This just feels like a reach. Probstein and numerous other larger sellers face all of these issues with shill bidding, potentially selling a trimmed card, etc. Yet they weren’t removed. The primary factor is because pwcc had a model that was taking from ebay.
Anecdotally, I’ve done numerous calls with eBay’s higher ups, one of the best quotes was, “how do we get you to not sell with pwcc”. Even without that experience it’s obvious ebay tried to copy and paste pwcc’s model. That’s more definitive than any of these other claims.
Sure, regardless of the reason(s) for their removal, it did impact them. That is what I was trying to articulate in my first post. PWCC was forced to start anew and earn its reputation back.
Perhaps rebranding to Fanatics Collect will finally put all of the drama to rest.
I think this is one of those things where we feel like it’s really obvious because we’re so involved and pay attention to everything going on. I agree that it was clearly eBay getting rid of competition, but I think I arrived at that conclusion because of some combination of talking about it here, applying even the tiniest bit of critical thinking, and caring enough about what’s going on in collecting to even do the first two things I mentioned.
I honestly think the average Timmy read that email from eBay and took it at face value as PWCC legitimately doing something wrong and deserving to be kicked off the platform.
Last point that I’ll make is that this is an AND scenario and not an OR scenario. PWCC could have done bad things AND eBay wanted to get them off the platform ASAP. When eBay found evidence of wrongdoing, they had justification that would prevent them from defamation and libel.
Did eBay kick PWCC off for a reason beyond what they told the public? Absolutely.
Did PWCC have some part in the wrongdoing? Absolutely. If they didn’t, the lawsuits that PWCC threatened eBay with would have gone somewhere.
I guess I phrased my reply poorly. I didn’t mean to imply that there’s no way that PWCC did anything wrong. I more so meant that I find it hard to believe that they did so much wrong that they deserved to be kicked off the platform, especially considering that eBay didn’t go after anyone else.
I guess what I’m saying is that I think a lot of people who read eBay’s statement and took it at face value didn’t add that “they’re doing this for more than just shill bidding” part to their reasoning.
That’s a good point! I definitely benefit from being informed, to an extreme where I remember texting Brent when it happened. But I agree not everyone is as aware, and from the surface it could read as negative. It’s a shame because eBay and pwcc would be a power couple.
Every collector in the sports card world knows Fanatics since the basically own everything now lol I’m sure the rebrand will be fine. The name is pretty lame but I will miss PWCC.
As for the whole shill bid fiasco, that was eBay taking down a competitor, plain and simple. I’ve read every rumor of pwcc employees bidding on auctions and sure maybe that’s actually true (who knows), but I would argue that there are no consignment/auction houses that are clean in the industry, and especially not from consignor shilling which likely occurs in the majority of auctions to be real and cannot be traced so why was one company (a direct competitor) the only one targeted?
Seems to be implied by the original post! Could be that the vault and other things retain the name but seems the core of the business, the marketplace, is changing names completely
I will miss PWCC.