Trading Cards - updated condition from new/used to graded/ungraded
Trading card updated conditions announcement:
Representing the validity and condition of your trading cards just got easier. The new revamped grading system will help enhance the quality of your new listings and establish trust with your buyers.
Here’s an overview of what’s new:
- A revamped grading system for single trading cards, where we’ve upgraded from Used, to the more precise grading labels of Graded and Ungraded.
- Graded: Add the relevant grader, numerical grade, and the certification number (recommended).
- Ungraded: Select the appropriate card condition that best fits the state of the card.
Your existing listings will also auto-migrate where there’s a one-to-one match between all the current card conditions.
Questions for eBay @kyle@ebay @elizabeth@ebay @devon@ebay
1. What happens to existing listings when there is not a one-to-one match? Do they stay new/used until the seller updates? Do they convert to ungraded? Something else?
2. What's the deadline for sellers making these updates before they start running into problems?
@shipscript - Tagging because I know you help a lot of trading card sellers with uploading specifics & variation changes through Seller Hub reports so you're probably interested in tracking this discussion.
uncanned_heat
·3 years agoWhat exactly does this mean "Soon, your existing listings will auto-migrate where there’s a one-to-one match between all the current card conditions"?
thelongball
·3 years agoShould have Read Beckett Grading Standards as they have been in play for 40 years. Throw out the verbiage - out of the pack, sets up for loads of not as described.
onefootflipper2
·3 years agoI just made a video on the impact this is going to have on a lot of card sellers.
https://youtu.be/qW8d16iXce4
uncanned_heat
·3 years agoPlus, since when are there only 4 different grades for cards? There is a lot of space between those grades.
onefootflipper2
·3 years agoThe conditions they came up with are bad too. Their "Excellent" would likely translate to "Heavy Play" in TCGplayer terms and very good and poor would just be "Damaged" on that scale.
sapphire_studio
·3 years agoYeah what is up with Minor Chipping on Corners and Edges and Minor Surface Indentations and Scratches meaning "NEAR MINT OR BETTER"? Like whaaat?
 
onefootflipper2
·3 years agoRight given those condition definitions I could plow almost my entire inventory in as near mint.
michigancolor
·3 years agoAnother policy change that will increase the number of Not as Described claims. 🤦
wastingtime101
OP3 years agoOK yeah, I messed around with it because I do have some trading cards to list and the condition guidelines were surprising. My cards, which I would not grade that high, mostly qualify as "near mint or better" according to eBay's guidelines. I think I will downgrade the condition in attempt to undersell and not end up with buyers disappointed that the "near mint" cards have some minor corner/edge blemishes.
johnjefprks
·3 years agoThe problem with those guidelines is a lot of buyers will not be aware of them and be using Beckett or PSA condition guidelines which are considered industry standard. It will exacerbate the problem Ebay says they are trying to eliminate, Not as described.
itiswhatitis
·3 years agoYeah, that would be because as usual, ebay is totally clueless and delusional when it comes to anything trading card related. I can imagine what their "vault" looks like and contains. The biggest problem with ebay is when something is not broken, they break it. Then they hand you line after line after line on how it benefits everyone. They need to stop trying to fix any part of the system that is NOT broken.
timbart824
·3 years agoAmen...eBay is constantly trying to reinvent the perfectly round wheel for absolutely no reason, whatsoever.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years ago@onefootflipper2 I don't sell cards, so I'm a little puzzled.
Just to be clear: You are saying that the popular site TCGplayer has well known condition standards for ungraded cards, standards accepted by and known to many in the collecting world, and ebay, which recently acquired the company, has decided instead to create their own instead?
