New Ebay rules on slabbed coins for sale

These are apparently the changes to be made so only five are considered certified:

"On September 17th our policy page regarding the sale of coins and currency
will be updated to include the following information.

When listing a certified coin, the coin must be certified by one of the
following authorized grading companies:

* Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC)
* Numismatic Conservation Services (NCS)
* Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS)
* Independent Coin Grading (ICG)
* ANACS

In addition, listings for certified coins:

* Must be assigned the appropriate grading attributes in each listing.
Sellers must select the appropriate grading attributes within the Sell
Your Item form, including "Grading Company," "Grade" and "Serial Number"
provided with that grading.

* The listing must include an image of the item, showing the coin in its
graded holder, front and back.

If the coin listed is not certified by one of the above authorized
grading companies, the coin is considered raw/uncertified and is subject
to additional requirements for their sale.

A raw or uncertified coin is defined as any coin not graded by one of
the authorized grading companies. Sellers are permitted to list these
items on eBay under the following conditions:
* A numeric grade is not included in the title of the listing, such as
MS-65, VF-25, etc. A numeric grade may only be included in the
description of the listing.
* The grading company or price guide is not referenced in the title or
description.
* A dollar value (even if personal opinion) is not included in the title
or description.

As of this time the policy is not being enforced and enforcement may not
be immediate as we work to make sure everything is working correctly.

We thank you in advance for your cooperation, and wish you luck with
your future eBay transactions."

 

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Freakin Excellent !!! Now where do I go to look for that?
Thanks !!:smile

 

Well its only taken how many years and how many people being ripped off for ebay to decide to do something to protect the uninformed!

I hope Aboncom does drown in his tears. LOL

 

I am AMAZED !!

I think eBay got tired of all our reports of all the frauds.

 

It looks like a copy of the letter I posted in the thread " New Ebay Policies". It is posted in the eBay forums - - HERE - -. Note that it is a second hand post to begin with.

 

There may be hope for the money section on (fl)Ebay yet.

 

There's a LOT of truth to that.

The internet has shifted power to the people - to post up, communicate, and deal with scams. CT is proof. EBay scams are one of the most popular topics on this site, and much pressure has been applied to Ebay as a result.

Coin collectors can be activists too !

Great news - and great work, everybody !

It will be interesting to see if the Third Tier TPGs (NTC, NNC, etc.) will file legal action.

 

Personally, I think this is going too far. I see nothing wrong with discussion of value - we do it at shows all the time. There's no reason not to talk about Greysheet values, nor is there anything wrong with mentioning that the price goes up greatly in the next grade up.

 

I think this is a reaction to the claims that "Coin worth ($) in (Grade) when, to the educated observer, is clearly not in that grade.

Hypothetical (and ridiculous) Example: "This coin sells for $1 Billion in MS-99!" but the actual grade is more like "NG-0".

I know that there's a bit of throwing the baby out with the bathwater in this case, perhaps hurting legitimate dealers, but the informed should know what a coin is worth and can bid appropriately.

It will be interesting to see if this "you can't mention a price" protocol will be rolled out to other categories. There is an occassional mention of what a collectible model railroad item got in an off-line auction, for example.

 

Don't know what legal action they could take? Other auction sites do not allow third tier TPGs either ie Teletrade, Heritage so there must be some presidence. I wouldn't worry about ebay I sure their legal dept has gone over the policy with a fine tooth comb.

 

You mean like pulling auction listings for violating rules only known to themselves? How is that legal?

 

That's an important point. I thought about that. Personally, I think they would have little chance of winning. And yes, there is a precedent.

But there is also a difference.

With Teletrade and Heritage, they are choosing not to offer certain items. That is always within their right.

E-bay, on the other hand, is choosing to allow ALL products, but discriminating in the description.

Many consider PCI a legit TPG (I can't comment on that one way or the other). But E-bay is saying PCI coins, and others, are not certified AT ALL, which really isn't true. That's very different from choosing not to offer PCI.

The actions of Teletrade and Heritage are analagous to choosing to carry certain product lines and not others.

I dunno. I'm no expert here. I'm just pondering out loud. Any other thoughts ? Any attorneys with expertise in this area ?

 

While I'm not an attorney, but what I see here is eBay not allowing certain items. To me, what they are doing is saying that in the future they will allow coins from TPGs other than the "official list", however, eBay is restricting the way in which they may be listed or described. If you are still allowed to sell it, regardless of how you are now constrained to describe it, you are still allowed to sell it, so no damage occurs.

EBay is NOT casting aspersions upon PCI, nor any other TPG, they are merely narrowing the field of who you are allowed to say certified the coin. They are simply trying to choose what experts they will allow to endorse certification of coins on their website. No more people certifying coins in their basement and gaining instant credibility through the guise of simply being on eBay.

 

It's about fricking time.

 

Having no self slabbers would be great, but it's also nice that a seller cant put up a bsgs slab in ms 65 and say that the pcgs price guide says it's worth X amount of dollars.
I also don't think it will stop the likes of sgs from selling coins, they just can't list them as to the grade. I see nothing that will stop them from putting a pic in the listing with there ms70 slabbed coins.
I do hope it slows them down though.

 

Report every one you see

 

There's another thread on this topic...
http://www.cointalk.org/showthread.php?p=277831#post277831

Over there, one guy made the point that this will likely drive down the market value of the excluded TPGs. I tend to agree. In that respect, I think damage does occur.

Further, there is a marketing / image / visibility issue here. I think this lowers the rep of PCI, which some folks like.

 

I agree that it will drive down the market value of the excluded TPG's but honestly ebay is a private company and can do whatever it wants. If ebay wants to pass a rule that says only people wearing pink underware on thurdays can sell items, then they can do it. If you don't like ebays rules, they go somewhere else.

Personally, I don't like ebays rules, they **** me off with there hit-and-miss enforcement of their rules in general, and this new rule is going to make things that much worse. I'm sure ebay has looked at this both financially and legally and they find that it is in their best intrest to do this. TPG's like SGS and other are going to find a way around this, or they will just break the rules and hope no one notices. Either way, we have not seen the end of this.

David

 

does anyone think that maybe the "approved" TPGs may have pressured eBay to make this change? The ever incresing number of slabs with letters that kind of resemble PCGS may have put a bug in PCGSs bonnet, or the "approved" TPGs might see this as a way to eliminate the lower tier TPGs once and for all.

Just some stream of conscienceness... don't blame me if it's terribly flawed upon rational thought.

 

I think PCI should have been included.