Partner Authenticator ?

[wonder]

I had a sportcard that I sold returned to me today under the reason that an Ebay "partner authenticator" said my card had been "altered", which was a bald faced lie! I have had this card since I pulled it from a pack of cards back in 2001. It's a chrome card. How do you even alter a chrome card!? I never touched the card until I pulled it out of my collection and sold it a week ago.  What the &$%#!? So it appears that eBay is now employing "partner authenticators" to buy your cards? And then they inspect them and decide what is authentic or not? This is some crazy eBay stuff, a complete overreach as usual, and a slap in the face of honest sellers. But what else is new from eBay. Typical disrespect and nonsense. I'd tell you who to add to your blocked bidder list to avoid this garbage, or tell you the charlatan authenticators name, but of course that is verboten.   

[itscalledapostingid]

I am not sure why you are telling me that.

You must have selected that post as a solution by accident...actually you already said that you did.

You can un select it with the edit button.

[slippinjimmy]

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@wonder wrote:

Let me give an update on my own post, seeing as how I just got off the phone with eBay's own Department of Authenticity. Yep, I kid you not, eBay is actually stepping in between a seller and a buyer, without the seller knowing it,

and having you, as a seller, send your goods to a third party authenticator, again without you knowing it. Then the authenticator, namely SGC Grading, inspects your card and determines if there is anything wrong with it before it forwards it along to your actual buyer. Can anyone see how many ways this is wrong?! Want to avoid this deceptive intrusion? First off, never list anything for over $249.99. That's the "official" break off amount for authentication. But then, what about SGC? Can they be trusted as an authenticator? After this fiasco, I'd have to strongly say NO! There is a reason why PSA and Beckett grading services are the gold standard for authentication. So be advised, all this is going on under the guise of supposedly helping eBay "sellers". Excuse me. Tell me how that helps eBay sellers. No it's just another poorly thought out Ebay idea guaranteed to muck everything up for everybody. As far as I'm concerned, if even one honest seller gets swept up in this boondoggle it's one too many.

Ebay wishes us to believe that SGC is infallible in their judgements and dealings. What happens the first time you get your card back from SGC in really damaged condition, or the card returned to you isn't even your card? Who is going to step in and advocate for the seller? Not eBay. Anyway you cut it, if you are a seller you are screwed.

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You only "don't know it" if you haven't be paying attention to any of the notices and seller updates that have discussed this over and over again for the past year or two.

How are you "screwed" if you got your card back? If you sent it direct to the buyer then THEY could claim it was altered, force you to refund and perhaps send a damaged and/or worthless card back to you.

[wonder]

You are correct. I should have better informed myself and read about. But it would have made NO difference anyway because it is forced on sellers and sellers as usual have NO choice. I briefly perused the information when I first received an email about it, but honestly didn't think it was anything to worry about. I know where my cards came from and I have no doubt about their authenticity. What I do doubt is the ability of a third party authenticator to do a good job. I've been in the card industry for 34 years and I "guarantee" that I know more than these authenticators about card grading. All these grading companies are swamped with cards from people who want their cards graded. They are overwhelmed. Then eBay partners with them and adds a massive amount of workload more for them to handle. So what do they do? They go out and hire people that don't know s*** from shinola and train them to "grade" and "authenticate". So the quality and expertise involved in their work isn't very good. But that's what the brainiacs at Ebay think is just swell.

[wonder]

Let me address those questions, slippinjimmy.

First, we've already established that I'm a dumb ass for not reading through every notice, email, update, community forum discussion, what have you, from ebay with a magnifying glass, fine tooth comb, and critical eye of my lawyer for the "last two years". So let's not belabor that point "over and over" as you like to say.

Second, I'm screwed because I lost the sale on account of some anonymous, misguided "authenticator" from some dubious sub-standard grading service falsely accusing me of trimming my card. A chrome card, no less, that has been sitting in a box for 21 years. Let me tell you, if that card was so miss cut (that it ever would have entered a person's mind in 2001 to think about trimming it) I would have sent it back to Topps for a replacement at that time for being miss cut.

Third, the big winner in this policy in my opinion is certainly NOT the seller. The seller has never been protected and every seller knows it. The BIG winner is the grading card companies, especially the ones below PSA and Beckett, who aren't reputable yet, or have a long enough track record or acceptance from the card industry to be fooling around with authenticating cards for eBay in the first place.  

