Global Sale High Priced Collectible Cards

[the_boatwiser]

My son has been selling trading cards on ebay for over as year now and has started getting into higher priced cards - $300-$700 range. He has a buyer now through the Global Shipping program for about $800 for 3 cards. What can he do to protect himself from the buyer in China saying the cards he sent them are not authentic even though these cards cataloged and graded through PSA, a grading company. Any advise will be greatly appreciated.

[coolections]

I hate to say it but there is not a lot of protection for your case. Ebay has no way of determining if your cards are fake or not. If the buyer opens a return request you will have to accept it and hope you get back the same cards. Personally I would never sell outside the US but that is just me.

[chapeau-noir]

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@coolections wrote:

I hate to say it but there is not a lot of protection for your case. Ebay has no way of determining if your cards are fake or not. If the buyer opens a return request you will have to accept it and hope you get back the same cards. Personally I would never sell outside the US but that is just me.

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Not shipping outside the US doesn't protect you from fraud.

@the_boatwiser  Did he have the PSA authentication photoed actually in the listing?  That's the one thing that may help with authenticity claims.  Other than that, selling items like this on eBay does entail risk, whether it goes stateside or overseas.

[luckythewinner]

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@the_boatwiser wrote:

What can he do to protect himself from the buyer in China saying the cards he sent them are not authentic 

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On eBay, any buyer can steal any item from any seller at any time by filing a fraudulent dispute. 

It does not matter whether the buyer is in the USA or China, and it doesn't matter whether the card is $1 or $1,000. 

When you sell on eBay, there is risk. Period. 

[go-bad-chicken]

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@the_boatwiser wrote:

My son has been selling trading cards on ebay for over as year now and has started getting into higher priced cards - $300-$700 range. He has a buyer now through the Global Shipping program for about $800 for 3 cards. What can he do to protect himself from the buyer in China saying the cards he sent them are not authentic even though these cards cataloged and graded through PSA, a grading company. Any advise will be greatly appreciated.

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First off if you do not wish to sell to China buyers via eBay's GSP in the future you should exclude that country from the list of countries you are willing to sell to.

But since the buyer from China has already made this purchase I would suggest first looking at the buyers feedback.

Assess your possible risk exposure for this particular transaction.

Look at both the feedback that they have received as a buyer as well as the feedback that they have left for other sellers in the past.

Are you able to determine that they have made a lot of theses types of purchases in the past? Look at the sellers eBay IDs, that they have made purchases from in the past. Do they have IDs that indicate that they too sell trading cards. This may or may not help you to determine whether or not this buyer is a legitimate trading card collector. Then look at the feedback that they have left for other sellers (IF ANY) in the past. Do you see any red flags? Do keep in mind that neither one of these two assessments of the buyer's feedback may prove or disprove anything. But they might.

You do have one option. It's not the best option but it is an option. And that is if you feel that this particular transaction is going to be a real risk, then you can choose to cancel this sale. BUT DO REALIZE THAT THERE WILL BE PENALTIES AS WELL AS SOME CONSEQUENCES THAT WILL EFFECT YOUR SELLING ACCOUNT FOR MAKING THIS CHOICE. But with that said if you have not canceled any sales in the past 12 months then one cancellation while hurtful will probably not damage your account to badly. And if you do decide to cancel this transaction do be prepared to receive 3 negatives feedbacks from your buyer.  In the end you and only can make this kind of decision based on your personal assessment of your risk exposure for this transaction.

Regardless of what you decide to do. Go and change your excluded countries list so that you do not find yourself in this very same predicament in the future.

Best of luck to you in all of your future endeavors.

[oldschoolvideo4all]

Hmmm?

[the_boatwiser]

Thanks for all your responses. That's pretty much what I thought. The best thing is to do as much research as ebay allows on the buyer with feedbacks received & left and if they demonstrate like purchases. I have no issue with selling to China and as stated it really doesn't matter if the buyer is USA or overseas - if they are dishonest, you are at their mercy because ebay will be of no use.

