eBay

joneslascruces · ‎09-12-2023

Is it true that to reduce corporate liability exposure that Ebay Legal is considering eliminating the Authenticity Guarantee?

And if it is going to be eliminated will it be done prior to the end of the calendar 3rd quarter or at least prior to Christmas (thinking of shipping time)? Perhaps Marie Oh Huber or someone from her department can give their thoughts on this. At least is the rumor of eliminating the Authenticity Guarantee true or false or under consideration.

stainlessenginecovers · ‎09-12-2023

I am MORE than positive that IF ebay Legal is 'talking/considering/planning' on doing ANYTHING; they will

NOT state ANYTHING about it until the decision is made (and made public).

So, anything you hear about it will only be 'rumors'.

dhbookds · ‎09-12-2023

Yep............agree, you will only get info when/if they announce a change.

tobaccocardyahoo · ‎09-12-2023

I doubt that Ebay will be willing to take the massive PR hit that will cause.

Ebay wants to look like the major ecomm sites, not have the flea market image it had in the Wild West Days.

12345jamesstamps · ‎09-12-2023

Interesting. They might be doing several studies of cost effectiveness.

I bet it is costing more doing authenticity than it is worth. They hired people(and have to let them go...60 day notice)...renting buildings and so much more. They probably found out it might be cheaper to not do it and return high end priced items back to "The Wild Wild West" theory.

tobaccocardyahoo · ‎09-12-2023

You could be right, but the press is ready to nail any company identified as "big tech" and the problem will not only affect big ticket sales. They could probably afford to forego the designer bag and sneaker business but it is the less measurable effects which could be huge and perhaps fatal.

Ebay is an e-commerce also ran because of what it was when Pierre ran it.

coolections · ‎09-12-2023

@joneslascruces wrote:
Is it true that Ebay is considering eliminating the Authenticity Guarantee?

I don't know. YOU came here with the made up the story. Tell us if it is true.

janet9988 · ‎09-12-2023

Check the ebay announcement page....

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/bg-p/Announcements

For some......It seems wisdom has been chasing you, but you have always been faster.

valueaddedresource · ‎09-12-2023

@joneslascruces wrote:
Is it true that to reduce corporate liability exposure that Ebay Legal is considering eliminating the Authenticity Guarantee?
And if it is going to be eliminated will it be done prior to the end of the calendar 3rd quarter or at least prior to Christmas (thinking of shipping time)? Perhaps Marie Oh Huber or someone from her department can give their thoughts on this. At least is the rumor of eliminating the Authenticity Guarantee true or false or under consideration.

@joneslascruces curious where you are hearing these rumors?

I've heard various complaints from buyers and sellers about the various authentication programs, but haven't heard any rumors about them being eliminated.

Agree with everyone here that eBay Legal is very tight lipped about these things and if anything, in my opinion, they would not go for a complete elimination as there would be way too much PR flack and (more importantly) negative reaction from Wall Street to admitting outright failure.

If they are considering the costs and risk exposure etc., I think it would be far more likely they would simply quietly adjust qualifying criteria and program parameters to better align with risk tolerances.

We've seen such adjustments happen already in these programs - for example with sneakers eBay originally started at $200 minimum, then dropped to $150, then to $100, then back up to $150 when they needed to pump the brakes because the authentication centers were backed up over a month, then they dropped the minimum price all together, then they kept no minimum but started limiting qualification by brand and now they've gotten it to the point where it's only certain models of certain brands but they don't outright list every model so it's flexible and they can change it any time they want without anyone noticing.

All of the other programs are set up in much the same way - eBay can change minimum pricing, brand or other qualifications at any time to either increase or decrease the amount of goods funneled through authentication and making those subtle adjustments would be much less likely to have blowback.

valueaddedresource · ‎09-12-2023

@12345jamesstamps wrote:
Interesting. They might be doing several studies of cost effectiveness.
I bet it is costing more doing authenticity than it is worth. They hired people(and have to let them go...60 day notice)...renting buildings and so much more. They probably found out it might be cheaper to not do it and return high end priced items back to "The Wild Wild West" theory.

@12345jamesstamps to be clear, a lot of the authentication is still being done by 3rd party partners, so as far as costs/benefits, hiring or firing of people, rent on buildings etc. is not a direct concern for eBay.

Of course we have no insight into what kind of contracts and agreements eBay may have with those partners and what the implications could be for dropping them.

