eBay's "Authenticity Guarantee" scam

General
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1

Recently, I purchased 3 cards on eBay for a total cost of $530 from a new and honest seller. The listing had the “authenticity guarantee” stamp. The listing title specified 3 cards. The listing picture showed 3 cards,

All good, right? You are feeling great as a buyer, right?

Dead wrong!! Apparently, there are 2 issues - (1) in the listing, the new seller specified the quantity as “1” instead of “3”. Apparently, if the quantity is greater than 1, then “authenticity guarantee” does not apply. The seller still mails the cards to the “authenticator” (in this case, PSA). When the authenticator received it, they quickly label it as “Miscategorized” and punts it to the buyer anyways.
(2) Apparently this is a glitch in eBay’s algorithm, and even though the authenticator did absolutely no authentication whatsoever, they mark the sale in the system as “authenticated”.

OK, so then I receive the lot, and find that the main card is horribly damaged. I raise it with the seller, and he agrees to take them back and issue a refund. All good, right?

Well, no. Apparently, since the sale was marked as “authenticated”, even though the authenticator did nothing but punt, it is not eligible for money back guarantee, and the buyer cannot return the cards to the seller.

So I appealed. and this “George” from eBay customer service reached out on Oct 11th, and explained that the seller messed up in his listing (not within my control) and that eBay’s algorithm has issues (again, not within my control), but they were going to issue a return label for me within 10 minutes, since the seller agreed to take the return.

Whew! OK, Wonderful - eBay is looking out for its customer.

Except, I still have not seen any return label issued, and eBay has basically gone cold. They still collected the commission from the sale, admitted that both the seller and eBay messed up, but hey, tough doo doo - the unwitting buyer will pay the price,

I am frankly sickened, and thinking about lodging a small claims case. This is just wrong. If the seller listed something incorrectly that negates “authentication guarantee” that the listing was stamped with, why is the policy not to return the cards to the seller who messed up and refund the buyer?

Has anyone else had this experience?

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I’d suggest calling ebay again. It was only 4 days ago since they said they messed up

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Good suggestion, but there is no option to call, as they have classified the sale as “closed”. I have sent multiple emails, and received no response. It is very frustrating,

4

Can you link the listing?

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I want to mention - the seller is honest and made an honest mistake. Even I, who has been buying cards under the auth guarantee program for years, had no idea that eBay punts cards if the quantity says “1” instead of “3” in this case. The new seller would certainly not know that either. According to eBay, it’s the buyer’s job to figure out if “auth guarantee” really applies for any sales.

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Since the seller is cooperating I’d ask for a partial refund with no return and see where that goes.

In my experience eBay will stand behind whatever decision has been made already even with admitting fault, it always from what I’ve seen leads to nowhere.

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7

Thank you Thundermoo. I can try that approach,

I wanted to highlight this case to the forum so buyers are beware. Just because something has the “authentication guarantee” stamp on eBay’s platform, it does not actually mean the guarantee actually applies, So that stamp can very well be false marketing, giving the mirage of eBay protecting the buyer.

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8

I was hopeful the listing allowed returns because even through AUTH you could still return the item for a couple different reasons but unfortunately it does not

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I once sold a lot of 2 cards (because of consecutive certs), the message received from ebay was:

Unfortunately, miscategorized items aren’t eligible for Authenticity Guarantee.

Thankfully, the buyer was cool with it. As mentioned, highly recommend you call ebay about the return label.

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Same issue happened with a second sale. This one is $800. Same misleading “auth guarantee” stamp on the listing. Same listing quantity issue. Again, a very honest seller. When I explained the listing mistake, the seller readily agreed to take a return and sent me his mailing address. For that sale, I still have not received the cards, but I told the seller I will not return anything because it is really not his “fault”. I despise this situation - just false marketing on a platform that collects 15-18% in commissions and does not look out for the buyer and provides false promises.

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11

Will try again.

12

Ugh, sounds like a nightmare. Thank you for sharing this with us. I sincerely hope this gets resolved for you.

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13

I am sorry that you had to go through all of this and hope you find an agreeable solution. Thank you for posting it, I had no idea that this could happen with the authenticity.

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Just an update on the situation -
(1) there is no easy way for eBay to generate the return labels due to their current system limitations.
(2) per Thundermoo’s advice, I reached out to the seller asking for a $150 refund
(3) However, eBay is picking up the $150 tab directly here as a proposed resolution, which I am fine with.

Buyers, beware still as the algorithm issue is not yet fixed. So, check the listing details closely before you buy ungraded card lots, as authentication guarantee may not actually apply still, even though the listing may show a “authenticity guarantee” stamp.

Happy collecting all. Best wishes.

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Generally, I thought it was a rule that “lots” any listing with more than a single item, are not eligible for authenticity guarantee.

This seems to track with the experience you’ve had. What a miserable situation.

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