I got a notice from eBay that this policy was being instituted on sports cards on May 3. So we are 10 days into this latest eBay fiasco and already the **bleep** is hitting the fan. I can't wait for the lawyers to get into this mess.

[wonder]

Authenticators said my card had been altered. When I inquired with the Authenticity Guarantee Department at eBay as to what the alteration was they said the Authenticator said the card had been trimmed. So today I got the card back from the authenticators and held it up to numerous other chrome cards I have and the size is IDENTICAL!!! If it had been trimmed this would not be the case. I knew it hadn't been trimmed because I have been in sole possession of this card since I pulled it from a pack in 2001. So that tells me all I need to know about eBay's "Authenticity Guarantee" system. It's totally BOGUS and misguided in it's application. BUYER and SELLER beware!!

[jobu_needs_a_refill]

It's just another way for Ebay to make money. Ebay adding that you have to have "partner authenticators" is because you have to pay to have something authenticated so in turn Ebay also makes that money because the seller has to pay to have it authenticated. Yet Ebay doesn't give a rats ass about the rest of the fake jerseys and stuff listed on Ebay. I can go through Ebay all 30 MLB teams and find you at least 1000 fake jersey in less than an hour but they would rather throw sellers under the bus over legitimate items sold, just because buyers don't actually look at the pictures or read the description. I have had 2 buyers submit return requests both claiming that I listed items that were fake. One the buyer bought a Tony Gwynn bat from me claiming that I had listed it as being game used by Tony Gwynn. Which was 100% false. I made 100% sure not to list it as being game used or used by Tony Gwynn. I listed as a used Tony Gwynn bat which was exactly what it was a Tony Gwynn bat that was cracked so clearly used but I never claimed or stated that it was game used or used by Tony Gwynn. Of course, Ebay granted the and allowed the buyer to return the bat. I was actually taken care of this time when I spoke to a supervisor and asked them to look at the listing. After they looked at the listing. they agreed that the return never should have been granted, so they refunded my money.  The other return has literally turned into **bleep**show, as Ebay has shown their true character.  I had a buyer claim a Kobe Bryant jersey I sold was fake based on the placement of a year tag and because the material was different from other jerseys he compared it to.   Both the issue with the material and the tag location were address in the listings pictures and the descriptions of the jersey. But because I asked Ebay to step in and help I lost the case solely on the reason that I didn't accept the return but rather decided to fight it by asking Ebay to step in and help. Ebay has truly become a real work of art. i think it's time I start doing business somewhere else.  I have been a class customer for 20 years and have had only 2 negative feedbacks in that time. I had a seller a few month back that sold me a model for $43.00 with $21 for shipping. The seller then messages me about 6 hours later that he can't find the model, then a few hours later relists the item for $140 with $25 for shipping. after i call him out on it he ends he item then a day later relists the model for $150 and $29 shipping. I reported it to Ebay and of course nothing was done the seller is still selling the model. Anyway Ebay has become a real disappointment to me on their business practices as well as their customer service. 

[downunder-61]

Seriosuly? Are you going to post a novel length rant on as many threads as you can?

We get it, you are angry at eBay as is evidenced by your own thread

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Returns/Ebay-s-lack-of-investigation-into-returns-for-sellers-and/td-p...

Hijacking threads on the boards to repeat things is not productive and very disruptive.

[t-bone543]

SGC is a pretty well-established grading company. They previously focused more on grading/authentication of vintage cards, but recently emphasized contemporary cards also. While I do agree they are not PSA or Beckett, I think they are considered pretty reputable in the field (and it doesn't take much time to find dings to PSA and Beckett's reputation, especially in some similar bulk grading situations). 

[annadryl]

Yes, we all know about the bat etc. by now, these "me too" posts are not helping any of these other OP's out. Seriously, stop highjacking all these threads!

[wonder]

This will hopefully be the final submission to this thread on my part. At 11:00 P.M., last night, after inspecting my returned card and having done no wrong, I followed the steps to appeal the decision of the authenticator. Six hours later, at 5:19 in the morning, I was notified by ebay that my appeal had been denied. So that was a great consideration on ebay's part. No doubt my appeal merely triggered an obligatory robo response. 

So start to finish I now know how this all works. I suspect I am somehow paying for all this via hidden fees and expenses tacked on to my sales.