2014 UPDATES: Topps, eBay, State Of The Hobby, etc.

Let's Start With Topps

Over a month ago (mid-June) I received seven (7) of the THIRTEEN Topps Redemptions I'm owed from OVER A YEAR AGO! But the only reason that I believe I received these when I did is due to my relentless e-mails I kept sending to Topps Customer Service. I finally got my four 2013 Bowman Inception BB Corey Seager Prospect Autographs which I really wanted and nothing else I really cared whether I got or not- so I donate those.

I'm still UNPATIENTLY waiting for the only two 2013 UFC Knockout Base Card autographs I wanted for my collection (now I really don't care anymore): Alistair Overeem and Antonio Nogueira. But since Topps sends ABSOLUTE CRAP replacements, I'll have to wait for these cards. I'll never waste my time trying to call Topps on the phone again after being put on HOLD for over 30-minutes the last several times I called and NEVER DID GET A HUMAN: I had to give up instead because I couldn't hold my phone anymore (I have MD).

Aug. 4th 2014 UPDATE- I received two more of the cheapest redemptions that I was owed from Topps for over a year. There's only two left that I care about getting (2013 UFC On Card Autos: Overeem & Nogueira) and who knows if I'll ever get them.
 

 

I have to blame Topps complete downfall of their Customer Service Department on Michael Eisner. With his 100% Corporate background, he thought he could run a sports card company with a Corporate Asshole mentality: THAT'S NOT WORKING and if he bothered to test the waters and see if it would, he would have seen that being a Corporate Asshole Company DOESN'T FIT in this or any hobby like this!!!

 

Topps has a Facebook July 21, 2014 Redemption Update here:

 

 http://toppscards.tumblr.com/post/92423494973/topps-redemption-update-july-21st-2014

 

But it's the first time I've ever seen it (as I don't live on Twitter, or Facebook, or ANY "Social Networks" because you literally have to live on those sites to keep up with everything these days- STUPID!!!), and it only shows one month's worth of updates: July 2014. NOT ONE of the redemptions I'm waiting for from Topps was on their FOUR lists, so what good did these updates do for me? NONE!

So I scrolled down Topps' Twitter page (all the way back to Jan. 2014) for the Facebook Update links and found only FOUR previous Redemption Updates covering only July 2014 so obviously this is a new Topps thing (that should have been done ALL ALONG!!!).

So why aren't all the TOPPS REDEMPTION UPDATES on the same page so we can check old updates if we missed any??? Oh why do I bother? I can teach anyone other than stupid & Topps is STUPID!

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Now On To eBay...

With all the Topps On Card Baseball Autograph releases in July (Ginter, Gypsy Queen, Tier One, Bowman Inception, plus others), I had to buy several to add to my next (and likely last) card donation in December 2014 to Beth Israel/Mount Sinai Pediatric Surgery Unit whom I've periodically been bringing smaller donations to every three months since the start of 2014.  I bought a whole bunch of Bowman Inception autographs since many Prospects this year are NY Yankees and Mets. I paid an average of $3.00 per autograph (with S&H calculated in). Those make great NY hospital donations!

 

As always, I went after sellers who drastically overcharged for shipping. eBay almost got me believing that they had finally woken up to realize that THEY HAVE RULES that THEY WROTE REGARDING OVERCHARGINBG SHIPPING & HANDLING FEES! The first two sellers I called eBay to complain about overcharged me for shipping fees both stated in their listings "WE COMBINE SHIPPING", but all it said in ANY of their listings was $3.00 Standard Shipping & Handling. There was no mention of any extra fee for additional cards won. According to eBay's rules (that stand NOW) those sellers were only allowed to charge $3.00 Shipping NO MATTER HOW MANY ITEMS I WON on the same day! One seller charged .50 cents for each additional item and the other charged $1.00 for each additional item won. Both sellers had over 2,000 PERFECT seller feedbacks!!! I first tried by being polite explaining that they cannot charge more than $3.00 shipping the way they have their listings set-up and worded. Then the sellers got nasty: BOTH OF THEM! VERY, VERY NASTY- LIKE I DID SOMETHING WRONG??? This is the attitude of most regular eBay sports card sellers. They got this way because cards are not selling for what they used to, so these morons are taking it out on their buyers. ALMOST NOTHING MAKES LESS SENSE!

 

So I called eBay expecting that I'd have to go through their Call Center IDIOT and explain everything just to be transferred to a REAL eBay Specialist and I'd have to explain everything AGAIN! Well, they shocked me! An actual eBay Specialist was the first person who answered the phone! ARE THE CALL CENTER MORONS GONE? Who knows yet, I don't??? Well I just explained the minimum and the eBay Specialist (male) started finishing my sentences saying "the seller cannot charge above the highest shipping fee listed if they say: we combine shipping". So the first eBay Specialist forcibly refunded the $3.00 overcharge I paid from the seller's account. YEAH! Justice was served!

When I called the second time THE SAME THING HAPPENED! I got an eBay Specialist from the start once again, and again he knew EXACTLY what I was talking about agreeing 100% that the seller broke a few eBay rules. I got a $4.00 forced refund on that one.
UPDATE- I should have known that wouldn't last. The third person I called (female with a very foreign accent) told me "then the seller can charge $3.00 shipping for EACH ITEM!" WHICH IS TOTALLY WRONG AND AGAINST EBAY'S WRITTEN RULES. It seems that perhaps there's a Call Center for overflow calls when eBay Customer Service gets busy!

 

Next I searched eBay's Customer Service pages to see if they added new rules for shipping for sellers AND THEY DID! You see back in 2010-11 eBay removed all of the correctly worded eBay Rules and replaced them with HARD TO FIND pages that could be interpreted five different ways by five different people. So the next few times I got any seller who broke the new rules, I sent them a link to eBay's Rules page for charging CORRECT Shipping & Handling! It's not that easy to find, so let me tell you how: the only words you can use in the CS search box that work are "UNREASONABLE SHIPPING FEES" which will take you to the SELLER OVERVIEW page. Then look for Shipping & Handling Fees and you will find the list of what sellers can charge for - and what they CANNOT charge for in shipping fees!!! THIS WILL HELP EVERY BUYER WHO IS SICK OF SELLERS MAKING NICE PROFITS FROM THEIR OVERINFLATED SHIPPING FEES! Sellers who use the excuse that they have to spend money on gas & their time to go to the Post Office- NOT ALLOWED TO BE ADDED INTO THE SHIPPING FEES! Sellers who use the excuse that they have to pay for bubble envelopes, top-loaders, penny sleeves, team bags. You tell them this: quality bubble envelopes can be bought RIGHT ON EBAY in lots of (25) or more for .25 cents each (with S&H calculated in), top-loaders are less than .10 cents each, and if you are so cheap that you have to charge me for a penny sleeve and a penny team bag then maybe you should choose another hobby! That's what I tell them & if you want eBay to ever improve THAT'S WHAT YOU NEED TO TELL THEM!

 

There are still STUPID eBay sellers that mail from the Post Office window (which happens to be TWICE as expensive as a much easier way), many of these sellers also buy the $1.29 padded envelopes that the Post Office sells! Both eBay employees that I spoke to told me that it is the seller's RESPONSIBILITY to find the cheapest way possible (as long as it is as safe as other methods) to ship your items won & then charge shipping fees accordingly. This is what I've been saying since eBay sellers shipping fees started getting out of hand by 2005-06 (ironically when the bottom fell out on MANY card prices).

eBay sellers MUST use eBay's PRINT SHIPPING LABEL service which is free and costs almost half of what they charge for postage at the Post Office window! For example a 3-ounce bubble envelope costs $1.93 postage using eBay's PRINT SHIPPING LABEL service, it's $3.37 (or so) from the Post Office. Both ways give you the Post Office's FREE tracking service! If you are too cheap to buy a $40 BRAND NEW printer then you shouldn't be selling on eBay. You set the printing quality to DRAFT and that free black ink cartridge that comes with your $40 printer will print over (500) pages!!! You print your eBay shipping label on plain paper, and then tape it to the bubble envelope.

PLUS: If you send just one item by Priority Mail, the Post Office will pick up all the packages (1st Class Mail/Parcel Post too) AT THE LOCATION OF YOUR CHOICE: home or work or wherever FOR FREE the next day!!! In other words- don't be such a cheapskate and spend an extra $2.05 to ship an expensive card you sold and then you don't even have to leave your house to mail ALL your outgoing eBay items for a few day period! Also you can order all Priority Mail: boxes, tape, bubble envelopes (which you can use as padding INSIDE boxes) to be shipped to your location FOR FREE as well.

