eBay authentication program apparently failing scratched slabs?

[hammertime]

I bought an E98 card off ebay and got an email saying it failed authentication. I was surprised because it was in an SGC slab, but of course I was given no information about what the problem is, nor was I given the chance to accept it anyway, so I contacted the seller who said he was told it failed because the slab was scratched. This made me even angrier because I fully intended to cross the card to PSA, and couldn't care less what state the slab was in (as long as the card itself wasn't damaged).
And now there's a thread on net54 with a seller who had the same thing happen (different card).
https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=362809

I assume in these cases eBay is keeping the seller's fees, which makes the whole thing even shadier. It's one thing to flag a card for this issue, it's another to cancel the transaction without the buyer even getting a chance to provide input.

These tactics are just aggravating buyers AND sellers, and are just going to lead to more people seeking each other out to complete transactions outside of eBay.

[smanzari]

This is not a new thing. Always in sellers best interest to grade slabs or cards as conservatively as possible. All my slabs ALWAYS have "scratches and imperfections" and I never sell a Raw card better than "EX."

[DynaEtch]

They should have asked for buyer input…they often do with issues on raw cards. Kinda dumb they don’t for such a minor thing like a slab scratch.

I’m pretty sure eBay does not retain the FVF fees here. Maybe just the $.40 transaction fee but not the main 13.25% FVF, that’s returned with refunds. Basically the seller is out the shipping to eBay AG and the $.40 transaction fee.

If you want a ridiculous reason for eBay AG rejecting a card..how about for calling a 1997 Finest gold refractor card….a gold refractor? They claimed it wasn’t the correct parallel set designation (it’s literally just a gold refractor, called so by the hobby at large). I guess they need it to be called “A refractor of a gold subset”. Yea that’s a huge difference and warrants a card being rejected and sent back from eBay AG!

[Blazed]

Originally Posted by smanzari

This is not a new thing. Always in sellers best interest to grade slabs or cards as conservatively as possible. All my slabs ALWAYS have "scratches and imperfections" and I never sell a Raw card better than "EX."

I've been seeing this a lot on eBay and it's becoming annoying as hell, probably something eBay needs to crack down on

It's one thing to list it in "EX" then make a note in the description.

Sellers listing cards in "EX" condition then nothing in the description as to why it's considered "EX" just to pass AG or block returns after not mentioning flaws is another

If I really want it I'll shoot a message over to the seller just to make sure they're not hiding behind the "EX" designation and hiding flaws

The amount of pure laziness in this hobby is crazy

So. Fking. Annoying.

[smanzari]

Originally Posted by Blazed

I've been seeing this a lot on eBay and it's becoming annoying as hell, probably something eBay needs to crack down on

It's one thing to list it in "EX" then make a note in the description.

Sellers listing cards in "EX" condition then nothing in the description as to why it's considered "EX" just to pass AG or block returns after not mentioning flaws is another

If I really want it I'll shoot a message over to the seller just to make sure they're not hiding behind the "EX" designation and hiding flaws

The amount of pure laziness in this hobby is crazy

So. Fking. Annoying.

I'm so confused by this statement, EX DOES mean there's flaws and by calling it out as "EX" they're not hiding them - just because some random internet dude states he doesn't sell cards higher than EX, doesn't mean everyone does the same! (I only sell Vintage BTW, with every flaw listed in the title possible - whether its "Poor" or "EX")

[Blazed]

Originally Posted by smanzari

I'm so confused by this statement, EX DOES mean there's flaws and by calling it out as "EX" they're not hiding them - just because some random internet dude states he doesn't sell cards higher than EX, doesn't mean everyone does the same! (I only sell Vintage BTW, with every flaw listed in the title possible - whether its "Poor" or "EX")

I'm not talking about vintage

If they call it out as EX and don't say what the flaw is, it's hiding it

The new norm apparently is to list everything as "EX"

Bought a card from Probstine, huge crease across the back that wasn't listed in the listing nor could it be seen in the scan unless you looked super close and you could see a faint line

He took the return and relisted with the flaw mentioned second time and a better scan that showed it

The few sellers I have asked just to confirm there's no crease or anything say the same thing "card is great, I just list it that way"

It's annoying

[Breesus85]

On the flip side. There are a ton of buyers that don’t understand that NM or better means the card may have some minor flaws.

[jamcas997]

This scratched slab crap started in the last 4 years with PUNK buyers trying to get partial refunds for scratches claiming it detracts from the value of the slabbed card. Just people sucking and now the authentication process is following what these buyers have done.