eBay's Authenticity Guarantee for trading cards in Canada

[rocketscollectibles]

I've keep saying it a lot recently that i felt it seems obvious that eBay.ca is pushing the trading cards market since they acquired the TCGplayer selling platform.

Here come the authenticity guarantee! Every raw card over $250 will be authenticated free of charge.

Another great news for the market. For both sellers and buyers. 

eBay Canada is pleased to announce the launch of our Authenticity Guarantee for trading cards, helping both buyers and sellers transact with confidence. 

Single, ungraded trading cards sold in Canada for over $250 will now be verified by our partners at CGC and CSG in our new Canadian authentication facility, at no additional cost to either the buyer or seller. 

List your eligible card, and the blue Authenticity Guarantee badge will appear. 

1. List your eligible card and the blue Authenticity Guarantee badge will appear. 
2. Once a buyer purchases your card, you’ll ship it to our Canada-based authentication facility for inspection.
3. Your card goes through a multi-point inspection process performed by CGC or CSG. The card is also checked against listing details before being packaged. Cards are not graded. 
4. Your card is slipped into a larger penny sleeve and sealed with an authentication sticker. A QR code linking to authentication details is provided. It's then placed into a padfolio and delivered safely to the buyer via discreet and secure tracked shipping.

If you allow returns and a buyer wishes to return, the card will be reinspected on the way back, protecting both buyers and sellers.

Learn more about this new program for trading card sales here. 

As always, thank you for selling on eBay. 

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Announcements/eBay-s-Authenticity-Guarantee-is-now-available-for-tradin...

[ricarmic]

I have to believe from a buyers perspective this is good news as well. Certainly if I was a buyer and for no charge it was authenticated before it came to me, I would be happy about that and feel a lot safer in buying the more expensive items.

The only buyer downside I can see is that it adds delay to when the buyer receives the item because it how has to go through the authentication process, not sure how long that takes, hopefully no queues.

The versa protection that "rocks don't come back" in returns is certainly good news from the sellers perspective too.

It will be interesting to see if it eventually also reaches my (stamp) world too.....

I wonder what happens to sellers who's items fail authentication, especially if it is regularly? I expect restrictions would quickly happen.

[ians_vintage]

It adds 2-4 weeks to the shipping process. I just had a sale canceled because they didn't want to wait that long.

[ricarmic]

Theoretically they'll "always" have to wait because the program applies to everyone I believe.

This means their only option is to shop at places other than eBay.

It may mean some people go elsewhere to shop because of this (similar to the "tax" problem, folks have to pay taxes here but not necessarily on some other sites).

I suspect eBay will have a way to track overall sales to see if too many buyers are going elsewhere as opposed to the remaining buyers that buy more here because of it. If it causes overall volume to drop one would likely see the lower limit raised to make fewer cards authenticable.

[rocketscollectibles]

It adds 2-4 weeks to the shipping process.

Where did you saw that? It's written one to two business days. It should not add more than 1 week. 

What is the estimated delivery time for Authenticity Guarantee items?

The authenticator will inspect the item within one to two business days after receiving it. Once authenticated, it will be shipped directly to the buyer with tracked shipping.

[recped]

I don't sell anything that is every likely to be included in an authentication program but I've been following the program (cause I like to know what's going on).

While sellers involved seem to have a couple of gripes, delivery times is not one I've heard much about AT ALL.

The biggest issue for all the authentication goods is a complete misunderstanding about what "authentication" means and how eBay is very vague about the reasons when they do reject an item.

Lots of posts about thing being rejected where the seller is outraged over a rejection because they insist the item is legit. What they ignore  (clearly stated in the help pages) that legitimacy is only part of the authentication. The most common reason for a rejection is because the item does not EXACTLY match the condition description not because it's a "fake".

[ricarmic]

This is exactly why I don't personally include a grade for anything I sell because I know that 5 collectors or dealers will have 6 different versions of what VF (very fine) means (I'm old school there's more "better" categories in this modern era of "gem" "extra fine" 'extremely fine" etc which I don't really ascribe to) and generally the dealers will have a higher opinion than the buyer. Good pictures solve this problem, the collector can determine their version of grading for themselves this way. Works good for me so far!

[recped]

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@ricarmic wrote:

This is exactly why I don't personally include a grade for anything I sell because I know that 5 collectors or dealers will have 6 different versions of what VF (very fine) means (I'm old school there's more "better" categories in this modern era of "gem" "extra fine" 'extremely fine" etc which I don't really ascribe to) and generally the dealers will have a higher opinion than the buyer. Good pictures solve this problem, the collector can determine their version of grading for themselves this way. Works good for me so far!

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The condition issues are almost always for the usual problems where sellers fail to disclose TINY flaws, flaws that buyers might accept (perhaps slightly disappointed) but the authenticators will not.

[byto253]

In addition to the authentication service can a seller or buyer also pay to have grading added on?

[recped]

I'm pretty sure eBay does not offer grading services. Maybe in the future they will buy out one of the actually respectable (if they exist) grading services.