 

Now why is it that I have to teach every eBay seller how to do these things is beyond my comprehension. THAT'S EBAY'S JOB!!! But hell, I'm in a decent mood so you got more info here to save you more money and in turn you can charge your buyers MUCH CHEAPER shipping fees. Like start with $3.00 S&H and say "NO ADDITIONAL FEES FOR COMBINED SHIPPING ON EXTRA ITEMS WON IN 24-HOURS" or 48-HOURS, or whatever you wish... As long as you sell many items each week, and sell a good selection of items (especially ON CARD CERTIFIED AUTOGRAPH INSERTS) - after a few months you'll find that you will be getting so many more repeat buyers, many more multiple bids by the same bidders, and much more money for the exact same cards that cheapskate ASSHOLE sellers are selling. After the majority of sports card sellers switch over to my method, watch and see how many more buyers return to eBay which makes EVERYONE benefit!!!

 

My method has been used by me from 1997-2011 and I NEVER CHANGED MY METHODS no matter what happened to the economy, or the Post Office fees, or eBay's fees, or PayPal's fees. PUNISHING YOUR BUYERS BECAUSE THOSE ASSHOLES DON'T KNOW HOW TO BE HAPPY WITH WHAT THEY HAVE IS ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!

 

One last thing. BAD SELLERS ban together on blowoutcards.com message boards (where they won't even let me post for NO REASON & I e-mailed the owner with NO REPLY: PUSSY!) to get eBay to suspend honorable eBay buyers who try to get sellers to follow eBay's rules. Well it's time for eBay BUYERS to get even and ban together against the worst eBay sports card sellers like TNTNORTHNJ who averages (40) negative/neutral feedbacks EVERY MONTH!!! I don't care how many items he sells each month, his bad feedbacks are all for the same few reasons- THEY ARE CROOKS!!!  

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KEEP BUYING THE SINGLE CARDS (or lots of cards) YOU WANT & STOP BUYING NEW BOXES OF CARDS SOON AFTER THEY ARE RELEASED! HOW MANY BOXES DO YOU OPEN WHERE YOU GET 2-3 CARDS THAT GET YOU CLOSE TO BREAKING EVEN ON THE BOX PRICE IF YOU WERE TO SELL THOSE 2-3 CARDS? MAYBE 1 or 2 in 10 BOXES??? STOP WASTING YOUR MONEY, ALL IT'S DOING IS EMPOWERING THE GREEDY CARD COMPANIES TO CONTINUE TREATING US ALL LIKE CRAP!

The corporate executives have monthly meeting where someone will bring up the issue regarding all of the complaints they are getting from collectors. Then the big shot executive asks: where are our sales figures for that period? Then someone says "about the same". And the big shot executive replies "then the hell with those complaining collectors!". DON'T THINK FOR A SECOND THAT THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN!  Don't forget that I was once a Senior Manager at a BIG Card Company in on those monthly meetings!

From 1992-2008 I was able to buy boxes and sell the best 2-3 cards per box and break even with 8 out of 10 boxes. Then there were boxes that I doubled or tripled my box price on with a great hit. That made up for the bad 2 out of 10 boxes I'd bust, but those days have been gone since 2008 for me. This is how I donated 30,000+ cards to hospitalized children every year from 1992-2008. The few years before & after those years that I donated I either took a personal loss gladly, or had help from those who couldn't care less whether they had the boxes they sent me to help or not.

 

PLEASE! DO THE RIGHT THINGS, OR GET OUT OF THIS HOBBY! Otherwise this hobby will be gone in a few years.

 

Topps Lives- or does it?

11/1/15 UPDATE- TOPPS IS FINISHED! They've been looking for a buyer for over a year with no interest at all. This is why they've been treating all their customers so HORRIBLY over the last two years or more. The people running Customer Service (Minerva and Sabrina) are both hobby know-nothings, plus they don't even know anything about sports in general. So how could they possibly send collectors replacement cards they will like. IT'S NOT POSSIBLE!!!

I actually tweeted Topps and they responded telling me to call Topps Customer Service. This shows how little Topps employees who do know the hobby- know what's going in in the rest of the company: ABSOLUTE CHAOS! Most collectors and dealers have known for a while now that Topps Executives all BLOCKED themselves from phone calls and e-mails from outside of Topps. SO THEY HAVE NO CLUE HOW COLLECTORS AND DEALERS ARE GETTING SCREWED ACROSS THE COUNTRY EVERY DAY FOR YEARS NOW!
Topps still owes me a $100 redemption replacements that Minerva said she sent, when what she actually sent was a $15sticker autograph from a PREVIOUS SCREW-UP SHE MADE! Plus they owe me two 2013 UFC Superstar ON CARD Autographs. On their worthless redemption UPDATE site they stated: Topps is working very hard getting owed UFC autographs which was listed in March 2014- SO WHERE ARE MY AUTOGRAPHS??? 
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It took me almost 3-months (1/31-3/25/14) to get any kind of response from Topps & IT WAS A PRE-PRINTED Letter showing their Customer Service address as Duryea, PA which I've been told by many sources (especially Topps) that they CLOSED that location!!!

This is regarding the AWFUL 2013 Topps Platinum Eddie Lacy/ Gio Bernard DUAL AUTO/PATCH card #11/25 I personally pulled from a box. The Bernard Autograph look almost NOTHING like his autograph and the Lacy autograph is POOR at best signed lazily with a dry pen. This is the card:

I first tried calling & got "Mike" after being ON HOLD forever (20+ minutes). He told me to send him scans of the card to compare to their scans which I did & HE NEVER REPLIED BACK AGAIN!!! Useless SOB.
Then I tried e-mailing Anyone at support@topps.com, same result: NO RESPONSE at all.
Next I tried their online Customer Support system. I first posted my issue there on 2/20/14 & got the standard pre-print reply with Incident #140220-000​0XX:

"Thank you for contacting The Topps Company. We have received your request, and will happily respond as soon as we possibly can. We look forward to speaking with you, and hope to resolve your issue to your utmost satisfaction. Sincerely, Customer Service Team

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Then I followed-up (as they requested) several times (every couple of weeks or so until present). Then I FINALLY get my very first response today 3/25/14. This is the exact response:

"Recently you requested personal assistance from our on-line support center. Below is a summary of your request and our response. Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.

If this issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may reopen it within the next 7 days.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.

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LOOK FAMILIAR???

It is nearly the exact same PRE-PRINTED response that I started with on 2/20/14!!! Plus they give the Duryea, PA address which several reliable sources including Topps SUPERVISORS (who no longer work for Topps) told me that Topps' Duryea, PA location NO LONGER EXISTS at least not to help collectors in any way!!!

 

 

Do you think I'm going to send a $120.00 card to an address that may no longer exists? ABSOLUTELY NOT, and it goes to show just how little Topps cares about it's customers.

June, 2014 UPDATE: I GAVE THIS $120.00 CARD AWAY FOR A CHARITABLE CAUSE. The person who I sent it to should have a connection at Topps to get a much better replacement and not have to fear never seeing the card again which is my fear, so at least I helped someone else. I'm happy with that.

 

I waited 3-months for a reply about an UNQUESTIONABLY DAMAGED TOPPS CARD & the response was initiated by a human, but was a pre-typed generic response & that's the best they could do after angering a 25+ year Topps collector.

I DEFENDED Topps while I exposed direct fraud that EVERY other card company committed from 2002 on back. It was actually quite easy to find fraud that every other card company did. But I could never ONCE find proof that Topps ever purposely did anything that directly hurt collectors. And the mistakes they did make were always acknowledged and fixed eventually.

After the economy collapsed in 2009, it seems Topps joined every other card company and committed any fraud they thought they could get away with.

 

I DON'T TRUST ANY CARD COMPANY TO DO THE RIGHT THING EVERY TIME AT ALL ANYMORE! And it's been many years that I've felt this way. All collectors need to feel this way or I promise you will get screwed at some point.

