I’ve used the PWCC site ever since they “moved” off of eBay and have bid/won many items over the year. A couple of weeks a go I placed a bid by accident on a CGC 9.5 card and won. It wasn’t until afterwards that I realized that the card was a CGC 9.5+ and not a CGC 9.5 Gem Mint. I won a couple of items during that weekly auction. Upon realizing my mistake I chatted/emailed with PWCC explaining the situation and the mistake and asked them if they could cancel that item that I won and I would pay for the other items I won. Multiple people that I spoke with told me no they absolutely can’t do that and that’s its never been done before, which I find hard to believe. That experience has left a sour taste and I decided fine I just won’t use them again but fast forward to today and they have locked my account and I can’t even access my vault. Do you guys think I am overreacting and should just pay the invoice for the item that I won by mistake (for context it’s a 4 figure card)? Is PWCC being irrational and shady for not allowing me to cancel this item and locking my account including my vault access and cards? As I mentioned previously I’ve bid on and won many items over the year and this is the 1st time something like this has happened. Additionally PWCC has sent me someone else’s cards in the past and I went out of my way to send them all back to them so its funny that they don’t think mistakes happen.
Sorry for the rant genuinely interested in everyone’s take on this.
They have a pretty strong stance on non-paying buyers, which I think is more than fair.
Your situation is tough, as I feel like they could make an exception if explained properly. However, I’ve personally been buying for almost 2 decades and never found myself in this situation. Not explicitly trying to make you feel bad, just sharing my experience that I never bid without knowing what I’m buying. I’d imagine this is a situation where their general non-payer policy went into affect, and perhaps talking to someone and explaining the details might change the outcome.
You could try to see if there was a way around it but ultimately it’s your mistake so just pay for the card and resell it, take a slight loss which is still better than getting blocked from the platform.
You seem to be in the wrong here, not PWCC, since you misread the title or card grade.
If you feel this strongly over a mis-bid, then just don’t pay it and take the ban. I’m sure they’ll get in contact with you to empty out your vault.
From your perspective, I understand that paying 4 figures for a simple mistake seems like a disproportionate punishment. But from their perspective, arbitrarily canceling winning bids is a recipe for shill bidding.
Each bid is the equivalent of signing a micro-contract. Generally, “my bad” usually doesn’t get you out of the consequences of breaking a contract. You could argue that the pwcc ui coukd be better at explaining exactly what you’re getting into every time you bid but there’s a trade-off there between safety and convenience
Not trying to be funny or disingenious, but you could pay for it and then crack/submit it to PSA to see if you could get a 10 lol.
I do agree with everybody though, PWCC is 100% not in the wrong here. You unfortunately made a mistake but they didn’t misrepresent the card at all. Take the L and move on.
There was another buyer that was willing to pay just under your winning bid. Sounds like you didn’t overpay too much for it.
So I’d say pay for it, and list it for a buy it now and see if that other bidder would take it.
At the end of the day, you are getting a mint card. Not sure why the number on the label matters (joking of course)
Bidding on an auction is an irrevocable offer to purchase and, if you win, creates a contract between you and the seller. I’m always surprised people are so flippant about not paying for items they’ve won at auction. If you don’t understand this you should stick to "buy now"s.
PWCC canceled may bid on a mislabeled card but maybe the mislabel was a stronger case. I also asked for bid cancellation on Friday before auction end. I still won though but had it canceled mid of the next week.
My thoughts exactly. 100 dollar loss is better than losing vault access if you got the free promotion + access to all the cards offered there for the low every week. Something goldin rarecandy and eBay can’t replicate.
Just double check next time so that you are always in the know.
I’ll be honest with you, it’s the worst auction place. I created an account early this year and won 3 cards over 1K $ but more less on Ebay comps. I was happy to make a good deal. Paid the same night the auction ended. Few days later my account was blocked. Ask them why no answers refund not the same amount ( minus 50$ ). Only reason the cards do not go is the amount expected. PWCC still has the same pattern on Ebay. Shill Bidding, closed or blocked account with no explanation.
I get that. It is just not the norm at all. Maybe you pinged from a banned ip address or something. Either way I would reach out to customer service as I’ve never heard anyone else have this experience unless they had a prior account ban for not paying.
Thanks everyone for the replies really appreciate it.
I am in agreement with everyone that bids are normally binding, where I had issue was that they were so adamant on them never making any exceptions which I know is not true. Personally I also think its crazy that they could lock your vault access essentially locking you out of all your cards in the vault.
The original mistake was definitely mine bidding on a CGC 9.5 + thinking it was a CGC 9.5 GEM MINT. The confusion on my end was because I thought CGC stopped all 9.5 grades not create a new one called 9.5+. In the end this whole saga was just a bad experience.
