That new PSA/eBay deal

[GregMitch34]

I just saw the Sports Collector article and forgive me if this has been discussed here in recent days but I don't see it....Anyway it leaves me confused. It appears to say that in the future NO card can be sold via eBay over $2000 unless it has been sent to PSA to be "verified"--not an option but a requirement, with the hint that this will be lowered to any over 250 when it settles in....Also that PSA will be handling graded while CCG only handles ungraded...Press release: "Beginning today, when a graded card is sold for $2,000+ in the U.S., the seller will send that graded card to PSA....."

Perhaps I'm reading it wrong....

Refer me to previous thread is discussed there or...discuss now. Seems like a bombshell...

https://sportscollectorsdigest.com/n...ee-requirement

[rjackson44]

lol

[Snapolit1]

I sold a card last week that triggered this new service. I was told to ship it to a PSA address in California. It was a SGC graded card by the way. The printing label I printed off ebay had a reference number and was directed to a specific guy at PSA. Yesterday I got an email from ebay saying it has passed authentication and they were packing it and shipping to the buyer. I was paid by ebay pursuant to ordinary practice, and they didn't hold my money until the authentication was complete.

Pretty interesting. Made life no more difficult from the selling end. Would be a debacle of course if PSA came back and said my card was not authentic even though it was in the holder of SGC. Seems like PSA turned the card around in 2 days. (Other than look at the case for marks of obvious tampering, not sure what else this dude was possibly going to do.)

[Leon]

Ebay needs to put a sticker on the slabbed cards they re-authenticate. Maybe a nifty red sticker or an ebay logo? I have always said this hobby needs more stickers!
.

[Snapolit1]

Originally Posted by Leon

Ebay needs to put a sticker on the slabbed cards they re-authenticate. Maybe a nifty red sticker or an ebay logo? I have always said this hobby needs more stickers!
.

What ever happened to purple sticker guy? Haven't seen much from him.

[jchcollins]

All this stuff is highly entertaining to me. I saw an obviously fake '57 Koufax for sale on ebay last night at a price that triggers the authentication. Not that it will sell, but hopefully if so these kinds of practices will finally weed out some of the longtime bad apples.

Now, if ebay could be convinced to care about cards to the point where they would stop trying to sell me $200K Jose Uribe cards in my Facebook feed - that would be something.

[conor912]

Originally Posted by Leon

Ebay needs to put a sticker on the slabbed cards they re-authenticate. Maybe a nifty red sticker or an ebay logo? I have always said this hobby needs more stickers!
.

I’ve been saying it for years….slabbed slabs are coming!

[G1911]

It's almost like eBay took a look at their card business and said "Gee guys, how do we suicide this profitable venture as quickly as we can?". I thought it was annoying when they re-sorted the categories and destroyed boxing. This is a terrible choice, absolutely nobody except PSA gains from this format. Why would anyone want to get an already-graded card authenticated again, even if one believes the grading companies are wonderful?

[Rhotchkiss]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

I sold a card last week that triggered this new service. I was told to ship it to a PSA address in California. It was a SGC graded card by the way. The printing label I printed off ebay had a reference number and was directed to a specific guy at PSA. Yesterday I got an email from ebay saying it has passed authentication and they were packing it and shipping to the buyer. I was paid by ebay pursuant to ordinary practice, and they didn't hold my money until the authentication was complete.

Pretty interesting. Made life no more difficult from the selling end. Would be a debacle of course if PSA came back and said my card was not authentic even though it was in the holder of SGC. Seems like PSA turned the card around in 2 days. (Other than look at the case for marks of obvious tampering, not sure what else this dude was possibly going to do.)

Did this cost either you (seller) or the buyer any money? If not, have eBay fees gone up at all?

And, I think psa should put a sticker or something on it since there are rendering a professional opinion. I would think the buyer, and all subsequent buyers, would like to know that PSA has blessed the card. Plus, it would save from having to do it all over again if the card ever gets relisted on eBay

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss

Did this cost either you (seller) or the buyer any money? If not, have eBay fees gone up at all?

And, I think psa should put a sticker or something on it since there are rendering a professional opinion. I would think the buyer, and all subsequent buyers, would like to know that PSA has blessed the card. Plus, it would save from having to do it all over again if the card ever gets relisted on eBay

How difficult would it be for someone to counterfeit such a sticker?

[Rhotchkiss]

Originally Posted by BobC

How difficult would it be for someone to counterfeit such a sticker?

Juice ain’t worth the squeeze considering the slab is already real or fake. The only person who would counterfeit the sticker is someone who has already counterfeited the underlying slab.

[iwantitiwinit]

Two questions:

1) What happens if the card gets lost in the mail between the ebay authentication point and the buyer. Is ebay on the hook for the selling price;

2) Who pays shipping between the authentication point and the buyer.

This entire thing is a cluster. Ebay is going to lose tens of thousands of listings. Disaster in my opinion.

[Snapolit1]

Guess I'm not grasping the general negative response to this recent development.

Putting aside the increasing role of grading companies, many collectors' obsession with slabs, people's dislike of eBay generally, and how graded cards have ruined or diminished the hobby for so many of you . . . topics one might say have been covered extensively here for many years . . . .

Isn't any step to help eliminate fraud in the hobby a good development?

Is PSA perfect in rooting out fraud? Of course not. No one is perfect at anything.

