I am just wondering about the etiquette on eBay about buying and selling graded cards. You don’t know unless you ask. I understand that from a sellers pov it must be annoying getting people querying things you’ve sold.
However, I haven’t or wasn’t going to contact the seller. I’m happy with the added card to add to my collection. I am merely using this platform to express my curiosities. If I don’t ask here then my questions will go unanswered. For all I knew there is an etiquette about listing imperfections on graded cards.
It’s like when you’re talking in that other thread about people messaging offers when there’s no BIN. For me it makes sense that if someone doesn’t have a BIN then that’s their lowest price but someone new to eBay might not realise that. The only way I can gain more knowledge in this industry is by reading stuff other people have put up or by asking my own questions. The only way I can make valued judgements is by acquiring knowledge, which is what I’m trying to do.
It does have something to do with the seller though. It’s called “passing the buck” and it’s annoying. I’m not saying give the seller a negative rating or even initiate a return. I’m just saying personally they don’t get my business, which probably doesn’t matter to them anyway.
Idk the ratio of misgrades but maybe the card OP got was that 1/1000 chance. I’ve got one true misgrade and I don’t have anywhere near 1000 graded cards so idk… it happens.
everyone acts like they would just eat the cost or resell until they get shipped a trophy card with creases all over it. It’s a PSA 9 though, I’m sure PSA will give me the fair difference in value on a card that isn’t established in the public market!
It’s never happened to me so far and I have thousands of experienced collectors, but if you’re the type to return BGS or PSA cards then I don’t want your business.
I don’t think it has anything to do with the seller, if they’ve got pictures front and back of the graded card then they’ve done their job, it’s not on them to provide commentary on the grade. One of the reasons we have professional grading companies is so we don’t have to deal with that sort of thing, the card gets graded and it comes back a 10 then it’s a 10 - that doesn’t change because the buyer thinks it was a misgrade.
As a seller I’d be telling the buyer that’s got nothing to do with me, I didn’t grade the card and I’m not a professional grader, I have no opinion on the grade because I trust the grading company to do their job, if you have a problem with the card take it up with them.
Any business grading 100+ cards a month doesn’t realistically have the time to meticulously check for potential “mis-grades”. More specifically, the point of paying a third party company is to have an unbiased opinion. It isn’t the sellers job to mitigate the buyers feelings about a grade.
I’ve had maybe 5 customers in total return a card for this reason. The situations I can remember were buyers remorse, not an actual mis-grade.
PSA will literally pay you the difference if they’re wrong. I can’t imagine calling anything “passing the buck” more than demanding money back from a seller because you won’t PSA review a card over your own personal beef.
How does the price guarantee work in terms of shipping though? For international customers shipping out to PSA and then return cost would nullify the majority of all cards being submitted for a refund of the difference of grade.
A seller has to have SOME responsibility within reason surely if not to the effect of covering a future item not as described case. I may be talking from an international viewpoint in that if I were to sell a card that had ‘unusual’ flaws for the grade that may result in a big downgrade I would rather inform a buyer than just hide it/take the position of “not my problem now seeya!” lol. The buyer in this scenario would lose out on shipping costs in a majority of cases as it would probably cost near $100AUD/$80USD there and back if they chose to send for the financial guarantee.
Also as an aside when I say unusual flaws I mean like PSA 6/7 levels of wear that is obvious to any reasonable and knowledgeable person in the hobby and if these flaws are hidden or not made apparent to a potential buyer, not little minor flaws or the classic: “I’ve got PSA 9s with less wear than this 10!”
It’s PSA’s job to grade the card not the seller. The seller might have bought it from someone else for their own collection. Either way I can’t fathom the seller for being at fault for trusting PSA’s grade and using that grade as part of the items description.
During the Sport Card explosion in the 1980’s, there was no third party grading, and the condition was left up to the Buyer & Sellers opinion. Obviously there were disagreements on condition, thus third party grading was born from market demand.
If you bought a card in the 80’s before third party grading, and you disagreed with the condition, you are disagreeing with the seller. Today, with a PSA graded card, you are disagreeing with the 3rd party, not the seller. Therefor, there is no onus on the seller to debate the standards of a third party company. Sure, there are occasional situations which I think most people can agree on are soft, strict, wrong, etc. Regardless, the general rule of thumb should be: PSA is a third party, and does not represent the buyers or sellers opinion. Buying a card that you believe has an incorrect grade should be taken up with the company that provided the grade.