ALWAYS GET THE NAME OF THE CARD COMPANY PERSON YOU SPEAK TO BECAUSE IF YOU HAVE TO CALL BACK AND SPEAK TO ANOTHER EMPLOYEE, THEY WILL ASK WHO GAVE YOU WHATEVER INFO LAST TIME.

 

The only thing worth collecting: ON CARD Certified Autograph Inserts are WAY TOO EXPENSIVE now since it seems everyone caught on to what I've been saying OVER & OVER AGAIN since 1999.
Those who listened to me early on (and I know several who did) now have very respectable collections that cannot be replaced unless they are willing to spend 2-3 TIMES+ what they originally paid for their cards! I was telling people to buy up as many 1991-92 Nabisco, Big League Chew, or Jimmy Dean Autographs as they could afford (with the separate COA card) which were $2-$4 each for all the living players from 2004-2011 or so. I personally bought over (100) of them and I never paid more than $3 and change each for: Ernie Banks, Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Phil Neikro, Jim Palmer, etc. I even bought several Willie Stargell & Catfish Hunter autographs for $5-$6 each at that time after they passed away! I gave most of them away as gifts to hospital employees (several to very special employees) who did their job the RIGHT WAY all the time, I am disabled so I feel it's my responsibility to let these employees know that they are appreciated so they continue doing their jobs right. A "THANK YOU" is nice, but a thank you with a cool gift is better.
Now these cards ALL sell for $10-$25 each. The Ernie Banks gets $20-$25 regularly. I had over (20) of his Nabisco autographs because he was the best living player available left and I bought every one I found. Now I just have one full set of each of the Nabisco sets and have as many different Jimmy Dean and Big League Chew Certified Autographs I found real cheap. I love my Don Drysdale from 1991 Nabisco as he died before they started sending the autographs out. Nabisco initially got 1,000 cards of each player signed, then based on the number of orders they received they had the option to get up to 5,000 cards maximum signed. So there were only 1,000 Nabisco Drysdale autographs made & that's his ONLY Certified Autograph card. On 99% of his cards he signed up his leg so it could be more easily seen (mostly dark background), but mine was signed straight across the card but where the background wasn't too dark. I consider things like this to be variations. This is why Beckett NEEDS to make a yearly CERTIFIED AUTOGRAPH ONLY Price Guide or ATLAS. But they never will as I've been telling them to do this since at least 2001!

 

NOW IS THE TIME TO WAIT TO BUY CERTIFIED ON CARD AUTOGRAPHS OF STARS/SUPERSTARS. Once the rest of the hobby continues to collapse and all the greedy, scum get out of our hobby for good, then we REAL collectors can start to buy ON CARD Certified Autograph Inserts (for the quality of the autograph, NEVER for the serial numbering or "rarity") for far less than Beckett Media "LOW" prices again.  I wish Beckett would stop using that LOW/HIGH column in their price guides. They themselves changed the reasons they do that and what each column means at least three times and no one really uses one column or the other.

 

Think you know about a big name card company that released forgery versions of ON CARD Certified Autograph Insert (more than 5% of the print run)?

The average non-numbered Certified Autograph in large print run products is 2,000 autographs per player, so there would have to be at least (100) known forgery versions for it to count. Anything else could be an honest mistake where the card company accidentally put blank non-autograph Certified Autos in packs and someone else forged the card(s) when they were pulled from boxes. 

PLEASE send me the name of the player, the card company and set name & year it was made. A scan/digital picture of the card would be great too! Remember it must be a card company obtained & released autograph. If you've only seen one or only heard of one existing, then you cannot blame the card company for anything but releasing a auto card missing the auto. Then some collector signed his version of the auto to sell or trade at some point: I'm not interested in those.
 

I know about the 1994 Press Pass VIP auto common driver (a mostly yellow card) who had half his autographs signed by someone else, I know about the 1994 Errict Rhett Signature Rookies forgery version, and the 1997 UD Legends Donnie Shell forgeries (2/3rd's of the 3,000 he signed are forgeries) plus the other 97 UD Legends FB forgeries of superstars who supposedly gave away blank versions to friends & family members. Then when prices skyrocketed on those cards, suddenly forgery versions popped up.

 

                                                                FORGERY VERSION

                                                            REAL AUTO VERSION

 

 

Thank you & BE CAREFUL! So many sellers lie on a regular basis now (especially on eBay with HIDDEN SUPER HIGH COMBINED SHIPPING FEES) to squeeze what little they still can from OUR hobby.  Once the money is gone, those sellers will be gone too. I'll still be here as long as I can still type & breathe...

 

James

cardcop04@gmail.com

Hobby Fraud/eBay Lies/Fighting Back!: How Sports Card/Autograph Crooks Return on eBay

March 2014 UPDATE:

3/11/14



Well it's pretty much official: once again most things I predicted or knew before almost anyone else came to pass on eBay. Yes, I'm patting myself on the back- practically NO ONE else does...



eBay changed more stupid rules with more stupid/more confusing crazier rules in one shot from Feb-Mar 2014 than EVER in the history of eBay! This is because as I predicted, their lack of empathy for any of their members (mainly buyers) since 2009 caused them to bankrupted themselves! You can no longer see who bought what from any particular seller (the ID is scrambled randomly), so members can NEVER AGAIN bust a seller for shill bidding. Plus so many page formats were changed needlessly which just confuses everyone. Ever confuse a dumb person? Well, more eBay members are dumb that not = CHAOS!



I also stated in 2011 that I found out that eBay wanted to be a better Amazon. I knew that would never happen. So eBay pushed & pushed sellers to the point where 75% of all items on eBay became BUY IT NOW instead of auctions- that was 2012. Now that ratio is 90% BUY IT NOW/10% Auction and many auction prices START way above what anyone in their right mind would pay.  I only check Sports Cards & Memorabilia on eBay, but I'm pretty sure every other category had a similar change.

Sadly there are many more people NOT in their right minds than most of us care to admit or want to know. This was caused by: society in general, overpopulation, corrupt financial institutions, a corrupt government (that we lost ANY control over many decades ago) and more liars in the USA than not is what caused this mostly from the 1970's-present. 

If I can knock others, then I should turn that on myself. I'm the first to admit that I have General Anxiety Disorder & get occasional Panic Attacks, but I'm in my "right mind" ALWAYS. I think anyone with a 126 IQ who used EVERY ONE of those points to learn as much as I possibly could about anything that interested me and then shared that info to help others for free (only) would develop an anxiety disorder after dealing with knuckleheads for decades. I was the first kid in my WHOLE family (mother & father's side) to get some college education. Being stuck with a Sociopath mother as my only parent from age 2-18 (I left home literally the DAY I turned 18 on 1/7/85) made it all the more awful. I've been autodidactic my whole life (self educated), but I learn well from others as long as it's a subject I'm interested in. For instance, I passed three Regent's exams in Science in Junior High (Earth Science, Biology) and High School (Chemistry). I HATED CHEMISTRY because of a teacher who taught it HIS way! Once we got passed the Periotic Table, and basic chemistry which I loved, my NERD teacher decided to teach Chemistry with Advanced Algebra WHICH I ALSO HATED. At age 47 now, I can honestly say that I NEVER ONCE used one formula from the Advanced Algebra class (forced to take in High School as well) in my whole adult life- just as I told my teacher!
Advanced Algebra in Grade 10 caused me to start cutting classes to go to the computer lab in 1983 and teach myself how to program in basic. After a couple of months the computer teacher had me teaching his classes as a substitute when he had to take a day off. So I never got in trouble for cutting class and passed a few classes I NEVER WENT TO!!!  
By Grade 11 I wanted to kill my mother for so screwing up my head by basically using me as her slave. I cooked our dinner EVERY night and cleaned the house (I did HER chores). At age 17 I had to be home by 10PM on WEEKENDS (8PM on school days)!  Just a few years ago I asked my mother "what did you teach me to prepare me for everyday life on my own". Her answer" I taught you how to cook and clean." AND THAT'S IT! But in fact she didn't even teach me those things, I figured it out by myself. My mother wanted a daughter BADLY, so in her sick mind she raised me as much as one as she could. I blame my father for having a child with that nut-job to this day & he knows it. I never really saw him until I was 15-years old or so. He was no help at all. As a good older female friend once told me- "lucky you didn't wind up gay.". So I had to spend a good three years after leaving home teaching myself how to live in society as a man. At age 20 while living with my grandparents who I helped take care of- I was very lucky to be hired by Medtronic (a Fortune 500 company) as a Pacemaker Test Technician and Advanced EKG Interpretation/Education eventually became my 16-year career. I was the very first non-college graduate hired to be a Pacemaker Tech. by Medtronic. Ironically, the guy who took a chance of me (Bill) in 1987 became my best friend (Craig) from childhood's father-in-law as Craig married his daughter which I didn't find out until many years later.
I'm lucky I got to live the life that I did even though it was shortened by a terminal illness (severe Myasthenia Gravis).  So I have absolutely no regrets.