Is there a good reason why they would do that? It seems counter productive to me, but like I say, I'm not involved in the card community.
wastingtime101
OP3 years agoTCGPlayer has 5 condition guidelines:
https://help.tcgplayer.com/hc/en-us/articles/221430307-How-can-I-tell-what-condition-a-card-is-in-
Further embellished here:
https://mktg-assets.tcgplayer.com/web/seller/guides/Card-Conditioning-Standards.pdf
They're pretty similar to eBay's 4 condition guidelines:
https://pages.ebay.com/cardconditions/
The only major difference is TCG's lowest 2 conditions were merged into eBay's 1 lowest condition @my-cottage-books-and-antiques .
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years ago@wastingtime101
Thanks for the info!
sapphire_studio
·3 years agoI think eBay should have not said "Minor" when describing the damage for the "Near Mint" condition. That makes it sound more closely to "lightly played" according to the TCG guidelines above which describe Near Mint as "nearly unmarked surface, crisp corners and unblemished edges outside of a few slight flaws." It also says "Cards in Lightly Played (LP) condition may have minor border or corner wear, scuffs or scratches." (Which sounds more like how Ebay is describing Near Mint).
Most modern pokemon cards (like thousands of bulk cards most players or sellers have) have never been played with and are directly from packs in completely pristine condition (definitely not with any Minor damage) and there should be a condition description for these.
onefootflipper2
·3 years agoEven though Pokemon cards are only about 10 percent of my card business they comprise the vast majority of the complaints I get, usually over the absolute tiniest of imperfections on unplayed 1.99 cards that I didn't even list a condition on in the first place.
Unavailable member
·3 years agoWatched your video. I wound up buying a dog treat hide n seek!
onefootflipper2
·3 years agoNice! I can't believe those things are so cheap.
Unavailable member
·3 years agoMy dog thanks you.
 
onefootflipper2
·3 years agoI imagine it would take me 1-2 months of 8 hour days to add conditions to all my cards.
On the plus side I guess I am now going to be the proud owner of a Huge collection of Magic the Gathering and Pokemon cards that are worth less than $2 each because all the ones worth more than that have sold already (I stopped sourcing cards last summer when prices started falling and all the expensive ones have since sold).
onefootflipper2
·3 years agoOf course they announce this the day after I spent a solid week of labor splitting my store into a trading card store and a regular store.
Had I known this was happening I would not have bothered.
The only reason I sold cards on ebay in the first place is that they did not require conditions and I could just use photos.
I am certainly not going to go back and add card conditions to 14,000 cards.
So I guess this is the end of my card business on ebay.
wastingtime101
OP3 years agoCan't you just pull all those listings into the bulk editor and set the condition as 'ungraded' @onefootflipper2 ?
onefootflipper2
·3 years agoI was literally dealing with some cards in the bulk editor and started running into this new condition thing. Even if you select "Ungraded" you still have to select a condition.
I assume the change is in mid swing right now, because I edited a few thousand listings in bulk today and more and more of them got kicked back for that in each batch. I actually came to the board to see what was going on with it.
wastingtime101
OP3 years agoThanks for the info. I haven't had time to mess around with it yet.
devon@ebay
Hey @wastingtime101! We reached out to the product team and here is what we heard back:
1.What happens to existing listings when there is not a one-to-one match?
Ans: "If the seller were to revise their listing via one of the UI tools, and opt into the new experience for that listing via the opt-in link, we will move whatever condition grading related item specifics that we can move to the new condition grading structure on draft load. The seller would have to move any that we could not move for them. If the seller doesn’t touch the listing, nothing happens; It stays in its current state for the time being. We probably would not take any action on existing listings that have not been revised and therefore have not migrated, for several months."
2.What’s the deadline for sellers making these updates before they run into problems?
Ans: "For sellers who use our UI clients, the new structure would be required on the revision of an existing listing in October of 2023."
wastingtime101
OP3 years agoThanks Devon - very helpful.
johnjefprks
·3 years agoWhat do you do with a variation listing with 200 cards of various conditions.
onefootflipper2
·3 years agoYou would take it down because condition as a variation has been against the rules for years.
kt47_28
·3 years agoI've been selling second hand vintage cards for a few years now and I've used the old "eBay card condition guidelines" extensively:
https://pages.ebay.com/cardconditions/
I think these new conditions are very badly worded and not in line with that guide. Most of my current "Excellent" or lower condition cards would probably move up a rank using the new condition descriptions.
