Banned from Zandg over asking to retract bid

General
1

Hello all! Long-time lurker, I created an account since I know this is one of the prime sources for information on buying/selling on EBay, and lots of folks here are invested in the buying/selling side of the hobby.

Situation:
I put in a personal maximum bid on a ZandG auction item this morning. A couple of hours later, I was outbid. I found out through an email saying a bid was retracted on an item that I was bidding on.

The retracted bid was the one that outbid me. It was a 3 feedback account. After the retraction, another 3 feedback bidder pushed the item up to exactly my maximum bid.

At this point, I was turned off from buying the item since it looks like the classic fake bidding situation you always hear about happening in consignment services. I messaged him on the item, said I was the high bidder, asked if I could retract the bid bc of the suspicious retraction.

Message I got back was the following:

“Suspicious for you too, so I’ll just ban both of you no problem”

Unsurprisingly based on that message, I was banned (funnily enough, without the bid even being cancelled).

I’m pretty frustrated since I’ve bought multiple high value ($1000-5000 dollar) items from him over multiple years. I message him one time about a sketchy situation and I’m immediately banned me over a $300 dollar item, which in the end I would have paid for anyways if he wasn’t comfortable allowing my bid to be retracted.

So, anyways, just an FYI. Asking to retract bids gets you banned.

Happy to provide screenshots to Mods if necessary.

15 Likes
2

James is extra liberal with his ban list. Can’t say that I’m shocked.

His rules are clearly: Bid + Pay = No Ban

3

Just to clarify, the auction is not over. My bid is not retracted, I didn’t threaten to not pay if he didn’t want to retract my bid either. It would have taken arguably no additional effort for him to say something along the lines “Sorry, if a bid is retracted you will be banned”

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James has done a lot of good for the hobby - especially what he did for buyers of the playtest cards. His store sales volume has grown by magnitudes and I believe staffing is insufficient for the stores needs. This does not excuse being short/rude to buyers as customer service is one of the most important aspects of maintaining long term client relationships. Unfortunately, with the growth of the store comes bad actors. It reminds me of PWCC when they were on eBay. It was shill central. I believe at some point eBay is going to step in…lots of these record prices are sketchy. Because of the growth and brand recognition, maybe customer service is not as important for ZandG as it once was…or maybe they need to beef up staffing to keep the customer experience more positive.

17 Likes
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This is an issue with the grading company misgrading the card, not the seller. The purpose of the grading company is the authenticate and grade the condition of the card. Sellers are not supposed to confirm the condition of the graded card; that’s the entire purpose of getting it graded in the first place.

If you have an issue, take it up with the grading company. For example, this is why PSA has the Grade Guarantee.

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Pretty much my feelings on it. Just crazy to have effectively what is a business relationship ended over a single question/low value item.

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To not disclose damage on card of that kind of value, and then use the excuse that they’re too busy too care is not an example of good business.

The card has a graded autograph, the condition was not graded.

The problem is that on a front-scan, the damage wasn’t apparent. But in person the corner is visibility bent.

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If you bought a card that was just authenticated with a graded auto, why would you expect it to be in a certain condition? You bought an authentic card and you received an authentic card. It’s not the seller’s job to tell you what they believe the card condition is on an authentic-graded card.

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I mean this dude was gonna get covered by CGC or sue. He did exactly what all the other auction houses were doing but the fact that he did it slightly faster 100% bought him some good PR. But that doesn’t mean you can just be a dick to everyone without consequence. I’m not taking sides here but this isn’t the first or second or third time I’ve recently heard his name pop up on E4 where he’s just talking to people in a shitty, condescending way with a ban in tow. That will catch up to you if you’re a business trying to scale up. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, people should try not to take things personally and give the guy some grace for being a small business that might be a bit overwhelmed, but he’s gotta do something about this bad PR and how he’s treating people or this is a ticking time bomb. Shit, I’d take a Chat GPT canned response over what some of these new people are reporting on the forums

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I’m very easy to ban the past few months, it’s amazing how many bad actors have shown up in this boom. Just email consign@zandgemporium.com to explain situation. Nothing personal, I just ban pretty quickly and often nowadays.

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I think we essentially said the same thing about customer service in different ways. The refunds were processed before resolution was communicated by CGC. Saved buyers some headache. I am not defending poor customer service if it read that way.

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I think you’re right; we agree.

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in general you shouldn’t bid until the last 5 seconds for auction platforms with a fixed end time (ie no extensions)

4 Likes
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The listing didn’t include the scan of the entire slab?

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for the playtests specifically most of the auction houses actually didnt proactively refund buyers and left you to deal with cgc on your own (i believe only rare candy and ebay did, which by far sold the fewest playtests). it’s only lucky that it worked out the way it did that cgc is providing refunds pretty easily otherwise that situation would be a whole lot worse for him.

1 Like
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Z&G did the right thing. You’re a bad buyer who expects the seller to act as a grader and authenticator. You bought an authentic card and received an authentic card.

If you wanted a nicer card, buy a higher grade rather than “Authentic.”

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Yep, it’s not the consigners job to re-assess the card every single card that comes through their doors. Their only job is scanning cards, listing cards, collecting payment, and shipping out. There is a reason a card like that came through a consignment outlet, rather than the original owner listing it and having to deal with buyer blowback.

3 Likes
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I get this. The listing title may have not been clear. If thats the case then appeal to ebay. If the seller bans you for the hassle, thats unfortunate but its their loss.

The fault is really with psa for having scans that hide that damage. Zng probably is moving fast so they arent reviewing graded card conditions (nor should they as a consigner), weve seen them have troublesome listings that theyll remove to get corrected.

1 Like
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Expecting an authentic “graded” card to be anything other that an authentic card in plastic is unrealistic

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I wouldn’t complain that much when your selling it without much of a decription or a picture of the back, at least they provided a picture of the back

Considering these are the only pictures you included I wouldn’t say you have any right to complain

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image829Ă—550 152 KB

Your description doesn’t help your case either

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Ironic
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