High Value Ungraded Cards on Ebay - Fake?
lssportscards
Posts: 5 ✭
Hi,
How can you tell when a high value card on Ebay is fake? Is it safe to assume to stay away since these cards would be graded if they were real. For example, see link for 1961 Oscar Robertson.
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Comments
Definitely not all high-value cards are already graded. And the seller seems pretty reputable. I don't know this card well enough to know the fake/not fake things to look for though.
I just hate when people sell raw cards suggesting to grade it in the listing, and even worse, saying what the grade should be. Especially a stellar card like that, if the seller knows about grading, the seller knows the premium it will bring graded, why on earth would that person not grade it. If they have the brain power to list it on ebay, they can submit for grading.
I would never gamble on an ungraded card worth that much.
A ton of card shops still sell high-worth ungraded. Look at Scottsdale Baseball Cards for example. They have almost 62,000 baseball cards for sale, and only 266 are graded.
And Scottsdale's eBay username is PSAgradedcards.com !! Obviously you don't grade everything, as there is a risk/reward with regards to the fees/turnaround times and ultimate graded value versus unknown raw. But at least those listings don't tell you to buy the card and grade it. And don't give an estimated PSA grade.
I agree and for this reason stay away from sellers that do this. I figure worst case scenario...that they already sent it in and it came back with something wrong with the card (eot/oc/st/etc) or they see something with it in-hand like a crease that can't be seen in the scan. I also will look at what else they're selling and if they are selling a lot of graded cards and just a few aren't graded that probably should be, then there must be a reason why that card is not graded like the others.
I don't know. I don't have a problem with it. It's just salesmanship. Now, I would never count on the grade they tell me, and most of the time is laughably obvious how wrong they are. (I personally love the "Possible 10?!?!" when even from the thumbnail image you can see it's way off center.) As many have pointed out in other threads, if you get the card and it's altered/fake/trimmed - just send it back. Ebay will back you up.
Not necessarily fakes, maybe they just don't feel like dumping a bunch of cash to get it graded, or to wait eons for it. There are still a zillion ungraded cards out there. The higher value the card, the more fakes there are though. That would be common logic.