Here's where authentication programs are currently, to the best of my knowledge:

Watches - 3rd party authentication provided by Stoll & Co.

Jewelry - 3rd party authentication provided by GIA Gemological Institute Of America

Trading Cards (sold on eBay) - 3rd party authentication provided by CGC for ungraded cards and PSA for graded cards

Sneakers - in-house authentication at eBay-owned facilities in Las Vegas and New York.

Handbags - in-house authentication at eBay-owned facility in Las Vegas and New Jersey.

Streetwear - in-house authentication at eBay-owned facilities (not sure of locations).

Separately, but possibly still relevant to the discussion of ongoing/increasing costs and risk - eBay acquired collectible card game marketplace TCGPlayer last year, which while wholly owned as a subsidiary, still operates as a separate site.

So eBay's TCGplayer subsidiary also operates in-house authentication and processing of those cards and authentication workers at TCGPlayer recently established eBay's first US labor union - something that has investors carefully considering how that might increase costs and what implications there may be if the union spirit were to spread to eBay's other owned/in-house labor centric authentication operations.

itsjustasprain · ‎09-12-2023

@joneslascruces wrote:
At least is the rumor of eliminating the Authenticity Guarantee true or false or under consideration.

@joneslascruces : Citing your source can go a long way towards judging how accurate the rumor might be. Where did you hear that rumor? A link will be helpful.

12345jamesstamps · ‎09-12-2023

I read some of the reviews in Yelp reviews of Stoll & Co for authentication of eBay watches...they were rather bad. It is basically a company that repairs watches...not authenticate them.

I mean, they try to at least.

As an example: A Rolex watch has to have a tune-up every 10 year like a car. If such a watch sits in a box or is not worn enough the tune-up can be reduced to less than 5 years...cost of tune-up today for my watch $800.+ on a 6 month waiting list. Such a watch sitting in a box for a long time will not work and need a tune-up. Only one place in the USA can fix it and it is Texas...and only a place that sells new Rolex watches technically should be the one who authenticate them and not a watch fixer.

But I love the fact you got the information of where the authenticators are.

valueaddedresource · ‎09-12-2023

@12345jamesstamps wrote:
I read some of the reviews in Yelp reviews of Stoll & Co for authentication of eBay watches...they were rather bad. It is basically a company that repairs watches...not authenticate them.
I mean, they try to at least.
As an example: A Rolex watch has to have a tune-up every 10 year like a car. If such a watch sits in a box or is not worn enough the tune-up can be reduced to less than 5 years...cost of tune-up today for my watch $800.+ on a 6 month waiting list. Such a watch sitting in a box for a long time will not work and need a tune-up. Only one place in the USA can fix it and it is Texas...and only a place that sells new Rolex watches technically should be the one who authenticate them and not a watch fixer.
But I love the fact you got the information of where the authenticators are.

@12345jamesstamps interesting observations about Stoll & Co.

Much the same could be said about GIA in my opinion - they may have the credentials and technology to grade and test gemstones, but that is far from the only thing that may be required to assess authenticity of some pieces.

My guess is streetwear is also being handled at existing facilities in Las Vegas, New York and/or New Jersey as it's more of an "add on" category and not nearly big enough to require completely independent operations.

eBay does not disclose how many employees they have in those positions, so it's difficult to even guess at the total overhead involved but one thing that has come out is the TCGPlayer operation had about 250 employees that would be included in the union (that number doesn't include management level positions) who reportedly handle 10,000+ cards per day.

eBay never disclosed how much they paid to acquire Sneaker Cons authentication operations or how much the rest of the in-house operations are costing on an ongoing basis but it's safe to say it's not chump change.

And like I alluded to with the whole TCGPlayer union situation - there are serious questions about due diligence and disclosure about unionization risks in that acquisition not to mention broader implications of what a successful union could mean for other authentication centers and all of that could potentially have billion dollar+ implications for investor relations.

So while I haven't actually heard any rumors about shutting down authentication completely and tend not to believe it would happen based on the reasons I gave further up in this thread, I don't think it's at all out of the realm of possibility that there are some real cost/benefit conversations happening in San Jose and among investors.

My personal opinion is just that cutting it all completely at this point would have its own list of potentially multi-billion dollar consequences and there are people even above the CEO who would do just about anything to avoid that...hence my belief they would be much more likely to look for more subtle adjustments that provide a softer landing rather than a sudden and complete rug pull.