Passes eBay Authentication, then Fails and gets Decertified by PSA

[DragonWagon]

Interesting Tweeter Feed this morning.
https://twitter.com/RealJerryColvin/...86598682624001

1) Guy buys 1960 Carl Yastrzemski #148 PSA 7 cert# 27556505 in a lot and it PASSES eBay Authentication.
https://ebay.com/itm/115623100234?ha...p2047675.l2557


2. Guy sells the 1960 Carl Yastrzemski #148 PSA 7 cert# 27556505
https://ebay.com/itm/185710044191?ha...p2047675.l2557


3)It FAILS eBay Authentication and then is DEACTIVATED on 1/14/2023 in the PSA database.


4) He contacts eBay to find out what happened. Ebay tells him to get answers from PSA.

5) He contacts PSA and they tell him eBay won't allow them to comment.

[NYRE2PECT]

Why would eBay authenticate a lot? The slab doesn't have any sort of authentication that it is certified. That seems off, no?

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by NYRE2PECT

Why would eBay authenticate a lot? The slab doesn't have any sort of authentication that it is certified. That seems off, no?

Good question. Assuming the original lot bypassed authentication as miscategorized and sent on to the buyer, and buyer mistakenly thought that 'passed authentication'?

[notfast]

I’m guessing it didn’t actually get authenticated when the lot was bought initially.

[DragonWagon]

Originally Posted by NYRE2PECT

Why would eBay authenticate a lot? The slab doesn't have any sort of authentication that it is certified. That seems off, no?

It’s in the listing. So it seems like they would have.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DynaEtch]

Original seller incorrectly had it listed in 'Trading Card Singles' as a lot, which means it gets the AG badge on the listing, but something like this would bypass it as miscategorized and not be authenticated.

Buyers should be noticing whether the card is in the blue magnetic AG box when it gets to you, with the verbiage it passed authentication. If it's not, even though it came from Authenticity Guarantee, it means it wasnt authenticated.

Edit:

Originally Posted by DragonWagon

It’s in the listing. So it seems like they would have.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They will just send it on to the buyer, not authenticated, as miscategorized. Buyer here probably mistakenly thought that meant it was authenticated.

Interestingly, from calls to ebay about a previous issue, they said that as a buyer, if you purchase a listing that has the Authenticity Guarantee badge, but it bypasses it as miscategorized and sent on to you, that alone is grounds for an INAD claim (within the 3 day window), even if the seller does not offer returns. Since as the buyer you were expecting the authentication as advertised on the listing, but didnt get it.

[NYRE2PECT]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

Original seller incorrectly had it listed in 'Trading Card Singles' as a lot, which means it gets the AG badge on the listing, but something like this would bypass it as miscategorized and not be authenticated.

Buyers should be noticing whether the card is in the blue magnetic AG box when it gets to you, with the verbiage it passed authentication. If it's not, even though it came from Authenticity Guarantee, it means it wasnt authenticated.

This. 100%.


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[towerymt]

I wonder what that cert number looked like before 1/14.

[JeremyNick]

Time to hit up Natty.

This is such a crap show that somehow both Ebay and PSA are passing the blame off to each other.

[KhalDrogo]

The onus is on eBay to give the reason. PSA has no way to verify that the person contacting them is the seller. Just find the right bozo at eBay who knows what they’re talking about.

[Satan]

Kind of bananas. The PSA cert look up is public. The reason why certs are pulled down should also be public. Transparency is key. What does eBay/PSA have to hide here?

[Bosoxfan5990]

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this lot was "miscategorized" in the Trading Card Single category intentionally.

"Bonus" Willie Mays?

This seems like the perfect scam for sellers to prey on naive buyers who don't know any better.

The buyer sees the Authenticity Guarantee seal, so they think the cards pass Authentication, not realizing that the Authenticator just forwards along lots that were miscategorized.

The naive buyer has no reason to question authenticity, until they try to sell the card correctly listed as a single. Most of the time, it will be too late for a return.

[dantheman514]

Originally Posted by Bosoxfan5990

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this lot was "miscategorized" in the Trading Card Single category intentionally.

"Bonus" Willie Mays?

This seems like the perfect scam for sellers to prey on naive buyers who don't know any better.

The buyer sees the Authenticity Guarantee seal, so they think the cards pass Authentication, not realizing that the Authenticator just forwards along lots that were miscategorized.

The naive buyer has no reason to question authenticity, until they try to sell the card correctly listed as a single. Most of the time, it will be too late for a return.

This is spot on. Shady sellers know what they are doing by selling these cards in lots. I have seen too many situations like this recently, and it should be a red flag to any buyers when they see any ungraded cards with a high end graded card.

[NYRE2PECT]

Originally Posted by Bosoxfan5990

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this lot was "miscategorized" in the Trading Card Single category intentionally.

"Bonus" Willie Mays?

This seems like the perfect scam for sellers to prey on naive buyers who don't know any better.

The buyer sees the Authenticity Guarantee seal, so they think the cards pass Authentication, not realizing that the Authenticator just forwards along lots that were miscategorized.

The naive buyer has no reason to question authenticity, until they try to sell the card correctly listed as a single. Most of the time, it will be too late for a return.

I agree with you...I had started to type out that it felt all kinds of shady, but I don't know the seller, nor did I look them up, but it really smells a little funny with the bogus "eBay authenticity" feature engaged through an erroneous Trading Card Single designation. The seller has 14,000+ feedback, too. Ugh.

[blockedbyjames]

Ebay did it right here. Nothing is on them.

C'MON PSA this item should be guaranteed and equivalent value of an authentic copy given to the new owner/seller.

Given that the serial # is deactivated, it's not a fake slab, it's a PSA graded and authenticated slab of a card that they should have caught the first time.