"Clearly visible damage" for Excellent. That's a tricky phrase. I've called a LOT of cards "Excellent" for damage that could NOT be seen at a normal viewing distance/lighting, like moderate surface indentations and scratches, or the kind of soft bends or curling that don't leave a hard crease. Surely those aren't "comparable to a fresh pack" (Near Mint).
And "Very Good," oh boy... "moderate-to-heavy damage all over." Aside from the absurdity of calling something "very good" that is actually VERY BAD, do cards really need to have damage "all over" now for this category?! What about a single significant crease, small stain, or deep scratch? Are these "Excellent" now? How can a category that includes "heavy damage all over" NOT be the worst category?
Also, the use of the word "wear" instead of "damage" or "flaws". Stains and discoloration aren't "wear!"
And when you removed the condition descriptions from our listings, you took away important information that the sellers chose to put in the listing for a reason! Things experienced sellers (and buyers) know about, but that aren't mentioned in the condition descriptions, like odors, if old sticker cards are separating from their backs, quality of the printing/manufacturing, etc.
a1cards
·3 years agoHi, please add better choices for condition such as, Mint - Near Mint - Ex-Mt - Ex - Vg-ex - Vg-vgEx these are grades used by PSA that most of the sellers use. Or let us add our own condition description.
Condition Ex-Mt - Centering: - Corners: - Edges: - Surface: -
Have a pleasent day
thelongball
·3 years agoHello- I need help in a big way as My listings are very messed up during this transfer. In the past under where it said Used I would list all the faults with each individual card. eBay has been moving my stuff into the new system and this information is not following over on most. I have cards that are showing up in wrong grades. I have cards showing up as Poor and I've never listed a poor card as that is something that gets tossed in the garbage. My frustrations are to the boiling point. I never had a return on miss graded cards because a line appeared to the right of the photo telling customers the faults. Now that information is gone and in order to re enter it, I have to pull every card out and go thru them again. This will take months to do. All the information is disappearing. Please help. I'm so demotivated right now that I haven't added any new listings since this mess all started. If I could afford to - I'd just cancel everything and walk away at this point. I really need some help please.
johnjefprks
·3 years agoI feel your pain. I also used that description box to state. Please see scan for condition. this is the card you will receive. It was a way of letting buyers know that the pictures where not stock photos like a lot of sellers use. I did that because I was getting a lot of messages from buyer asking if the photos were stock photos or of the card they would receive. Now that they are eliminating that box the only place they will see that note is in the sellers notes, which is buried under quite a few eBay adds so very few buyers will read it. I expect I will be getting a lot of messages again for the reason stated above. That is just one of several problems this is going to cause.
thelongball
·3 years agoYou and I are selling the same thing. I had hoped you had a solution. Currently, I'm just taking them down and hit sell similar and redo. But it will take months to fix the mess. And with the new return metric, months may not be a luxury we have. Time to think up a new name and throw our spotless feedback away.
johnjefprks
·3 years agoEbay, has stated from what I am reading as long as you don't revise your listing after October you don't need to mess with the existing condition. If you do sell similar now you will get pushed into the new rules. Revising now, the condition stay as it always was.
thelongball
·3 years agoIf you revise it goes to new. Don't do the recommended updates or they push to new and erase all your notes without transferring them! I screwed up 400 that way.
johnjefprks
·3 years agoI revised some yesterday and they stayed the same. I will try again today and let you know.
johnjefprks
·3 years agoI just revised a variation listing and I did not have to deal with the new condition rules. 🤗
thelongball
·3 years agoThanks I'll give that a try
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years agoJust adding this:
â— Auto migration will occur with the new grading system launch in July.
Stay tuned for more announcements coming in October.
delcorips
·2 years agohas there been any updates for API listing since were now in October?