HOW BUY IT NOW KILLED eBay SPORTS CARD SALES!

 

Since it costs sellers nothing to just post an item, 75% of BUY IT NOW sellers put prices on their items that are so high (with no MAKE AN OFFER either???) that not even the biggest rich moron would pay those prices under most circumstances (99.99% of the time). What these Sociopathic/IGNORANT sellers never think about is the effect their actions have on the general public in our hobby: they are making novice collectors believe their cards are worth WAY MORE than they truly are. Then when they go and buy many more similar cards for say 25% less than BUY IT NOW prices elsewhere (thinking they are worth so much more than they truly are). Then they eventually learn THE TRUTH and QUIT this hobby! Do you realize this happened to many THOUSANDS of collectors in our hobby thanks to eBay sellers? UNFORTUNATELY, THE MAJORITY OF ALL COLLECTORS ARE NOVICES! Here's the PROOF:

 

Back in 1999-00 the Senior Editor of Tuff Stuff (Rocky Landsverk) who is also a collector took my advice and went on eBay to help get more accurate pricing information for his Price Guide that HE was in charge of. I explained that there are more accurate SOLD sale prices on eBay than he could ever get from just store owners who LIE to get the prices listed higher so they could make more money. At the time, there were literally hundreds of eBay ENDED AUCTION prices for nearly any popular card you could think of. Compared to today on eBay, there were well over TEN TIMES the number of sports cards selling on a daily basis & they sold for HIGH prices. I LOVED THAT EBAY! But thanks to all the BAD changes eBay made & the greed of the Hobby Elite, they are a shadow of the site they used to be & so is this hobby. And back then there was no MAKE AN OFFER OR BUY IT NOW on eBay. So these were TRUE sale prices that couldn't be fudged. So Rocky in his infinite wisdom took the STARTING BID PRICES and thought that was what cards were selling for and printed that info in Tuff Stuff for one issue??? CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW STUPID YOU'D HAVE TO BE TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT. Rocky had my help yet he NEVER mentioned anything that even hinted to me that he had NO IDEA how eBay worked! How can a Senior Editor at a Price Guide have no idea how eBay worked in eBay's PRIME in sports cards? Well that's exactly what happened and I tore Rocky a new back hole. He never spoke to me again and I'm glad. I don't talk to people that are THAT stupid and/or ignorant.

 

I don't know how eBay hung on as long as they did, but they'll be gone in a year OR they'll totally re-tool the entire site (AGAIN) and maybe it will work/maybe it won't. All in all I think all card & autograph collectors would be MUCH BETTER OFF if eBay went bye-bye FOREVER!!!  So those relying on eBay sales better start to ePray (if religious) because you'll need to find a "REAL" job soon!

 

Now eBay sellers almost never state how much they charge per extra single card won because eBay REMOVED that rule and reworded something that was supposed to replace that rule but to anyone with half a brain: the interpretation can be taken TEN different ways. Obviously lawyers wrote these new rules! It used to be a listed RULE on eBay that sellers: "MUST LIST HOW MUCH EXTRA ITEMS WON COST FOR SHIPPING & HANDLING OR IT IS CONSIDERED HIDDEN FEES WHICH IS AGAINST EBAY RULES AND CAN RESULT IN SUSPENSION.". I spoke with several actual eBay employee Specialists in 2010 when I was still cardcop05 and they ALL told me same thing once they realized the weight of a card in a top-loader: it is against our Overcharging S&H rule to charge more than .25 cents for each additional card won AND no card seller can charge more than $5.00 as a maximum fee if the entire purchase fits in a flat rate small Priority Mail box where boxes are free and so is home pick-up. Then there's all the stupid eBay sellers who still go to the Post Office to get postage put on their packages. They don't know that the PO has been charging TWICE ($3.07 for a 2-ounce package) what eBay's PRINT SHIPPING LABEL service charges ($1.69 for a 3-ounce package). eBay's Specialist told me this regarding that in 2010: "it's the seller's responsibility to find the cheapest/safe way to ship and it is an iron-clad rule that sellers can never charge for trips to the Post Office, gas, their time, or more than .25 cents for bubble envelopes because they are easily bought right on eBay for that price for almost any size with S&H calculated in". I found out that this particular Shipping & Handling Specialist worked for eBay for over TEN YEARS and was fired in 2011 because she (LIKE ME) refused to follow the new STUPID & CONFUSING RULES that never needed to be changed!!! My cardcop05 ID with a PERFECT Buyer & Seller Rating was suspended for life. Their reason "we wish to part ways with you.". Then chicken-spit sellers like tntnorthnj who I went after for severely overcharging S&H fees or had high hidden fees started leaving bad lying follow-up feedback only AFTER I was suspended so I couldn't leave responses to their feedback.

I got a free copy of the April issue of Beckett Football (because I don't pay for issues more than twice a year- if that). Seems like they changed a lot of prices WITHOUT using arrows again. So collectors have to do extensive research to see what changed which is the one of the STUPIDEST THINGS I EVER HEARD OF! How is it that 2010-2012 Absolute RPM RC ON CARD Autographs #'ed to 25 are only worth 1.5 times the version numbered to 299 or less? There are only TWO versions of these cards, so the one #'ed to 25 SHOULD BE at least 2.5 times the base card. Yet UD SP Authentic RC Patch(which aren't REAL patches)/Autographs WITH NO LICENSING FROM THOSE YEARS (IN THEIR COLLEGE UNIFORMS ONLY) are 3X (THREE TIMES) for the cards #'ed to an avg. of 25 while the base RC/Autos are #'ed from 299-699??? THAT MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL BECKETT!

But then again Beckett's Senior Editor (Chris Olds) is a fat, lazy, boring, turd because no one better wanted to work for Beckett Media apparently. I tried e-mailing this lazy jerk TEN times since 2010 and he never responded. So I sent him a "LAST CHANCE" e-mail and he told me "I never received an e-mail from you" (HE'S SUCH A BAD LIAR- I keep copies of everything and he received EVERYTHING I EVER SENT HIM!) & he said I should be nicer. Of course I'd be nicer if I GOT PAID like he does yet I do much more than he's ever done FOR FREE so I'll be as angry as I feel- like I told him. He never replied again- that big fat useless chicken. And Susan L. another Beckett Editor who's stories could be seen in all sports issues of Beckett QUIT in JAN. 2014.  So their only writers are people I NEVER heard of (OR NO ONE EVER HEARD OF) so why buy Beckett EVER??? Plus they stopped printing "READER'S WRITE" which was the only Beckett section where you might actually get some real hobby truth. This was cut from Beckett months ago from what I learned. 

Remember- I told everyone who would listen since 1999 to only collect ON CARD Certified Autograph Inserts from trusted card companies (with the Authenticity printed ON THE CARD) of current established semi-star players or better, or retired semi-stars or better and collect them for the quality of the autograph, NEVER for the low serial number. I suggested always paying LESS than Beckett's low price. If you did that you now have a collection to be proud of that would cost you much more to replace now.
 

James

 

Can This Hobby Get Much Worse & What Will It Take for Card Companies to WAKE UP?

Sorry I've been unable to update for so long. My health just keeps getting worse. My healthy mind is trapped in a badly damaged body & this is beyond frustrating. You don't know how badly I wish I had the strength to do this daily and fight card companies/price guides directly. Because I know if the Executives got the TRUTH about what's truly going on in the hobby, they would make changes. They did it in the early 2000's when I caught Pacific and Playoff red-handed for committing fraud and it lasted until 2005 or so. When they all realized I was pretty much out of the picture they slowly but surely started up the FRAUD I stopped them from committing like selling left-over redemptions OUT THE BACK DOOR to their biggest direct buy dealers and withholding up to 25% of the most ex0pensive inserts from going into packs. Those are just two of dozens of terrible things that now ALL card companies have done at one time or another from 200-present INCLUDING TOPPS!