Onus is on PSA to make it right. Deferring the inquiry back to ebay is NOT owning up to their grading mistake.

[TimBuckTwo]

Originally Posted by KhalDrogo

The onus is on eBay to give the reason. PSA has no way to verify that the person contacting them is the seller. Just find the right bozo at eBay who knows what they’re talking about.

I would call and ask for the Authentication Guaranteed department

[TheTCGenius]

Originally Posted by blockedbyjames

Ebay did it right here. Nothing is on them.

C'MON PSA this item should be guaranteed and equivalent value of an authentic copy given to the new owner/seller.

Given that the serial # is deactivated, it's not a fake slab, it's a PSA graded and authenticated slab of a card that they should have caught the first time.

Onus is on PSA to make it right. Deferring the inquiry back to ebay is NOT owning up to their grading mistake.

Not necessarily true, if fakes are made with real cert #'s they deactivate the cert

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by Bosoxfan5990

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this lot was "miscategorized" in the Trading Card Single category intentionally.

"Bonus" Willie Mays?

This seems like the perfect scam for sellers to prey on naive buyers who don't know any better.

The buyer sees the Authenticity Guarantee seal, so they think the cards pass Authentication, not realizing that the Authenticator just forwards along lots that were miscategorized.

The naive buyer has no reason to question authenticity, until they try to sell the card correctly listed as a single. Most of the time, it will be too late for a return.

It's possible it was just an innocent mistake. The main thing that caused this was 'Lot' wasnt used as a keyword in the title- if it was, ebay would have forced the seller to list in the correct category prior to listing. What could have happened: seller typed in some keyword such as '1960 topps' for ebay to auto-select the category of trading card singles, then with no 'lot' in the title it never corrected itself and item gets listed as-is.

But we cant know if intentional or not. It'd be a pretty poor scam imo, since when it bypasses and doesnt get authenticated, it clearly says in the packaging something to the effect of 'Sorry, your item couldnt be authenticated, but here it is anyway', it doesnt come in the blue magnetic box, and also an email is sent to you saying it didnt qualify for authentication. How does a buyer miss all this? I dont know, but apparently it happened here. Maybe ebay should have more clear packaging materials: huge red stop sign on the holder that says 'WAS NOT AUTHENTICATED'.

It's a bummer for the guy in the tweet, unclear what can be done with the 3 day window for INAD long past.

Originally Posted by KhalDrogo

The onus is on eBay to give the reason. PSA has no way to verify that the person contacting them is the seller. Just find the right bozo at eBay who knows what they’re talking about.

Originally Posted by JeremyNick

Time to hit up Natty.

This is such a crap show that somehow both Ebay and PSA are passing the blame off to each other.

The reason is clear based on the original listing above, which anyone familiar with AG should see right away. It's amusing that neither of these companies associated with AG can explain what happened (or taking KhalDrogo's point into consideration, at least Ebay).

Ebay reps know little about any kind of 'deep cut' thing like this, particularly with trading cards, I've learned that over and over from calls to them. So doesnt surprise me they couldnt figure out what happened here and tried to divert customer to PSA. My two most recent phone calls with ebay, they got both things wrong: one was they told me you cant leave feedback after a canceled sale (false), and the second was they told me a certain last scan on tracking means the item wasnt delivered (false, it was and I confirmed it was through USPS who gave me a picture of the signature of the person who signed for it). Reps can be clueless.

[DynaEtch]

The twitter guy's confusion is he thinks "Item inspected" on tracking means it was authenticated. No: that just means they inspected it, saw it was a lot and miscategorized, and sent it on to the buyer. That does not mean authenticated. If he goes back in his email history, he should find an email saying 'sorry it's miscategorized, cant authenticate, but we're sending it on'.

I wonder if eventually ebay will change the way they handle these and just send the miscategorized item back to the seller, cancelling the transaction. Might spare some confusion.

[DynaEtch]

Here ya go, this was the tracking from a PSA card I bought late Dec that was authenticated


It actually says ‘Item authenticated’. Twitter guy tracking just says item inspected, since it wasn’t authenticated being a lot.

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

The twitter guy's confusion is he thinks "Item inspected" on tracking means it was authenticated. No: that just means they inspected it, saw it was a lot and miscategorized, and sent it on to the buyer. That does not mean authenticated. If he goes back in his email history, he should find an email saying 'sorry it's miscategorized, cant authenticate, but we're sending it on'.

I wonder if eventually ebay will change the way they handle these and just send the miscategorized item back to the seller, cancelling the transaction. Might spare some confusion.

That's the obvious thing to do.

From day one of AG, miscatergorized lots were viewed as a way to avoid having PSA graded cards authenticated and a vulnerability for scammers to exploit.

[KhalDrogo]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

The twitter guy's confusion is he thinks "Item inspected" on tracking means it was authenticated. No: that just means they inspected it, saw it was a lot and miscategorized, and sent it on to the buyer. That does not mean authenticated. If he goes back in his email history, he should find an email saying 'sorry it's miscategorized, cant authenticate, but we're sending it on'.

I wonder if eventually ebay will change the way they handle these and just send the miscategorized item back to the seller, cancelling the transaction. Might spare some confusion.

They won’t ever do that.

But they will continue to tweak the algo so that you can’t erroneously categorize items.

[RL 1953]

File a CC chargeback

[zworykin]

Originally Posted by RL 1953

File a CC chargeback

For what? Did you follow the thread?

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by zworykin

For what? Did you follow the thread?

Guessing he means because the original seller sold the twitter guy a supposed illegitimate slab, and it's too late for standard ebay INAD claim.

What does the twitter guy do in this situation? Strange situation to be in.