Card must match description for sure. I purchased a raw card on eBay a couple months ago that failed authentication. The original listing showed what appeared to be a mint card, but shortly after I paid the seller messaged me with additional photos of the card showing whitening and they even admitted through eBay messenger that it’d likely get a 7 or 8. Ebay certainly could’ve read the messages and compared listing photos to the actual item.
There was another time that I purchased an English psa card that had a Japanese label and that failed authentication lol.
Idk-I’m not a super busy high volume seller, so I don’t mind answering questions to potential buyers. It’s maybe worth more my time as a small time seller.
It would be absurd to punish your customers who went out of their way to be physically present in your store. Not only that but the store is your livelihood and your customer base is limited. Everyone that walks through your door is precious. And once you receive payment, any interaction with that customer is complete and you pray that they one day return
But ebay is not a physical store. The “cost” to a buyer to type up a one liner asking for more pictures is trivial. In my case, ebay is not even remotely my livelihood. I’m not standing around in a store waiting for customers to arrive. The customer base is virtually unlimited. For every one customer asking for pictures there are 12 that would buy without saying anything. Once you get payment, your interaction with the buyer is just commenced and there’s a 90-day period where a buyer can just screw you over on a whim. I’d much rather deal with someone who is quietly satisfied than someone who initiated the sale with a concern
Just yesterday someone asked me for more pictures. This thread got me curious, so I decided to engage. Read from bottom to top.
If he wants a truly perfect card then that’s his preference, but this tiny bit of whitening was completely visible in the scans I had up anyway.
The act of actually uploading the pictures doesn’t take long, but between getting the card out of storage, setting up an appropriate background/lighting, and putting it back it’s enough time doing tedious things that it’s irksome. Add to that the fact that 99% of the time they won’t buy it and it’s extra tedious.
As PFM mentioned as well, when they start the transaction with an issue it’s a deterrent.
I at least give this guy props for responding (even if it was just “okay…”. Usually you just get ghosted.
Edit: typo
I have zoom in pictures of the vintage cards.
The whitening on the corners and surface. Like if the Holo has scratches
There is a happy medium somewhere here.
It is somewhat hypocritical of us to say “buy the card not the grade” then not allow buyers to properly inspect the graded card when they want to purchase it. It should also not be expected of sellers to go out of their way to provide electron-microscope level pictures to buyers who are already skeptical of a graded card’s condition, especially if that card does not have final sale via authenticity guarantee. And as others have mentioned, it takes a disproportionate amount of seller effort to respond to a buyer’s picture request, which frequently results in zero return. Comparing an eBay seller to a brick-and-mortar shop with in-person customers is probably one of the most disingenuous comparisons I’ve seen made on this site, no offense–but that is standard for people who largely troll and look for reactions.
The best way to address this, in my opinion, is for sellers to provide high-quality front and back scans of each graded card they want to sell. Buy a scanner, it’s amazing. If the seller has provided high-quality front and back scans, that compared with a professional grade is as close as you’re going to get to inspecting the card in person.
I don’t fault buyers for requesting extra pictures. I don’t fault sellers for refusing to provide them. In the context of a lower-value card, I certainly understand sellers blocking buyers who start off the interaction with a request for extra pictures, assuming clear scans are already provided.
scans are overrated, they can hide dents and creases so its ok to ask for pics when only scans are shown
I could give advice: “buy cards as cheap as possible” and not be required to undercut the whole market as a seller. That doesn’t make me a hypocrite, it just means my advice is to not buy from me if you want the lowest price 
I swear, Pokemon buyers are some of the most OCD and skeptic people alive when it comes to getting extra pictures of items they are thinking about buying. From a sellers perspective, it’s never worth the hassle, as stated above for every one person asking for additional pictures over and above what is provided, there are 10+ other people ready to buy it with the already provided pictures.
I’ve recently had a Shining Tyranitar i bought fail ebay’s authenticity for not being in the stated conditon. The seller stated the edges had no issues but there was slight whitening so it failed.
Yeah I worded that weird. They aren’t checking to see if the condition matches the grade. That would essentially be like regrading the thing.
Also keep in mind I can only speculate as to why they have rejected certain cards. I’ve never bothered to ask the seller about it because at that point I don’t even want to deal with them again.
Majority of buyers don’t need additional photos. If you do, you are inherently a minority. A minority who is already in a state of doubt.
This is the politest way to spell out “picky buyer”. With that said, I still cater to E4 members or people I know. But trying to pretend sellers or the market is the problem is copium.
I don’t want to get too deep into definitions, but this doesn’t make sense. Comparing general advice on pricing to a position on whether or not a seller should provide quality pictures to buyers is not comparable. This is also why I said somewhat hypocritical.
I don’t think we have too much of a different position here. My opinion is that sellers should provide clear photos from the beginning, and have no responsibility to buyers beyond that.
This thread is the entire reason I made the decision to only collect slabs. I rarely sell but when I do it’s a nice peace of mind to know that I don’t have to go through the huge hassle of providing a million photos and still having the buyer challenge the condition and value. I went through this nonsense when I got back into the hobby in 2021 and I don’t want to deal with it again.
Not to say slabs avoid this issue entirely, but I only collect PSA 9s and 10s and those are less likely to ever be cracked for regrading or binders.
Sellers are not required to provide additional pictures. Buyers can always purchase from someone else if they are unhappy with the pictures. Simple as that.
Right. The seller does not have to provide additional pictures. So if you don’t want to, don’t. You have that right just as the buyer has the right to request additional pictures.
No one’s eBay inbox is that precious lol.
This topic is one of these eternal contradictions. The goal of the buyer and seller are almost always diametrically opposite.
My advice to a buyer is to make sure you’re satisfied with something before buying. My advice to a seller is to find the buyer with the lowest expectations possible. It’s a contradiction but not a hypocrisy.
In the end, every sale comes down to finding a compromise between the position of a buyer and seller. What each side is willing to accommodate is a personal choice
Yes, but isn’t one of the few areas where the buyer and the sellers interests converge is on making the buying process as smooth and problem-free as possible?
Buyers of course have an incentive to only buy items which they will be satisfied with. They also have an incentive to not spend lots of time on eBay messages, fighting returns, and getting disappointed if they don’t like what they order.
Sellers have an incentive to minimize problems with the people who actually do buy their items, so they don’t have to deal with unnecessary return requests, buyers remorse, return shipping fees, eBay transaction defects, etc.
Ideally sellers will find buyers with zero expectations and buyers will find sellers who will bend over backwards to accommodate their every wish. But that’s not how things will work in reality, so shouldn’t buyers and sellers compromise on certain points in order to make the buying/selling experience smoother for both people?
Providing 100 pictures of every single white dot and piece of dust is not smooth and problem-free. It’s a headache and incredibly annoying when 99% of the time, the buyer won’t actually purchase the card.