The Executives have always been shielded from the truth in this hobby. Now that many of the executives are new in this hobby, THEY HAVE NO CLUE WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON IN THEIR OWN COMPANIES & since most of their e-mails are BLOCKED from the public we can't even tell them. I am absolutely certain that I know more about what goes on behind closed doors in any card company than their CEO's/Presidents- even though I haven't worked for a card company since late 2001 because some things change, BUT MOST DO NOT in this hobby. This especially goes for Topps that is run by Corporate Assholes who NEVER knew anything much about this hobby. I just proved that several months ago fighting for redemption replacements that were up to A YEAR OLD! Out of over (31) redemption autographs I was owed- that are now ALL past their 15-week replacement time, I only received THREE of the actual cards I was owed in the last 18-months.

In the December 2013 Issue of Beckett Football the front top cover states "TOPPS TALKS REDEMPTIONS". So of course I wasted my money and bought the first Beckett issue I bought in MANY months (because Beckett is so USELESS). So what did Topps say about redemptions, or what did Beckett ASK about redemptions that had anything to do with the MAJOR PROBLEMS I mentioned above? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!  Nothing was mentioned about the tens of thousands (or HUNDREDS of thousands???) of redemption autographs owed to collectors that are over a YEAR old! Nothing was mentioned about all the LIES their Customer Service employees have been telling collectors since at least January, 2013 (that I personally have documented).

Topps used to ALWAYS send collectors an e-mail when their redemption was owed for 15-weeks. It was called the "LATE NOTIFY E-MAIL". They stopped doing this in late Jan. 2013, but never said why. It turns out their was a major scandal with employees STEALING LIKE CRAZY from their Duryea, PA offices. To anyone who receives a redemption or replacement- look at the return address: it's from Old Forge, PA. Apparently Topps tried to FIX the problems in Duryea, PA which took ALMOST A YEAR. When that failed, they just fired everyone and moved their PA offices to another town!!! Meanwhile Topps told NO ONE what was going on (ESPECIALLY BECKETT, the ONLY PRICE GUIDE LEFT) and many redemption holders are still waiting for their cards to this day!

THAT IS 100% BS AND YOU ALL NEED TO FIGHT TOPPS BEFORE THEY GO BANKRUPT & YOU GET NOTHING!

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How many of you are still owed 2012 Allen & Ginter Relic Redemption cards which are well over a year OVERDUE now?

I made what I thought was going to be a MASTER SET of these for a terminally ill little girl who I've been buying more cards for than I've bought for myself in the last 5-years. I was owed ALL of the redemption relic cards I needed to complete this set. I was also owed several 2012 Ginter Autograph redemptions. One I was especially looking forward to getting was the Guy Bluford (1st African-American NASA Astronaut) Autograph. I never got that autograph, AND NEVER WILL! Then Topps started sending me ABSOLUTE JUNK replacements that I DID NOT ASK FOR! They were sending RANDOM COMMON PLAYER AUTOGRAPHS IN REFRACTOR FORM FOR $15 LISTED STARS YOU WERE OWED! In the past it used to be Topps' policy that they will not send replacements until you ask for them. I had waited over two years for redemptions from Topps before because I needed that particular ON CARD autograph for my collection. But now Topps isn't even giving collectors a choice anymore!
<<<<<I started this on another post>>>>> I even got a Topps Executive involved and his assistant Claudia. Then they sent me about HALF of what they told me they were sending on the phone and they send me sticker autographs as replacements for ON CARD redemptions I was owed even though I told them I HATE AN Y STICKER AUTOGRAPHS. It's possible that these two were so DUMB that they couldn't tell the difference between an ON CARD autograph & a sticker!!! These are CORPORATE ASSHOLES who do not know the first thing about our hobby. Boxes they sent me were missing inserts: so these were either dealer returns, or end of print run boxes that they eventually sell very cheap to BIG dealers like Dave & Adam's Card World. End of print run boxes are missing inserts because the inserts wound up on the print room floor and are given to the card companies to send as replacements. This is how card companies get some of the cards they'll send you if you say you are missing certain inserts "guaranteed" per box.

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I decided to give Chris Olds (Beckett's President Or Senior Editor or whatever they call their boss these days) ONE LAST TRY getting any answers from him via e-mail in Jan. 2014. He responded for the FIRST TIME out of almost a dozen tries in three years and he said "I NEVER RECEIVED ANY E-MAIL FROM YOU.". He added that I should be more polite and I might get more replies. So I told him to check his e-mails again because either he doesn't know how to work e-mail, or he IS LYING (the truth) because I never once received an e-mail returned from the "Mailer-Daemon" to him from me & I keep copies of ALL my SENT & RECEIVED MAIL. I told him he needs to MAN-UP (that fat, lazy, boring bastard!) and if he wanted politeness maybe HE SHOULD PAY ME like he's paid for doing NOTHING helpful to collectors!!! Of course he never replied again. He's just plain useless. I tried contacting his partner Susan L. as well (who is a voluntary watcher of my Twitter page) and she didn't BOTHER to respond either.  THEY ARE BOTH USELESS! 

 

I contacted the NFLPA asking for any left-over promo cards they may have from any events like the decent Panini promos I've seen over the last couple of years. I told them I'll be donating all but one of each of the cards. Since I'm homebound and mostly bed-ridden I haven't been able to go to a card shop, show or event in over 7-years. 

Even though it was the LAST thing I expected: they sent me over a dozen Panini and Topps hobby boxes from 2011-2013 which was VERY NICE of them. It seems the card companies send freebie boxes to NFLPA Executives, and some executives didn't want to open their boxes. I learn something new every year! I know for a fact that Playoff did not do this in 2001. In fact Ann Blake told me "the less the NFLPA knows about what we do- the better". That's most likely because of all the fraud I busted them for doing.

So I can review current NFL hobby boxes: THEY ALL MOSTLY SUCK (nearly every autograph is an UGLY sticker), and the boxes were nearly all not worth buying for HALF what they sold for except maybe 2011-12 Panini Absolute, 2013 Topps Chrome Football, or 2013 Panini Contenders (if you can get a hobby box for $60 or less- which you probably can't). At least SOME autographs from those are ON CARD (Absolute RPM RC Autos, Chrome RC Autos, & some Contender Autos). I got a total of five redemptions and three were EXPIRED... the unexpired redemptions were from Topps that I may never see either. I didn't get one of the Top 3 RC autographs from any year. But did get a RARE ERROR Dual Auto card from 2013 Topps Platinum. It's an Giovani Bernard/Eddie Lacy Dual PATCH/AUTO numbered to 25. The problem is that the Giovani Bernard has a JORDAN REED (Redskins TE) STICKER autograph where Bernard's sticker is supposed to be. I never pulled an error sticker with the wrong player before (because I don't buy boxes with sticker autos), but I have heard of it happening: QUITE A BIT! PLUS the Lacy autograph was signed with a dry pen. Topps "supposedly" has a company representative view "ALL SIGNINGS"- then why did this representative not hand Lacy A NEW PEN?
Actual card:

 

I contacted Mike at Topps Customer Service over a week ago (last couple of days of Jan. 2014) and he told me to send him scans of the card to confirm the ERROR. I did that, and considering the way he was speaking- I should have heard back from him already but DID NOT??? I may wind up keeping this card whether I want to or not. I'll figure a way to sell all the other sticker autographs to buy more cards to donate this year.

 

It's about time Upper Deck gets the publicity IT DESERVES FOR ALL THE PAIN IT HAS CAUSED OUR HOBBY!

The Village Voice (a famous NYC newspaper) will be doing a story about Upper Deck and the fraud they've (Richard McWilliam especially) been involved in since the start of Upper Deck in 1989. I was contacted and told them everything I know. They will be using me as a contact as they continue to investigate their story as I'm sure there are things I haven't thought about in years but will recall as soon as a topic is mentioned. I can't wait to see it published.

 

As I've stated many times before: collect ON CARD Certified Autographs of cards you like. Those will always hold their value. I was buying dozens of 1993-94 Nabisco Autographs for $2-$3 each on eBay to give as holiday gifts to my Ambullette drivers, hospital employees and doctors who were good to me. Every one of those cards now easily sell for $10+ on eBay. I have a full set from each year and am glad I bought them when I did. There are MANY players that are Hall Of Famers that can still be bought for under $10 each for nice ON CARD autographs. Beckett FINALLY stated this so I was told & I've been telling everyone this exact thing since pre-2000. If that doesn't show you how USELESS Beckett Media is now that Jim Beckett has been long gone, nothing will... 

