Saw this on another forum I am on and thought I’d mention it here. Apologies if this has already been posted about but I had a look about, including in the grading section, and couldn’t see it.
Anyway, a fake PSA9 no symbol 'zard recently sold here on ebay UK for £4600 so somebody has been badly duped.
It’s the back that gives it away with the massive borders. From the front it looks (at a glance) reasonable but I noticed that the centering at the bottom border doesn’t match the real copy in PSAs registry before I even looked at the back.
I don’t have the full story as this came to me on another forum from somebody who, themselves, had seen it on a Japanese collecting page. Apparently the seller refused to answer any questions (a dead giveaway) but worst of all, ebay ignored multiple reports and complaints from people telling them it was fake and allowed it through. So much for their so-called authenticity guarantee
Still, it seems enough people were deceived and one unlucky buyer is in for a headache.
Certainly obvious as soon as you look at the back lol.
Sadly this is not a thing in the UK. Authenticity guarantee for trading cards only exists in the US, and it’s definitely riskier to buy expensive cards here (in the UK) for that reason.
On top of that, eBay does not remove listings for being counterfeit unless the seller states somewhere on the listing that the card is not genuine. They don’t have the capacity / expertise to authenticate cards which is why they launched the authenticity guarantee service in the US in the first place. So reports wouldn’t accomplish much in this case.
Definitely looking forward to the day that the authenticity guarantee program is extended to the UK/EU sites, but I’m not sure when that would happen since none of the big 3 grading companies have a presence here.
So yeah, unfortunately scammers are everywhere and I don’t bother reporting auctions anymore since Ebay rarely removes them.
I think there are also tricks to avoid the authenticity guaranteed, like putting the fake card in a multiple cards lot, promising expensive cards as a gift if auction reaches certain amounts, offering them privately and so on.
Better be watchful.
Interesting. I didn’t realise that the guarantee was US specific. I’ve never liked how the site is different in different zones i.e. how I see people going on about “ebay bucks” and using it to save money when we’ve never had any such scheme here.
Does the whole VERO thing not cover fakes with it being a counterfeit item? I’ve certainly had items of my own removed due other users reporting them or the dreaded VERO. In both cases, my items were genuine but clearly reports from malicious competitors or mistaken browsers were taken seriously enough by ebay.
Yeah and the case looked like it had some light scuffing too as if it was a legit thing and not a freshly-forged fake. If they’d finished the job and got those back borders correct, this could have been a frighteningly convincing fake. Of course, you should never buy something of this value on only 2 images and when the seller refuses to answer messages. I’ve certainly walked away from listings before for that latter reason.
So much effort into making counterfeits, time and resources that could be spent on legitimate ways to make money. So many mistakes, like where does the scammer draw the line lol card is atrocious
I’ve lost count of the amount of fake 1st Ed Charizard’s that have been going through auction the past year or so. Now the No Rarity? So sad to see, I hope the people bidding and even going as far as paying will eventually learn a lesson and do more research to not get scammed. You would think too that this user having been on eBay since 2015 wouldn’t want to risk having his account banned/closed from selling fake items? I know I wouldn’t. Maybe eBay should start putting in some more rules or requirements to bid on or even sell some of these high ticket items in the first place.
While I agree, someone also just spent over £4,000 on it lol. This is actually a great example of why counterfeiters exist.
They aren’t trying to fool us, they’re trying to fool the fools. People who don’t know what the legit card looks like and can’t be bothered (or aren’t smart enough) to check.
maybe its just me but as far as ebay is concerned I think twice before getting anything international unless its modern straight from Japan
I dont like going around authentication
They’ve basically asserted the real copy is fake now. Gave people a completely valid reason to hide cert numbers, undermining the entire system, and for what? How often have you looked up the cert before bidding on a card? Who does this benefit?
It especially doesn’t make sense when there is a scan of the actual card on the cert page.
This nuclear option is entirely idiotic. Especially when all you have to do is add a little message box on the cert page that says “there is a known counterfeit version of this card, please ensure the scan below matches”
