Authentication

Abuelo

I do not know if you are aware of the new authentication system by eBay. You buy a coin and they send it to PCGS to authenticate. Mind you, they do not grade it or anything. This is for coins over 500 dollars. So I bought a coin recently, and it has been over a week and just arrived for authentication. The coin is PCGS graded, and of course I checked it was OK before buying. The point is if you buy a coin from eBay now it will take a substantial amount of time to receive it. I guess they were having a substantial amount of counterfeits? I do not know just yet how I feel about this as I hate delays, but possibly they are hunting for fake slabs.

pruebas

Just wait until PCGS back ups start to cause long delays. We’ll see how eBay deals with that.

My world regular gradings are over 3 months at this point.

threefifty

As far as I can tell it is a decent policy in general. For buyers it cuts down on fake slabs, for sellers, seems like it will reduce the risk of return scams with swapped or missing coins.

MasonG

There have been complaints about counterfeits on eBay for years and now that they're doing something about it, some people aren't happy.

MasonG

@Abuelo said:
The coin is PCGS graded, and of course I checked it was OK before buying.

Copying a legitimate slabbed coin image from a website somewhere and creating an eBay listing using that photo would be a trivial exercise. eBay's authentication program confirms that the item in the listing is the one that's actually sent to the buyer.

MEJ7070

Have said this over on US board but I’d like to see an “opt out” option emerge.

Buyer chooses to forgo “authentication” at their own risk.

angelo43

Interesting enough, I recieved an ebay coin that was graded in a box that was nicely done with a plastic film cover with an ebay authentic sticker on it. The sticker was destroyed when opened, but overall it was a nice packaging. I'm not buying any non certified coins on Ebay anymore unless I know the dealer. I have a stack of feke coins from Ebay over the years. BTW the coin was a variety that caused it to be very much more valuable than thought!

Abuelo

@MasonG said:
There have been complaints about counterfeits on eBay for years and now that they're doing something about it, some people aren't happy.

Contrary to the assumption, I am not unhappy for the service per se, in fact I do not know of anyone unhappy about reducing fakes. I am unhappy for the delays it takes. As of today I have been waiting 2 weeks for the coin. And this is clearly not free, while now there is no extra charge, that likely is coming as you are adding an extra charge for shipping plus the payment to our host. When the dust settles I think the fees on eBay will be higher than Heritage's. But the benefit is clear, no question.

MasonG

@Abuelo said:
Contrary to the assumption, I am not unhappy for the service per se, in fact I do not know of anyone unhappy about reducing fakes.

I didn't say you were but clearly, there are others who are unhappy about how eBay is running the program.