[Smarti5051]

I am also a little surprised how negative the reaction to the Authentication process has been from the vets on this board. I imagine many of the commentors have far more experience evaluating cards than the TPGs that are doing it, especially with the recent increase in card grading. But, it seems that many of the commentors can't put themselves in the position of a less experienced collector.

Even though I have collected since the early-80s (with long breaks over the past 4 decades), I do not consider myself anything close to an expert on authentication. I have read several threads over the past year on this site and Blowoutcards of PSA slabs on Ebay that a knowledgeable poster has been able to prove are counterfeit. Heck, there was even an Etsy seller that was selling "replica" PSA slabs of Trout and Brady rookies (among others) as counterfeits that did not have any markings they were "replicas." If an Etsy seller can replicate the process in a basement, I have to imagine more sophisticated operations could fool alot of collectors, especially since once inside a slab, things like feel, smell and weight go out the window.

Back when a really nice collection could be amassed with a lifetime budget of $50,000, being fooled by a counterfeit slab might have been a three to low four digit mistake. Now, when $50,000 is the budget for a few cards, the risk to a collector in getting it wrong is a potential 5 digit mistake. Not to mention, when you are spending $500 on a card you want, it is easy to accept the cost as an expense for a hobby. When you are spending $5000 for the same card thanks to the market explosion the past couple years, it is hard not to treat that cost as an "investment" (even if your motive is still to hold the card as part of your personal collection). If/when I ever get my hands on a CJ Shoeless Joe, I want to make sure that when I die my family does not discover that the $40,000 I paid for my dream card is a fake, and I was an idiot without enough experience in the hobby to avoid becoming a victim.

I can see the concerns over how the costs will be passed down and the negatives associated with it. But, there are ZERO consequences to counterfeiters faking these slabs (even once discovered), and the technology and "look" of fake slabs is getting close to indistinguishable from the originals to anyone that is not a true expert (and/or a company with sophisticated equipment designed to discover fakes). So, at least this process can slow down the criminals a bit and perhaps make the process too expensive for the effort.

[jchcollins]

I guess the answer for those who don't inherently dislike grading and authentication, and re-authentication / cross-authentication is that the more eyes that have supposedly been on and passed off on whatever slabbed card, the better. To me, just from a traditional collecting perspective it does kind of smack of overkill and absurdity.

Give me your tired, your midgrade, your huddled slabbed cards yearning to breathe free...

The wretched refuse of your popped PSA trash...send these, the newfound raw cards - to me!

(I know there are many of you who from an investment perspective really have no other choice than to deal with slabs - and then likely this most recent eBay development. Best of luck. Thankfully, I'm not in that boat...)

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Guess I'm not grasping the general negative response to this recent development.

Putting aside the increasing role of grading companies, many collectors' obsession with slabs, people's dislike of eBay generally, and how graded cards have ruined or diminished the hobby for so many of you . . . topics one might say have been covered extensively here for many years . . . .

Isn't any step to help eliminate fraud in the hobby a good development?

Is PSA perfect in rooting out fraud? Of course not. No one is perfect at anything.

Having PSA re- authenticate cards they already graded is full of problems.

Stamping out fraud is desirable, but having an organization that's probably a part of that fraud? and probably get paid twice or more on every card?

Not such a great plan.

[NATCARD]

You purchase a card in a PSA holder. The card is graded an 8 and is worth $50k. Upon sending it to PSA they look at the card and say it was over-graded. Does the card get pulled in the authentication process or does it slide by?
Jeff W

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by NATCARD

You purchase a card in a PSA holder. The card is graded an 8 and is worth $50k. Upon sending it to PSA they look at the card and say it was over-graded. Does the card get pulled in the authentication process or does it slide by?
Jeff W

From the eBay FAQs about the process:
The PSA authenticator will check the sealed plastic holder for signs of tampering before verifying that the case and label are authentic to the grader. The label is also checked against the listing details. Cards are not regraded.

So they are just checking the slab to try to verify it has not been tampered with and that it is an authentic slab and label.


I think someone else asked about what happens if the card is later resold, then does it have to be authenticated again. Just like with raw cards, it is put into a sleeve with a sticker to show if it has been opened or not. If not ever removed from the sleeve, I would assume it doesn't need to be authenticated again.

From the eBay FAQs again:
The card is placed into a protective sleeve and a QR code linking to authentication details is also provided. It's then placed into a padfolio and delivered directly to you via secure and discreet tracked shipping.

[iwantitiwinit]

Just what I want to do, look at my cards through both a protective sleeve and the plastic slab. Redonculous.

[ullmandds]

Originally Posted by jayshum

From the eBay FAQs about the process:
The PSA authenticator will check the sealed plastic holder for signs of tampering before verifying that the case and label are authentic to the grader. The label is also checked against the listing details. Cards are not regraded.

So they are just checking the slab to try to verify it has not been tampered with and that it is an authentic slab and label.


I think someone else asked about what happens if the card is later resold, then does it have to be authenticated again. Just like with raw cards, it is put into a sleeve with a sticker to show if it has been opened or not. If not ever removed from the sleeve, I would assume it doesn't need to be authenticated again.

From the eBay FAQs again:
The card is placed into a protective sleeve and a QR code linking to authentication details is also provided. It's then placed into a padfolio and delivered directly to you via secure and discreet tracked shipping.

So is PSA checking the slabs of Beckett and SGC?