 

Good luck my friends!

 

James

Final Post- Leaf Wrestling Problems & eBay Fraud Updates

This will most likely be my final post. All my illnesses took a very bad turn for the worst, including my terminal Myasthenia Gravis.

LEAF REALLY SCREWED-UP 2012 LEAF ORIGINALS WRESTLING!

 

When I saw the first Leaf Wrestling Autograph ever, I was in shock! All these autographed cards are missing the Autograph Authenticity Statement that ALL Autographed Card Company cards have had since 2000! That's correct, NOT ONE BIG CARD COMPANY IS MISSING AN AUTO AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT OR STAMP (in some earlier cases) EXCEPT FOR 2012 LEAF WRESTLING!

Plus ALL the printing plates are missing the Autograph Statement, 1/1 statement, AND what color the plate is!!!

 

I first noticed this on November 9th and immediately began e-mailing every hobby contact I had about this, especially the OWNER OF LEAF: Brian Gray. I of course blasted him a new asshole because I knew he did this so he didn't have to pay ANYONE for any licensing and thought if he condoned the authenticity of the autograph, then he'd be libel automatically for licensing rights! HE DID THIS BECAUSE HE'S CHEAP! Because of this, these autographs are practically worthless to those who collect ONLY Certified Autograph Card Company cards like myself. The reason being that ALL CARD COMPANY AUTOGRAPHS HAVE AN AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT! These cards don't even have the word AUTOGRAPH or SIGNATURE printed anywhere on ANY of these cards!!! Most didn't care, no price guide even responded and all sellers said they don't see what the issue is.

Am I the only person in this hobby that complains TO THE RIGHT PEOPLE when a major issue pops up? Because now ALL OF A SUDDEN everyone seems to be complaining about the very same  things I've been complaining about for almost TWO MONTHS & NON-STOP!

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I finally got an answer as to why message board/bloggers bash me with all lies on a regular basis. Instead of them using the information I provided from my past investigations (especially when I wasn't sick) and start investigations of their own, they expected me to continue fighting for them (for free as always) at the same level as when I wasn't sick??? THIS IS THE ONLY REASON THEY ARE BASHING ME!
I wan't you to see the exact response from a big MESSAGE BOARD ADMINISTRATOR who was bashing me all over the Internet. I asked him this: "WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU?" & this was his EXACT response:

"You and I had it out on the BMB (Beckett Message Boards) in 2004. You keep on rambling about all this crap, and how big a difference you (alone) made. You've made not one. Single bit of difference. The companies still do everything you stopped them from doing. It just gets old seeing these ramblings of yours everywhere. Especially when no one cares and people still buy the crap that Topps, UD, Panini still put out."

Besides his poor grammar, he makes no sense at all. He posted that I'm an eBay scammer, I never did anything to help the hobby and I'm basically a liar about everything. So why didn't he say any of that in his response??? Because he's useless scum, and I hate to say this but I think most who post on these boards/blogs are useless scum. You can blame catdaddyscards@gmail.com .

Many think I never did any fraud fighting until I got online in 1997. I started collecting in 1987 and felt sick every time I heard rumors from reliable sources about certain big dealers getting all kinds of stuff dirt cheap from several different illegal sources. But there was and NEVER HAS BEEN a governing agency in this hobby watching for fraud and then fighting it. This is why I started doing what I could locally when I gained enough hobby knowledge by 1992. I was born & raised in NYC, but lived in FL which I loved as often as I could (9-years of my 45-years of life). I've been stuck living in AWFUL living conditions since 2003 when I had to move back to NYC to get medical benefits & SSD.

So I guess I have to list some major that I accomplished starting in 1992:

1992: I fought sellers of many complete sets of 1992 Topps Real Gold cards (not Winners) from being sold BEFORE 1992 Topps was even released. A Florida dealer got most of these from his friend who worked at the printing company in NJ that put the gold foil & gloss on Topp's cards. Topps busted a ring that was selling large quantities of Topps cards illegally nationwide because of my tipping them off to this dealer who gave up everyone to get off easy himself.

1993: I reported a frequent card show seller (a real jerk too) who had two complete sets of UNSIGNED 1992 Pro Line Autograph cards at one show & was selling them as singles for up to $30.00 for the top stars like Emmitt Smith, Dan Marino, John Elway, etc. and was charging $3.00 each for commons. When I started asking him about these cards he offered me a complete set for $350.00! I spoke directly to my friend Bill Barron who made these cards as Director of the NFLPA at the time. These cards were confiscated from this dealer along with other illegal cards he had and he was fined a nice hefty amount.

I started fighting Shop At Home for lying constantly on air about the cards they were selling. I taped especially bad shows and started sending copies to the NFLPA & MLBPA. I fought them until they finally stopped selling cards by 2002 or so.

As soon as my very first website went up in 1997 I immediately started fighting the Score Board bankruptcy knowing that collectors would get screwed just like they did with Signature Rookies Redemptions. I wrote several letters directly to Judge Gloria Burns who of course didn't know the first thing about our hobby. So I explained it to her. All my letters are on file in this case in Cherry Hill, NJ to this day & forever so anyone can check to see when I started fighting hobby fraud. I didn't win over the judge, but I did win over Fleer who gave away 5,000 autographs to anyone who could prove that they were owed a redemption prior to the bankruptcy being filed. Everyone got a letter in the mail from the court so this was easy. Fleer didn't even run out of autographs! So I accomplished that.
Then I interned for over 200-hours to become a Forensic Document Examiner. Then I busted the largest sports autograph forgery ring EVER on eBay. The main ID was AL SALES, and the seller was Scott Davis. I even have his SS#. He was using MANY different ID's & I found and bust3ed each one. They were all permanently banned from eBay. BUT ACCORDING TO MOST ON MESSAGE BOARDS/BLOGS- I NEVER DID ANYTHING???

But with then NEW eBay, it doesn't matter because anyone banned can sign right back up. Even if you were banned YESTERDAY, you can sign back up today with the same name, address, phone and Paypal Account!!! The only thing you have to change is your user ID. HOW INSANE IS THAT???

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Fraud means PURPOSELY doing something morally wrong or illegal according to their licensing from each sport league that licenses them. You'd think that the leagues would monitor card company activity, BUT THEY DON'T! In fact the NFL goes out of it's way to HIDE fraud committed in our hobby! I saw that first hand while fighting all the fraud Playoff committed in 2001 that I had UNQUESTIONABLE proof of: back door selling, printing an illegal Ichiro Retro RC for early 2001 release, withholding up to 25% of expensive inserts from boxes, plus other stuff. The NFLPA, specifically Dawn Ridley-Nash helped Playoff bury the evidence I had against them!!! But thank goodness the MLBPA intervened and finally brought Playoff down years later. At least I stopped Playoff from back dooring cards from 2002-2008 for sure. If there was any back dooring, it was an employee stealing and not corporate back dooring. I'm sure all kinds of things went out the back door once they realized they were losing their baseball license. All those tons of close-out boxes of 2008-2009 Donruss/Playoff stuff on Dave & Adam's Card World came from somewhere & not legally either. You need to understand that I not only was a main reason that they lost their baseball license. This caused a domino effect that bankrupted Ann Blake-Powell too and made her fear being in our hobby! That was nothing but good news for ALL collectors that she will NEVER be in this hobby again. She did WHATEVER IT TOOK to make money. She tried to bribe me a few times with 5-figures!!! Plus she bribed anyone who ever stood in her way including the NFLPA. In 2001 when they requested to view all the autographed helmets for 2001 Absolute Football boxes she came to me in a panic saying "we need to get those in boxes this week to ship next week, but the NFLPA won' let me because they want to see them first". What most people don't know is that in 2001 (and most likely after) & all years before that I know of, the licensing agencies wanted to see all on item autographs BEFORE they went into products. THIS IS WHY THEY PUT AUTOGRAPH STICKERS ON CARDS- TO BYPASS THE LEAGUE VIEWING THE AUTOGRAPHS BEFORE THEY SHIP! I don't know why Ann was ignorant to think these helmets would be an exception! Then suddenly 2001 Absolute Football shipped on time??? Ann wouldn't tell me why either. She must have bribed the NFLPA (Dawn Ridley-Nash) to allow them to go out without the NFLPA's approval. How do I feel so strongly about this to put it in writing knowing full well that I could be libel to the NFLPA if I'm lying? Because of all the bribing I witnessed in-person by Ann Blake-Powell, and the fact that I told Dawn Ridley-Nash all the facts about the fraud playoff was committing & the NFLPA could have viewed all the evidence I had against Playoff at any time but never did, plus Playoff kept my entire personal collection of autographed inserts worth over $50,000 and the NFLPA did NOTHING! Luckily, I sent some Playoff evidence to a friend (with evidence against others as well) which is & always has been in a very safe place. This is why no one ever came after me and no one ever will!    

