The real reason ebay implemented the new authentication program for sports cards

[Ericc5Bears]

So for those of you who don't do a ton of selling on ebay, you may not know that there are two situations where ebay can punish a seller and increase their sales fees by 5% from 13% of every sale to 18%. The first is if a seller has a "very high" rate of return cases opened against them. Ebay claims that return cases are only started on about 0.3% of items sold in the trading card category, so if your return percentage as a seller is anywhere in the 1.25-1.5% range, your fees will be increased. Luckily, this only applies if you've had more than ten returns within the last year, so you'll probably be fine if you don't sell many items.

However, the other situation is if you get rated as a "below standard" seller. In the past, this has been very easy to avoid. You had nothing to worry about as long as you uploaded tracking info on time and didn't cancel multiple orders for being out of stock. One of the less known metrics that can cause you to be rated as below standard is something called "cases closed without seller resolution." As the name suggests, this would only apply in the past if a buyer opened a return case and you didn't respond to it, so ebay needed to step in to resolve it. If your cases closed without seller resolution rate is anything over 0.3%, you are automatically rated as a below standard seller and will pay 18% final value fees.

So here's the beauty of the new authentication program for ebay: Anytime an item doesn't pass, it automatically counts as a return AND counts as a case closed without seller resolution. So, for example, let's say you've sold 325 items on ebay without a single problem, all it would take is for a single card you sell not to pass the authentication program, and now you're a below standard seller paying 18% fees since your cases closed without resolution rate is over 0.3% (1/326).

This really wouldn't be a problem if the authentication program solely focused on authentication, but as we've seen, CSG also conveniently evaluates the card's condition while keeping it secretive as to what condition-based criteria they use to determine whether a card passes or fails. We've already seen plenty of examples of a seller making it abundantly clear that a card has a specific condition issue, but the authentication program still denies it.

I can't even begin to imagine how profitable this will be for ebay in the long run. The amount of ebay sports cards sellers paying 5% extra fees is about to skyrocket, especially with them planning on lowering the authentication threshold to $250 by the end of the year and also including graded/autographed cards.

[DynaEtch]

This is interesting if true. There are many reasons I’m against this Authenticity Program, and this just adds to it. Growing tired of eBay more and more these days.

[sthoemke]

It might have more to do with the upcoming ebay Vault. That is just a guess.

[JWBlue]

If the fees increase for a seller isn't he/she more likely to leave eBay?

What am I missing?

[KhalDrogo]

If the fees increase for a seller isn't he/she more likely to leave eBay?

What am I missing?
eBay is betting on people not having other options. eBay is stupid. They prove this time and again.

[mc1]

If the fees increase for a seller isn't he/she more likely to leave eBay?

What am I missing?

Sell where? On myslabs? COMC? Here? In-person?

All of those have some problems and/or negatives.

[Sonnys88]

I think it has more to do with the countless scam listings that were / still are happening.

You're more likely to have a buyer stop bidding when they get burned once or twice, than have a seller stop selling when they "might" have their fees increased IF they don't describe what they're selling correctly.

I am all for the authentication program. The more barriers in place to stop scammers - the better.

[DynaEtch]

If the fees increase for a seller isn't he/she more likely to leave eBay?

What am I missing?

Plenty of fee hikes, and here we are, lots and lots of sellers still selling. With ebay being the biggest auction site that the most amount of people know about, sellers will still sell on it even with ridiculous fees.

I think it has more to do with the countless scam listings that were / still are happening.

You're more likely to have a buyer stop bidding when they get burned once or twice, than have a seller stop selling when they "might" have their fees increased IF they don't describe what they're selling correctly.

I am all for the authentication program. The more barriers in place to stop scammers - the better.

I do think maybe it has something to do with them devoting resources to the myriad INAD claims that happen with cards: people complaining about scratched cards, dinged corners, grade chasers, scams- all those cases have to be arbitrated by ebay, who probably knows little about cards, and it's a headache for high end cards worth thousands. Just guessing here.

I however dont like the authentication program. Mainly because it's utterly unnecessary in the category I buy and sell in, nonsports cards. Im not buying vintage baseball cards that have been known to be reprinted- Im buying new higher tech cards that are not reprinted. The old way was fine- if I receive something not as described, I would be able to return it. Now it's just an annoyance when I see the card is sent to the AG program, because it's just adding a week+ to transit time (just bought one last night, and let out a sigh when I saw it was going to AG at payment).

There are also tons of bugs in it: miscategorized items are automatically sent to it, such as sketch cards (I've had multiple sketch cards that I bought go through this program, when they dont authenticate sketch cards. It's a complete waste of time and resources, for a simple mistake ebay either cannot understand or is incompetent and doesnt know the simple fix).

Also CGS acting as grader and not just authenticator. There are threads of cards not passing inspection, but no info is given as to why. Even in the case where description doesnt specifiy anything at all about condition. If they say they are checking accuracy solely against description and pictures....then something's wrong there (how can you reject a card if the description says nothing and the pictures are clearly visible). Needs to be more openness here.