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sammy
06-27-2009, 01:52 PM
Reprinted from: http://www.autographalert.com/news.html (http://www.autographalert.com/news.html)

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eBay & Their Authenticators, Same Ole Crapola

We receive thousands upon thousands of hits daily on our web site; generally followed by email upon email with a wide range of content reflecting "the good, the bad, and the ugly" in the autograph hobby and industry. Nevertheless, praise and criticism aside, the underlying theme of the emails are fairly constant; something akin to "God-please-save-our-hobby-from-these-authenticating-rakes and con men!" A prime example of this is the following email received from a frustrated collector/dealer trying to deal with eBay and his ridiculous conversation with PSA/DNA's President, Joe Orlando. Joe Orlando "...couldn't tell me anything about his staff or where they get their training..." (What a surprise!)

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Unedited and intact, enjoy the read and learn from it:


Dear Autographalert,

Thank you so much for what your doing and trying to accomplish! I've been an E-bay member since 2000, and I have almost 600 positive feedback, on my personal E-bay account. On my e-bay business account I have almost 60,000 feedback, and spent 35,000 dollars with E-bay, in E-bay fees last year alone. A couple weeks ago, one of my auctions was removed, because of a third party authenticator for E-bay, who said in their opinion it may not be genuine. I e-mailed E-bay, and told them what they could do with their opinion, since I had gotten it signed in front of my face, and I went ahead and re-listed it. A couple days later when I tried to sign on to E-bay, my account was blocked and suspended. I sent another E-mail venting my anger, and begging them to go to autographalert.com. I was somewhat inappropriate, in the heat of the moment, in my e-mails, which I later apologized for, but this suspension is an absolutely pathetic joke, based on the opinion of incompetent morons, if not worse, in this un-regulated third party authenticating industry. As of 1 week later I have heard nothing from E-bays trust and safety department, what a joke, and the people I talk to on the phone, 3 different times, say they can do nothing but send an e-mail to the trust and safety department, which so far has accomplished nothing. I would think that in this economy, E-bay would be going out of there way to keep a 10 plus year customer who has spent 30,000 a year in E-bay fees for the past 5 years, happy and in the mix, but apparently not. They would rather profit somehow with being in bed with incompetent third party authenticators, which I find sad, and disturbing. In my ten years on e-bay I have never done anything unethical, which is much more than 95% of the autograph sellers on E-bay could say, yet I'm the one who is suspended indefinitely, and cant even get a response. PSA/DNA is a pathetic joke, and I talked with Joe Orlando on the phone for at least a half an hour, and although I could hardly get a word in edge wise, he wouldn't or couldn't tell me anything about his staff or where they get their training. He also said if I sent back the 4 autographs I had just gotten back from PSA/DNA, all declined as not authentic, even though two of the four I had gotten in person, he told me to send them back addressed to him, and he would see what he could do, implying he would change the opinions to authentic. I never sent them because their opinion is meaningless to me. I need a new outlet for selling authentic autographs, any suggestions? Keep up the great work, and maybe someday we will get our hobby back. I'm a 35-year collector, and its a passion that can't be explained. It's to bad that PSA/DNA, James Spence and the others, along with E-bay, are destroying the hobby.

Thanks again, Erik.

b.heagy
06-29-2009, 08:21 PM
Sammy,
Would love your opinion on some autographs I just purchased. Please email me if you would be interested in taking a look. Thanks !

suicide_squeeze
07-05-2009, 01:38 PM
Did I mention that I hate ebay?...................