So what does "fighting them, or fighting fraud" mean? Doing countless hours of research to get BOTH sides of the story to make sure I have as much truth about the issue as possible. Getting as many people's contact information (e-mails, phone extensions, names & exact positions). Then I would ask all these people the exact same questions that were carefully thought out so they were not "leading' questions. I tried to be as impartial as possible for two reasons. I didn't want to scare off the supposed crooks and I didn't want to accuse in case the rumors were wrong.
Most card companies asked me to call them, especially once I got to management. They all wanted to speak on the phone at one point or another because they had no idea that I was taping EVERY CONVERSATION, but I was. They wrongly assumed that it was not legal to tape conversations. In both states I lived in while fighting hobby fraud, it was legal to tape record phone conversations as long as one of the party's knew they were being taped (I knew so it was legal). By early 1999, I had set up a nice system which recorded crystal clearly using a headset & microphone hooked directly into my dual tape deck. 

How can change be stable unless someone is making sure the same issues don't start up again? If they do- someone MUST stop the card companies from doing it!  The changes I made from 1999-2001 lasted until about 2010. That's not too bad being that the card companies were so afraid to: do things that were illegal according to their Player Association licensing, sell cards out the back door, or purposely do anything wrong that I knew of.  I made it clear in 2004 when I ended my website that I wanted all the hobby facts on my site to stay online to help people in the future. I got thousands of hits a month - not bad for a privately run site which ONLY fought sports card fraud. I had few links, no ads and no funding (other than my pocket), plus I rarely put my site in search engines. So most of my hits were collectors telling other collectors. I wish I could have afforded to keep that site up. I explained this 6-months before I had to shut it down. Then a Beckett Message Board asshole bought my site to "make a better hobby website" as he stated & it's been EXACTLY the same nothing since 2004. Look for yourself: www.cardcop.org  Don't bother sending him an e-mail, he never checks it!!!

I'M TRYING TO MOTIVATE ALL OF YOU TO FIGHT FOR YOURSELVES BECAUSE I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO AT ALL SINCE 2009!!! All I've been able to do is fight some things that were very obvious & easy for me like NSA fake GU cards and now the Leaf Wrestling Autograph cards that are missing any autograph authenticity statement. But now I cannot even do that, so it's YOUR TURN! I've posted enough information to make it easy for you, but according to almost everyone who posts/blogs: the hobby is worse than ever as far as fraud goes.

If you don't fight for yourself, of course things will continue to get worse! IS EVERYONE THAT IGNORANT THAT I HAVE TO TELL YOU THIS! 

 

There is a ten year old on You Tube who goes to retail stores & busts pack searchers in the act with his cell phone to record. THAT WAS A FANTASTIC IDEA & A TEN YEAR OLD CAME UP WITH THE IDEA HIMSELF! So don't say you can't make a difference! If you still do after reading this LONG post, then you are just lazy and need to keep YOUR MOUTH SHUT!

Some bloggers are stupid enough to ask me why I keep telling them I'm so sick- NOW YOU KNOW: TO EXPLAIN WHY I CANNOT FIGHT FRAUD ANYMORE & TO INSPIRE YOU TO FIGHT FRAUD YOURSELVES, OK? Then there's the complete idiots who say I'm not sick at all until I send them medical documentation, then the don't respond to me ever again or blog about me ever again either??? If anyone wants to see medical documentation OR have ANY questions e-mail me: cardcop04@gmail.com . Medical information is PRIVATE & cannot be sent to anyone else but to whom I send it to directly.

Everyone of you has an ability or many abilities. Use your abilities that you have to fight fraud with any time you have & fight the wrongs in this hobby! I'm not asking anyone to change the world, just do what you can! Some of you are Private Investigators, so teach other collectors how to get information out of people when they don't want to talk. It's EASY when you know how. I had to teach myself which took a LONG time, but once I got it, it was truly easy.

I got Fleer (Lloyd Pawlak) to admit to me (on tape) by phone that Fleer purposely withheld all serial numbered RC's & autographs from 2001 RETAIL boxes because the distributor (the middle-man between the card company & the retail stores) told Fleer that they wanted them to do something to stop so much theft. So Fleer solution was not not put any expensive inserts in these boxes. YET THE PRICE STAYED THE SAME!!! Fleer literally STOLE FROM EVERYONE WHO BOUGHT these $19.99-$34.99 boxes and I'm the only one who caught it! Six different products were involved including Fleer Greats Of The Game which stated on the boxes that autographs were 1:40 packs & there were NONE! I had to buy ten boxes of each product to prove this to Fleer & get them to admit the truth to me. I reported everything to Beckett and the other guides, but as always they never said a word!
The Price Guides would have to change if all of you went after them too! But instead most of you say nothing publicly & the ones that do only complain  to other collectors on message boards & blogs that no price guides or card companies read!!! THAT DOES NO GOOD AT ALL!

YOU ALL HAVE YOURSELVES TO BLAME FOR THE STATE THAT THIS HOBBY IS IN! IF YOU'VE DONE NOTHING TO FIX THE PROBLEMS DIRECTLY, THEN YOU ARE THE CAUSE OF THE PROBLEMS!

 

Here's info most people will say you can't get anywhere.

 

 

Who prints card company cards???

 Upper Deck is the only card company to print their own cards that I'm aware of. All these companies: Press Pass, Topps, Fleer, Donruss/Playoff, Pinnacle, and others had cards printed by: Great Western Inc. 13465 Jupiter Rd. Dallas, TX 75238. Website: www.gwiinc.com  since 2000 or earlier. Personally I think that is a conflict of interest having the same private company print cards for all the same card companies especially since I know Ann Blake was part owner of this company!

 

How do you get a card company executive to talk to you on the phone?

YOU HAVE TO LIE! Call their Customer Service phone number. Whoever picks up say "you are the second wrong person I've been transferred to, I'm the owner of Great Western in Texas and need to speak directly to" and pick a name from below. 

 

 

Want card company executive e-mails? Here they are:

 

Topps:

ashorin@topps.com (Arthur Shorin -CEO), mappel@topps.com (Marty Appel - Senior Executive), wfriss@topps.com (Warren Friss -Vice-President), aweinstock@topps.com, (Ari Weinstock -Manager), jhaza@topps.com (Jeff Haza -Manager), jsechrist@topps.com (John Sechrist -Manager).

 

Panini-

thackler@paniniamerica.net (Tracy Hackler - Senior Manger. Switches from Playoff/Panini to Beckett once a year on average since 2000).

 

Leaf:

brian@leaftradingcards.com (Brian Gray -Owner), adam@leaftradingcards.com (Adam Berk -Hobby Sales), cassandra@leaftradingcards.com (Customer Service)

 

Beckett:

colds@beckett.com (Chris Olds - Senior Managing Editor), bfleischer@beckett.com (Brian Fleischer -long time writer & book writer for Beckett).

 

NFLPA:

demaurice.smith@nflplayers.com (President of NFLPA), carl.francis@nflplayers.com (Hobby Licensing Manager).

 

These are just a few to get you started, call any company when you are POSITIVE that they are closed and go through their voice mail system entering a random three letters to see if you get a name which also usually gives you their position. Then follow the same e-mail examples as above- like if they use the full name: THEN ALL EMPLOYEES LOOK THE SAME WAY! This is true for almost any company in any field!

 

Good luck & FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT!

 

 

 



James McCay aka Cardcop

I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours: Blocked eBay Bidders & the FLIP side!

