eBay Will Now Authenticate Trading Cards Worth $750 or More

Online marketplace eBay is once again expanding its authentication service, this time to include support for authenticating valuable trading cards. From a report: The service will now be able to authenticate cards worth at least $750 from collectible card games, as well as sports and other non-sports cards, the company said. By the middle of this year, this service will grow to include graded, autograph and patch cards sold for $250 and higher, as well. These additions broaden eBay's ability to assure its customers of the authenticity of high-value items, including the sneakers, watches and handbags the company is already able to authenticate. Like other verticals where authentication is available, eBay saw the value in adding support for trading cards due to the volume of activity in the category on its site. The company said the trading cards category is growing "significantly faster" than its total marketplace, and the category saw $2 billion in transactions in the first half of 2021. That's equal to all of the trading card transactions that took place in 2020, for comparison.

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[GoTeam]

Does eBay have a greater interest in the rooting out fakes, or in facilitating more transactions. I wouldn't imply that eBay is up to no good, I'm just not sure if this is about accuracy, or purchaser-erer confidence. Doesn't gore my ox either way since card collecting isn't my thing, but... i'm bored...

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[AnonyMouseCowWard]

I'm sure it's a cost measure more than a customer experience measure, though the latter is a nice plus and better for PR.

I've bought cards on eBay before, and received fakes. What happens every time is I file a complaint, sometimes have to send it back, and eBay refunds me. I'm sure in some instances, the seller cashed out the money from PayPal and disappeared, leaving eBay to deal with the cost. On $100 cards like I was doing (over hundreds of transactions), I'd see a fake maybe 1-2% of the time? For me

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[GoTeam]

Good to know. Seems like a reasonable thing for them to do. Looks like they're mostly ok with losing out on any $749 and below transactions. It works for their books, so cool. Thanks for the insight Anony, it helped my understanding greatly.

just great

[OrangeTide]

What am I supposed to do with all these cards, wall paper my house in Black Lotus and Mox Pearl/Ruby/Sapphire/Jet/Emerald?

This is eBay is sticking their noses in my right to free enterprise. What ever happened to the free market and good old-fashioned caveat emptor?

just NFT it

[kiviQr]

take a photo and sell it as NFT.

How do you know the card is authenticated?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm curious how eBay is doing this. If someone has a rare card, then what keeps them from having the rare card authenticated, then shipping a buyer a certificate of authenticity... and a counterfeit card. If the rare card is sealed in some type of packaging, this can be useful, but even then, one never knows if the authenticity packaging may be faked.

I'm surprised if I even get an item at all on eBay, with all the fakes, so if their authentication system works, it is better than nothing, but I wonder if i

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[Milliway]

PSA has been doing this for a while. They have a lot of security features and you cannot remove the cards without damaging the slab. You can see the security features here: https://www.psacard.com/securi... [psacard.com] I would hope that eBay can match this feature set, because it does make buying a card a lot less stressful.

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[kmoser]

Even before the sale is made, how is Ebay going to authenticate an item without having it in their possession? Maybe you just send them a few snapshots from your phone camera and they run it through Mechanical Turk?

eBay Seller Pays More!!!

[I75BJC]

There is a cost for authentication, right?
Who pays that cost? Do you think that eBay is paying the cost?

eBay is adding a service for buyer but the sellers will pay for it eBay only makes it harder for me to sell personal items on their platform. Every year, it gets worse for the seller.

And that doesn't even address the question, "Why is this eBay's business?" The buyer and the seller can figure it out.

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[Riceballsan]

Maybe simply people are wising up and not buying expensive rare items off ebay now. Ebay can't their 12ish percent off a card, if nobody wants to buy it because it could be faked. I'm no expert but I'd never buy anything that expensive off ebay.

Trading Cards now, Video Games later?

[UnknownSoldier]

I can't imagine for the inevitable shit show of over-priced [youtube.com] (retro) video game pricing. [youtube.com]

$749 anyone?

[Tony Isaac]

Pssst...got a genuine trading card, just $749! This offer is too good to be true!

It's not about authentication it's about the grade

[ayesnymous]

People will only pay top dollar for PSA graded cards, specifically PSA 10 (mint condition) cards. Nobody's going to pay for eBay's authentication service, when they know they have to pay for PSA's grading service (which of course includes authentication).

eBay really needs to authenticate autographs

[Raunchola]

Search on eBay for some of the most-popular sports cards out there, and you'll see most of them are already authenticated and graded by the likes of PSA (the most-popular), Beckett, and ISA. In fact, it's almost a requirement among buyers and sellers of rare and valuable cards. It seems weird for eBay to offer to do this, but according to eBay's website, this is a free service. No harm, no foul, I guess?

What eBay should be doing is offering an authentication service for autographs. Anyone with a passing