Tuesday, July 30, 2013

The eBay Sports Card Craziness Never Ends 7/30/13.

Firstly, let's please recap FACTS that need to be known by ALL eBay members:

1) eBay uses a Call Center in INDIA (or the Philippines) which is where ALL of your phone calls to eBay (reports of BAD sellers, fraud, total ignorance of eBay rules, or even BAD sellers reporting buyers only for spite) go initially. Then 99% of those calls are handled by this Call Center(s) in INDIA/PHILIPPINES from start to finish. These foreign employees get like $2.00 an hour (if that) to handle all the issues you have that need to be resolved. How much training do you think these foreign employees get? Little to none is the answer. They get a sheet of Frequently Asked Questions with Possible Responses which is made by an eBay employee who really couldn't care less about eBay members. So this is a lost cause right from the start. These foreign employee serve one true purpose: GET THE MEMBER OFF THE PHONE AS FAST AS POSSIBLE, BY LYING TO THE MEMBER!!! But also keep in mind that both the caller and the person they are calling to complain about BOTH get strikes against their eBay accounts because a call came into the Call Center and you were one of those people involved in the call. This is completely regardless of merit, truth, honor, or integrity of the caller or the person the caller is complaining about! BOTTOM LINE: eBay DOES NOT WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU ANYMORE, period! 

2) eBay does not care about you in any way UNLESS you are making them THOUSANDS of dollars profit (NET PROFIT) every year. They don't care if you are a buyer who spends thousands of dollars a month on eBay, nor do they care if you are a seller, selling thousands of dollars in items every month. THEY ONLY CARE IF YOU ARE MAKING EBAY SEVERAL HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS (NET PROFIT) IN FEES EACH MONTH!

Like I've said before: the only full-time sellers in the sports card area on eBay left are involved in some sort of illegal activity, or are doing something VERY morally wrong which is almost always against the licensing agreements the card companies have with the sport leagues and Player Associations. Unfortunately these agencies never properly policed this hobby or I never would have come into existence in 1997. It's even worse now as they don't care what card companies do as long as they don't get caught making the licensing agency look bad DIRECTLY. I personally am terminally ill with very little functional time left, so it's up to YOU to go after the card companies and licensing agencies explaining all the things that are wrong with the hobby. This is something I did BY MYSELF every year from 1997-2004 and caused more positive changes than any of you will ever hear about from anyone but myself. 

You've seen the seemingly "outrageous" claims I've made in these BLOGs for a couple of years now and to date I still have not been sued ONCE by ANYONE. That speaks louder than anything I can tell you I did if you have a high enough IQ.

Here's a challenge for you- write down the ID's of all eBay sports card sellers who do not specifically state ALL their Shipping & Handling rules and fees in all their listings where they can be easily seen: like sellers who state $3.00 S&H, then hit you with a $5.00 S&H fee (when you win five single cards on the same day). They are charging you .50 cents for each additional card won, but think it's OK to HIDE THIS FACT FROM YOU! WRONG!!!! THIS IS CONSIDERED TO BE HIDDEN FEES BY EBAY AND IS 100% NOT ALLOWED (and has been an UNCHANGED eBay rule since 1997 to present a/p eBay's Trust & Safety Shipping and Handling Specialist this year)!

Then add to this list all sellers that state that they do not have a MAXIMUM shipping fee, or if you ask them they state this. Also add any sellers who start with a $3.00 S&H fee and then charge .50 cents for each additional item without mentioning a MAXIMUM shipping fee. ALL OF THESE THINGS ARE AGAINST EBAY'S RULES ACCORDING TO EBAY'S SHIPPING & HANDLING SPECIALIST!!! Yet at this point more than half the sports card sellers on eBay are currently BREAKING these rules!

Now, as few of you newbies know and even some long-term members: IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO REPORT ALL MEMBERS THAT ARE BREAKING EBAY'S RULES BECAUSE EBAY DOES NOT ENFORCE THEIR OWN RULES UNLESS A MEMBER (YOU) REPORTS IT TO EBAY!

Here is eBay's Founder's Message (Pierre Omidyar from 1996) to EVERY eBay member which is still printed on eBay:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Most people are honest. And they mean well. Some people go out of their way to make things right. I've heard great stories about the honesty of people here. But some people are dishonest. Or deceptive. This is true here, in the newsgroups, in the classifieds, and right next door. It's a fact of life. But here, those people can't hide. We'll (as in eBay members) drive them away. Protect others from them.

<<<<  This grand hope depends on your active participation. >>>>  Give praise where it is due; make complaints where appropriate.

Now, we have an open forum. <<<<Use it.>>>>

 <<<<Make your complaints in the open.>>>>
.
<<<<Deal with others the way you would have them deal with you.>>>>

"Remember that you are usually dealing with individuals, just like yourself. Subject to making mistakes. Well-meaning, but wrong on occasion. That's just human. We can live with that."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If enough of you do as I ask of you, bidders will come back to eBay and buy sports cards again. The BIGGEST problem on eBay with sports cards overall is Overcharging Shipping & Handling and Fee Avoidance. That .50+ cents for each additional item won for S&H is YOU PAYING THE SELLER'S EBAY & PAYPAL FEES!!! If you haven't figured that out by now- maybe the Internet is far too advanced for you.

cacardshark on eBay used to charge a reasonable combined shipping fee, but then it seems that the elder owner passed that account off to his immature/obnoxious kid or sold the ID to a total jerk. Now cacardshark charges $1.00 for EACH additional sports card won! I reported this seller THREE times which caused me to get suspended permanently three times FIGHTING FOR US ALL. I get ganged up on by the group of the worst BIG eBay sellers (who congregate on blowjobcards.com blogs- you know which site I mean) and I immediately get kicked off eBay for NO REASON??? The reason space in the suspension e-mail from eBay is literally BLANK EACH TIME!

Two other AWFUL sellers are tntnorthnj, and zachcards04 (at least he has a $10 MAX shipping fee- but that's way too expensive too!), but both sellers have BAD (non-shipping, damaged items) feedback every month on top of breaking several eBay rules.

Other BIG sellers who charge UNLIMITED S&H fees ($3.00 + .50+ for each additional card w/NO MAXIMUM FEE) are: smpsportscards, 6_foot_pianist, tripleplaysportzcardz, plus so many others. The worst part of this is that NEW, lazy sellers copy the S&H rules from these jerks instead of reading eBay's own Rules at all!

July. 2014 UPDATE- YOU CAN FIND EBAY'S SHIPPING RULES BY TYPING: UNREASONABLE SHIPPING FEES IN THE CUSTOMER SERVICE SEARCH BOX. No other similar word to reasonable works anymore like: Overcharging, Excessive, or Expensive! eBay purposely did this to make it HARD for buyers to find rules that keep sellers honest. This is outrageous for a company to do to buyers. I cannot wait until eBay files for bankruptcy. 

Either follow the status quo & END OUR HOBBY or fight to change things yourselves- IT'S NOWHERE NEAR AS HARD AS YOU THINK AS LONG AS YOU WORK IN GROUPS! It's your choice...

 James