eBay Authenticity Guarantee program, your experience?

[AbraCalabro]

Currently waiting on a card that is going to be delayed by two weeks before it reaches me. I've read a lot of horror stories on how PSA damaged cards and there is really no recourse for the buyer.

eBay is on the hook, but they don't refund you squat in comparison to the price buyers paid for their now damaged items. Unfortunately eBay does not offer an OPT OUT option for the Authenticity Guarantee program and many of us know that PSA doesn't actually care about our cards, this whole thing is just a means for them to leech more money wherever they can.

eBay thinks that PSA is the word of God and we know that they're about as incompetent as it gets. Have you had any issues with this nuisance of a program, which includes delayed time of receipt?

As an example, WeTheNorth had a Vince Carter 1/1 Flawless card damaged by PSA and was basically sh!t out of luck, eBay offered a partial refund of next to nothing compared to the price paid. There are numerous other stories I can post up here.

What sucks is this is a 130PT card and I'm wondering if they're going to jam the thing into a card saver. I don't think I'll be using eBay any more for anything above 249.99 and will be avoiding them in general as much as possible.

[mindcycle]

Yeah I hate that program, it should 100% be opt out. I've gone through it twice and I think it was my second time having to deal with it, I got the package with the card hanging halfway out of the semi rigid holder they stuffed it in. Luckily there was no damage but still pissed me off.

The thing with that program is that it's really only useful for like a really high dollar highly faked card. For normal cards the extra handling and time going around various post offices just means a greater chance of it getting damaged or lost before it gets to you.

[AbraCalabro]

Honestly I'm not surprised, psa does not give a crap about your cards, or mine, or anyone's - they just shuffle those cards out like pancakes at IHOP, of course, if they're rat turner's cards, well...we've seen him get preferential treatment before, wonder why?

I'm hoping someone takes eBay/PSA to the cleaners and the program at least gets shut down in terms of forced opt in. I'm glad your cards turned out okay, wish me luck. Sucks to hear that they stuff cards into semi-rigid holders, my 130pt shipped in a top loader with a sleeve. People don't hate these losers enough.

Opt out is the only way. We know cards better than the people working at PSA, if Jackoff Wilson followers don't know what they're buying, let them opt in.

[kingofsnake]

In 2024 I bought a National Treasures Mbappe Autograph from Probstein for low four digits. The card was advertised as a PSA 10 and the photo was very closely cropped. The card was sent to eBay Authentication, authenticated and later shipped to me. When the card arrived it was a raw card, not the PSA 10 as described. I filed an eBay return and Probstein let the entire investigation time elapse (2 weeks I think) without responding. eBay ruled in my favor and I got a refund.

More recently, I made two purchases in October. The first was a $50 modern raw card that was sent to Authentication for some unknown reason and arrived to me 2-3 weeks later than it should have. The second was a Panini redemption that the seller sent to Authentication and I just received notification today from eBay that this card was "miscategorized" and is thus not eligible for authentication.

I can say I don't understand what the purpose of eBay Authentication is other than justifying higher fees to customers. There probably is a liability issue involved, but I am just a small time Power Seller, so I am not super affected.

[mindcycle]

Opt out is the only way. We know cards better than the people working at PSA, if Jackoff Wilson followers don't know what they're buying, let them opt in.

100% agree. I’d imagine that someone with even like 5 years in the hobby would be more qualified than whatever minimum wage employees they have “authenticating” our cards. Waste of time.

In 2024 I bought a National Treasures Mbappe Autograph from Probstein for low four digits. The card was advertised as a PSA 10 and the photo was very closely cropped. The card was sent to eBay Authentication, authenticated and later shipped to me. When the card arrived it was a raw card, not the PSA 10 as described. I filed an eBay return and Probstein let the entire investigation time elapse (2 weeks I think) without responding. eBay ruled in my favor and I got a refund.

More recently, I made two purchases in October. The first was a $50 modern raw card that was sent to Authentication for some unknown reason and arrived to me 2-3 weeks later than it should have. The second was a Panini redemption that the seller sent to Authentication and I just received notification today from eBay that this card was "miscategorized" and is thus not eligible for authentication.

I can say I don't understand what the purpose of eBay Authentication is other than justifying higher fees to customers. There probably is a liability issue involved, but I am just a small time Power Seller, so I am not super affected.

Your experience sounds pretty similar to other stories I’ve heard. Funny if it’s listed as a PSA 10, then they’re looking at a raw card, they wouldn’t immediately flag that. That’s like the first thing I’d think they’d check lol

The purpose has really yet to make any sense to me. For people who started collected two days ago and can’t tell a Topps card from a Panini card I guess it makes sense. For normal humans with even half a brain cell it makes no sense.

[AbraCalabro]

In 2024 I bought a National Treasures Mbappe Autograph from Probstein for low four digits. The card was advertised as a PSA 10 and the photo was very closely cropped. The card was sent to eBay Authentication, authenticated and later shipped to me. When the card arrived it was a raw card, not the PSA 10 as described. I filed an eBay return and Probstein let the entire investigation time elapse (2 weeks I think) without responding. eBay ruled in my favor and I got a refund.

More recently, I made two purchases in October. The first was a $50 modern raw card that was sent to Authentication for some unknown reason and arrived to me 2-3 weeks later than it should have. The second was a Panini redemption that the seller sent to Authentication and I just received notification today from eBay that this card was "miscategorized" and is thus not eligible for authentication.

I can say I don't understand what the purpose of eBay Authentication is other than justifying higher fees to customers. There probably is a liability issue involved, but I am just a small time Power Seller, so I am not super affected.

Wow, talk about ineptitude. The whole program is a money grab on both ends for eBay and PSA, for everyone else it's a headache and a source of more stress waiting for the card and wondering if it's going to get damaged while being handled by people who could not possibly care any less about another person's property.

Opt out is the only way. We know cards better than the people working at PSA, if Jackoff Wilson followers don't know what they're buying, let them opt in.

100% agree. I’d imagine that someone with even like 5 years in the hobby would be more qualified than whatever minimum wage employees they have “authenticating” our cards. Waste of time.

Total waste of time and a major nuisance. It's ironic that the same archetype loser(s) (shilling, hyping, price fixing, paying exorbitant prices) who created excessive levels of justification for counterfeiters to pump out fakes and card doctors to alter cards are now the same people profiting from the work of those counterfeiters.