I would say from the perspective of a seller, its less about wanting to outright deal with buyers but more about wanting to minimise the chances of having to deal with lowballing buyers and/or the possibility that the sale will go nowhere having put in all the time for the buyer’s request.
At the end of the day, regardless of intentions of the buyer the bottom line is that it is the seller’s card to sell. Especially if the seller is in no rush, the luxury of time to find a “right”buyer and being able to say no is on the sellers’ side. This gets even more amplified as you move to the rarer and higher-end spectrum of cards.
I may be in the minority but I generally don’t mind very specific questions like this. They come infrequently enough that it’s not a huge time sink for me to accommodate and it shows the buyer is at least putting some effort in (vs the constant barrage of questions I get that are already answered in the listing or the generic “hey chief can I get more photos?”).
I had enough bad interactions with eBay buyers last year that I now only sell cards through consignment, or occasionally in person/through social media. Much better for my sanity, and I’ve made some friends in the hobby by doing the latter.
eBay selling just isn’t for me, but I don’t knock anyone who does it. I’m still an eBay buyer after all.
As an ebay seller I want to get through as many cards as possible quickly whilst still showing the details and enough photos to reduce the chance of returns. I like ebay because it doesn’t have the back and forth personal messages like with FB marketplace.
I generally find that those who ask for more details rarely buy and these are the type of people that I don’t want to deal with.
Usually they are from people looking to buy a raw PSA 10 condition card to grade for a profit. The worst ones are those who don’t trust the PSA grade. Most of the time it literally comes down to a tiny threshold of a white dot. As a buyer it would never cross my mind to return a card because it’s not a “tru 9 imo” because of an extra white dot
Not going to lie, after reading this, I’ve considered seeing someone about my anger. This thread is titled eBay garbage, but someone with this behavior, similar to mine around last year this time, is unacceptable. This post honest to god, made me open my eyes. I want to be a part of this community, but clearly, these type of people and their behavior is clearly not welcomed. Let alone, tolerated. I’ve seen it, and I’ve dealt it.
Sorry you went through this. Your post gave me more insight to how situations can be handled and how they should be.
All the haters but I’m with stagecoach. But usually with a card that is multiple thousands and up. If you don’t want me to request better pictures don’t upload bad photos that your iPhone tried to correct the lighting on making everything look like a defect on the card. You can buy good LED light bulbs for your house and they aren’t expensive.
There are also some specific cards where sellers very frequently take photos at specific angles with WOTC cards prone to holo scratching. The angle causes the holo to catch the light in a way that it’s basically impossible to identify if there are any scratches or not. I’ve probably had a hundred anecdotes where I had to look up a grader scan image to find things the seller was clearly hiding with their photos.
If the seller doesn’t want to provide or respond that’s also their perogative and I have no problem with that.
I don’t see anybody “hating.” I just see sellers tired of sending more photos to eBay customers when 99.9 percent of said customers either a.) never end up making a purchase or b.) cause more problems than the sale is worth.
You and stagecoach are in the minority of eBay customers. The vast majority of people who ask for more photos aren’t worth the time and effort.
buying non-modern slabs is the worse. nobody shows off the actual surface. idc what the number says. i just want to know if the foil is actually clean or not.
Exactly. I’ve had a number of cards fail authentication because the card had holo scratching that wouldn’t show up in their photos and the cert didn’t have scans. And then I ask them about it afterwards and they tell me it’s probably why. Ultimately it was because the seller is dumb and gets hyperbolic with their description.
Obviously you don’t lose money with this but it is a waste of time and depending on payment method you do still have that money tied up until it’s processed back to you.
Also even if a card does have psa scans they are often not the high res ones and they will have artifacts in the scan that basically make the entire thing looked scratched and it’s tough to even tell if they are on the card or not.
In most cases, responding is the best thing to do. Even if they’re asking dumb questions.
If you don’t want to send more pictures just tell them upfront why you don’t want to. You can have chatGPT write your response in a polite manner. Any favor that prospective buyers want me to do that I don’t want to, I just have chatGPT write a polite response.
People really appreciate communication. Responding is underrated IMO.
I mean you might be right, but that’s usually just how it goes with the sales world period. Which is why some will always just choose auctions over BIN.
@inertgeometry Agreed. On my listings, this is why I don’t simply scan the slabs. It takes more time, but I do get people specifically noting that my pics look better.
@wadeit0ut So, ebay authentication will fail a slab if it appears NOT to match the grade? That is VERY interesting…
No, this is not true. PSA will not reject a card for eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee based on the condition of the card. They are simply matching the listing with the received package (i.e., correct certification number, no evidence of tampering with the slab, etc.).
I imagine that @wadeit0ut is referring to CGC rejecting raw cards for eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee when they were listed as “near mint” but were played/damaged. CGC has the more difficult job because they have to decide on whether the seller adequately described the condition of the card. I have heard of instances where raw Alpha MTG cards were rejected from the Authenticity Guarantee through CGC due to recoloring (i.e., applying sharpie to reduce the amount of whitening on the back), undisclosed creases, etc.
PSA 5-7 and up is for me collecting only. But I like to get higher grades in case I want to resell for future purchase. Helps fund the nikhil card collecting program.
Imagine going to a card shop, asking to see a single up close and the guy at the counter says “You can already see it through the cabinet” then getting trespassed from his store.
