management when "quality" issues are being sacrificed to appease their stockholders lusts.
Ebay has a discussion board with listing after listing mentioning problems, scams and fraudlent activity....do they listen? NO. If you look at their Sportscard discussion board you will see the "newest" manager (as of 2005) had checked in and was looking for ways to improve this category....he quickly became a joke on the board. As it soon became all too obvious his real interest was not in improving problems but in continuing to collect his paycheck by not "making waves". I can't think of one issue/problem presented on their own board that they have addressed in the last 2 years!
Now we/you are expected to clean up eBay mess? We can't even get the grading companies and auction houses within our own industry to clean up their messes. Reholdered, trimmed, and incorrectly graded cards, ok let's report them. When in reality it should be an issue being addressed by PSA, SGC and GAI. Our grading companies should proactive with these issues, yet their bottom lines also become the deciding factors for any change.
Well hopefully, if all goes well with this venture, we can also get eBay to research and suspend those individuals responsible for interfering with auctions by getting sellers to end them early or changing them for immediate sale. Personally, I consider that stealing as much the guy with the tea-soaked T206 Wagner found in a cigar box in grandpa's attic listed as "possibly real".
I'm afraid the problems within this hobby are the moral ethics of each us associated with it. Unfortunately, all too often the almighty dollar has a way of easing our moral consciences and turning "wrongs" into those "acceptable" gray areas we can live with.
I say "Let them eat papercutouts". Because until their bottom line suffers, no genuine improvements will be made.
08-25-2007, 02:18 AM
Ebay is getting better
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