[femmefan1946]

@the_boatwiser 

There are some places your son can Block - even if he is using the Global Shipping Program.

He can insist that the buyer return the "fake" cards after opening an eBay Dispute.

He will have to send the buyer return shipping. Since this requires international tracked  shipping, that will be expensive. I sent some stamps to China recently and it cost me $77+ . 

This may be helpful.

https://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/postal-service/rate.htm

There is a headgame here.

The scammer does not want to return the "fake" cards. He might send anything.

But.

You demand the eBay Dispute to get him on record.

He doesn't want to get eBay involved. If he doesn't you are in the clear.

For the same reason the scammer doesn't want to leave feedback -again it leads back to him.

Fingers crossed.

By the way, you want the PSA certificate back too.

If he doesn't send everything, including the cert which is almost as valuable as the cards, you can appeal to eBay.

All of this takes nerve. And your son may still lose.

But it is worth doing.

I'm assuming that your boy is still underage. This is a learning experience for him-- like the time my DD bought a used car in Australia and had to recruit her boss at the biker bar where she was working illegally to get her money back.

If he loses money on this deal, it is still tax deductible.

Your son is keeping careful records right? He's getting past the "garage sale" point and into "declare your profits on your income tax" territory.

Not all transactions will go perfectly.

It's business, not personal.

Best wishes.

[coolections]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

Not shipping outside the US doesn't protect you from fraud.

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True and I never said it did.  I just happen to be a person that goes by the odds of a scam since any transaction you make on the internet is a chance of risk.

[moldy5]

Yes there is for we sellers. Why no risk for the dishonest buyers? Why no risk for eBay itself? It's always OUR risk. So so sick of that.

[chapeau-noir]

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@the_boatwiser wrote:

Thanks for all your responses. That's pretty much what I thought. The best thing is to do as much research as ebay allows on the buyer with feedbacks received & left and if they demonstrate like purchases. I have no issue with selling to China and as stated it really doesn't matter if the buyer is USA or overseas - if they are dishonest, you are at their mercy because ebay will be of no use.

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If it helps at all, I've shipped to China for the past 20 years with no problems, but doing some research on the buyer is never a bad idea.

[chapeau-noir]

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@coolections wrote:

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

Not shipping outside the US doesn't protect you from fraud.

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True and I never said it did.  I just happen to be a person that goes by the odds of a scam since any transaction you make on the internet is a chance of risk.

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Everybody needs to work within their risk tolerance, I just don't think the odds of a scam itself turn on whether the transaction is domestic or international.

[coolections]

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@moldy5 wrote:
Yes there is for we sellers. Why no risk for the dishonest buyers? Why no risk for eBay itself? It's always OUR risk. So so sick of that.

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@moldy5 

Never expect someone to save you from scams. Once in a great while you may get help, but more likely you have to go into it knowing there is no one to save you from scams. When selling on line it is always a risk. If you are sick of risk no one tells you to take a risk. To be honest I have never been scammed with a couple thousand transactions under my belt but then again I do not sell in a high fraud categories. 

[earlyant-77]

Just remember that since it's over 749.99, he needs signature confirmation when shipping to the GSP.

I don't sell overseas because I sell antique toys, and I don't want anyone copying them. There is enough of that junk already.

One problem with shipping high $ baseball cards to china is that they may counterfeit them, including the PSA slabs with the serial numbers on them, and send them back.

[pinksakura2000]

Although I hate to agree with the previous sellers' answers that your case seem slim, I would still nevertheless open a case with eBay and explain the situation. Based on your explanation and your son's credibility/selling feedbacks/years of selling, etc. eBay might find it in your favor. I think the amount $800 is enough for you to give it a try. In any case, at least even if you don't recover the $800, you might be able to recover the eBay fee. Good Luck.