I will keep this blunt. I have *zero* interest in participating in this program. As far as I am concerned:
1) It is illegal for anyone other than the individual a package is addressed to to open it.
2) There is no way to verify that the card the buyer recieves is the same card that was sent to the "Authenticator", nor that the same card that was sent to the authenticator is the one sent to the buyer.
As such, I am *hoping* that this thresold will be determined based on the item's price alone, not including the shipping, so we can just increase the shipping price accordingly to keep the card from qualifying. If Ebay finds a way to interject in sales of a single card totalling $251+ including shipping, we will be discontinuing listing any cards above that threshold going forward.
I see no logical reason to participate. Ebay already interferes *far* too much in what should be a "community marketplace" transaction, where we as sellers pay a "stall fee" for the right to set up. Between the skewed relationship created by "buyer protection", the high selling fees, and the shaped search results, the value of the Ebay marketplace is *diminishing* compared to their competitors, particularly Whatnot. All this new program does is create the expectation in buyers minds that our expertise in authenticating cards stops at the $250 mark.
I could begrudingly come onboard if this was done similar to Amazon's FBA program, with sellers being able to opt in, send qualifying cards in AHEAD of time to be graded/authenticated, with Ebay storing and handling fulfillment once sold. This seperation of the sale, and the authentication would give sellers recourse against the third party authenthicator for any claims of inauthenticity they make, and keep this info from the customer. As it stands, a seller who has a card rejected by an authenticator might as well be branded with a scarlet letter, as *that* buyer will certainly never order from them again, and people *talk*.
Having a third party in between a buyer and customer is why I *never* order *anything* from US-based Ebay sellers as a buyer (IE, the "Global shipping program"). Pittney Bowes can fly a kite, and Ebay's authenticators can as well AFAIC. End rant!
