eBay Double Standards against Sellers getting worse
eBay in general requires Sellers to get Autographs authenticated and Certificates of Authenticity (CoA) by a small list of highly credible providers using in-person authentication.
I fully appreciate the rationale for this, especially given the large number of forgeries out there but given the high cost of CoAs from credible services providers and the time and effort involved with an in-person authentication process, it simply doesn’t make sense for lower value items. Neither from a financial standpoint nor practical standpoint.
eBay does allow Sellers to list autographed items without CoAs from approved service providers but it leaves them 100% at the mercy of buyers.
What boggles my mind is that Sellers have to adhere to very high standards from a cost and effort perspective BUT there are absolutely no standards or requirements for Buyers, and many of them take full advantage of this. This is even more puzzling given that eBay policies guarantee refunds to Buyers within 30 days if autographs do not contain CoAs.
So why the extreme bias against Sellers given the built in refund protection? A higher burden of proof on Sellers than Buyers makes sense but it’s getting completely out of hand.
It’s one thing if a buyer is uncomfortable with the authenticity of a signature but buyers can use $10 online authentication providers who are not only notoriously unreliable after purchasing an item as proof that a signature is a forgery.
In fact they do not even need to go that far. They can request a full refund in line with eBay policies and then simply accuse the seller of being a scammer without any evidence and post it as negative feedback on top of the refund.
It is completely absurd that buyers can call sellers scammers and warn other to beware of the seller based no real evidence, whilst also getting a full refund. And in many cases the autographed items are either not returned or in much worse shape, most likely to bolster the buyers argument (and then the photos of the damaged items are also allowed to be included in the feedback).
eBay have more than enough technology to track duplicate accounts once someone has been identified as selling multiple fake autographed items as a habit. I’m not just talking about IP addresses, but also bank accounts, addresses etc.
I have built a book collection of over 1,000 books over the past two decades. About 500 has CoA but it will cost me tens of thousands to obtains CoAs for the remainder, especially if my intention is to trim my collection. Yet, I’ve received numerous unfounded threatening messages from Buyers and to avoid negative feedback of being called a scammer I’ve have had to part with books and refund buyers, with eBay always finding in favour of Buyers. I’m sure a small number of autographs may not authentic and I am more than happy to fully refund buyers but I’ve had buyers purchase multiple books over a short period only to then ask for a refund for all of them and then post multiple negative feedback comments completely destroying my sellers page. Even after getting CoAs for these books, eBay refused to remove the feedback.
Ive ultimately had to open a new account and completely start over.
I suspect this particular case may be the work a bookseller getting rid of competition but there has to be a better balance in general.
kalyoth
·1 year agoAutographs are a fickle market, rampant with fraud & only carry meaning to the buyer & no one else. I suggest, if you do not appreciate the rules required to do business upon the marketplace, not to use the marketplace. The rules are all fully stated & agreed upon by you prior to the initial listing/sale.