I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours: Blocked eBay Bidders

I totally agree with you. Since I've been on eBay in 1997 (as a buyer & seller), I've always paid in 48-hours NO MATTER WHAT even though I have a very rare type of Muscular Dystrophy where I can barely move most days & even snuck out of the hospital more than once to get my eBay stuff in order. SO HEALTHY PEOPLE HAVE NO EXCUSE AT ALL!

But on the flip-side there are just as many cheap sellers who penny pinch every way they can think of regardless of eBay's Excessive S&H rules. I disagree with eBay's policies like charging that RIDICULOUS S&H fee to sellers, but that's no excuse to overcharge buyers!!! We are supposed to be peers here: BOTH buyers & sellers. Plus it makes BAD business sense to anger a buyer. I can't tell you how many sellers charge $3.00 to start, then .50 cents or more for each additional item. Then they send the (5) single card items I won with either no penny sleeves, or with them but no top-loaders at all & taped all over the place needlessly making it easy to damage cards cutting them out of this cocoon! If you charge me $2.00-$2.50 for unlimited shipping (like I ALWAYS did) you can package my cards anyway you wish, so long as they arrive in the same shape they were when I bought them & don't get damaged by you OVER taping them up. I always shipped in top-loaders for single cards with 1/2 inch crystal clear tape along the entire top making it almost air-tight & the tape never obscured the card anywhere. I never taped cards together either, or taped "dummy" cards around the top-loaders & I NEVER ONCE had a buyer receive a damaged card from me out of thousands of packages.
I often lost money on shipping but SO WHAT! If you are losing that much money selling cards that you cannot spend $1.00 out of your profit to make a buyer extra happy: IT'S TIME TO STOP SELLING- LIKE I DID! When/if the hobby improves, I'll sell again.

Those who charge more than $3.00 for a package weighing less than 4-ounces are OVERCHARGING no matter how many auctions the buyer won! Regardless whether eBay does anything, I still report every buyer who really overcharges for shipping & so should everyone.

The Contradiction that has Become eBay.

In the past I did stories about eBay going BUY IT NOW only. Thanks to overwhelming user response, eBay seems to have scrapped that idea! YEAH!

But the computer take over of so many eBay functions continues & big brother on eBay has never been worse. If you ever want to talk to someone you bought from or someone who bought from you- REMEMBER- Paypal lists the ACTUAL e-mail for these people on your receipt. So DO NOT use eBay Mail unless you absolutely have to. eBay has a computer program read EVERY e-mail you send through eBay Mail!!! If I wanted that, I'd move to Communist Russia!

EBay simply does not make any sense any more. Places have rules- and if you study those rules over and over so that you can become an authority on those rules, you can help enforce those rules- right? That sounds like correct logic, doesn't it? BUT THAT'S NOT HOW THINGS WORK ON EBAY!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't lie and I don't exaggerate. You know why? This hobby and companies involved in our hobby of Sports Cards & Memorabilia do such crazy things that I never have to lie or exaggerate because the truth is even stranger! 

Once again I'm at war with eBay. The ID I've been using for 5-months now: cardsharks ( I changed one letter to avoid eBay identifying me) has built up over (600) feedbacks and according to every regular eBay employee I spoke with by phone I was told many times "YOU HAVE AN OUTSTANDING REPUTATION AS AN HONORABLE BUYER & WE THANK YOU FOR THAT".
Remember I'm permanently suspended from eBay for well over a year now for basically fighting eBay's stupidest rules. All I did was calmly discuss the rules that contradict each other with "specialists" (eBay's term for supervisors) & since I wouldn't agree with the specialists I was permanently suspended. I SWEAR TO YOU THAT THIS IS THE REASON & I WILL GLADLY TAKE A POLYGRAPH TEST TO PROVE THIS!

The main issue was buyers that complain about the absolute worst sellers they encounter to eBay & by feedback and in retaliation the sellers call eBay with frivolous complaints about these buyers. The way eBay's Policy Violation system is set-up is this: ANYONE GETS A POLICY VIOLATION JUST BY EBAY GETTING A PHONE CALL ABOUT THE BUYER/SELLER REGARDLESS OF THE BASIS OF THE CALL OR COMPLAINT! THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE FACT PEOPLE, I PROVED IT OVER & OVER WITH THEM!

Now, the default Seller block for Policy Violations is (4) four in one month. So if you are a buyer who is fed up with newbie sellers who charge $4.00+ to ship one card and then your card arrives: in a plain white envelope with $1.05 postage, or if you bought (4) cards & were charged $1.00 for each additional card & the postage was $2.00 in a .25 cent bubble envelope, or you complain politely to the buyer & they immediately snap back saying "it's none of your business what I charge", or "my eBay/Paypal fees were $1.00, and it cost me most & time for gas to go to the Post Office". MEANWHILE ALL OF THESE EXCUSES ARE AGAINST EBAY'S RULES WHICH ARE CLEARLY STATED! So you call eBay and the employee you speak with tells you that you did the right thing by calling and you should continue to call & leave negative feedback for such things and you shouldn't worry about retaliation because we will help you: IS A BUNCH OF LIES!!!
Once you get a "specialist" on the phone they'll never disagree with the person who told you all those things- BUT they will say: "you must have misunderstood them", or "they wouldn't have said that". SO THEY BASICALLY PLAY GOOD COP/BAD COP!

Over the last two months I've been buying 2011-12 Panini Preferred ON CARD autographs like crazy because one of the hospitalized children I buy cards for wants these sets. The family of this child have given me as much money as they could come up with and I am donating the rest to make this dream come true.
There once was a time in America where you could contact a company and explain the details of a dying 14-year old child who collects cards and even provide the medical records (which the family will gladly do) in order to get a donation directly from the company. However, thanks to the unstoppable greed in this hobby and the current state of this country's economy- those donations DO NOT happen anymore! I did ask Panini for help THREE times over the last two years & they didn't even bother to respond (I contacted five different departments)! So it's up to individuals like myself to make these dreams come true.

BTW- I've been buying cards for this 14-year old dying girl for over 2-years and her doctor told her parents several times in that span that she has a couple of months to live- so I'd like to think that the cards are helping her stay alive.

So far I have spent over $1,500 out of my pocket (literally on my credit card which I don't know how I'm going to pay back) after the $2,000 the family gave me was gone. The good news is that the Crown Royale & Panini Choice sets are over 90% complete!!! We agreed that we would not include any individual cards that cost over $100 each. But in exchange I've been getting as many versions as possible of each Panini Choice cards (Red, Blue, Silver & Gold), Gold Versions of Crown Royale and have over (20) different Silhouettes JSY/AUTO cards too. I have at least two versions of 75%+ of the Panini Choice players. I have (86) of the (100) cards in the Choice set, 75% of the Silhouettes (which I'm adding as a bonus) and have (36) of the (39) Crown Royale cards. The only player that has eluded me in both sets (Crown & Choice) has been Oscar Robertson. I'm willing to pay $40-$50 for each card, but less than (4) of either card has ever shown up on eBay! So there are 35+ of each card still in packs or in other people's sets.

I've found that patience definitely pays off with these cards. The Devin Ebanks redemptions for ANY of his cards were $18-$25 each before the actual cards started shipping 10-days ago. Then I bought the actual Crown card for $12.00 & $12 for the Silhouettes card. SO WHY WERE THE REDEMPTIONS SO EXPENSIVE FOR SUCH AN IFFY PLAYER? Who knows, he sure isn't the next Kobe Bryant!!!
My next mission is to get the Mitch Richmond cards for less than $15.00 each. He's another one that is OVERPRICED, & Tony Kukoc is another one at $25.00 which is NOT WORTH IT. I'll wait until I can get each for $15.00 or less which I'm 75% sure will happen within the next month or so.

Remember to always ask questions & FIGHT anything that you think is wrong- ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE- I'm proof!

Best wishes as always.

James McCay aka Cardcop

Sports Cards & Memorabilia on eBay: WORSE THAN EVER!!!

I'm now back on eBay for my FIFTH different time in the last 8-months when I was permanently suspended for FIGHTING FRAUD!!! When eBay suspends youx, just sign up again with the same info & you have a new working account to BUY & SELL! This is how bad eBay has gotten. So why is this so bad? The literally hundreds of awful crooks I had permanently banned from eBay since 1998 can just go right back on eBay! Then never used to be able to do this. But now that eBay fired most humans & relys almost 100% on the computer program the hired- IT JUST PROVES A COMPUTER CANNOT DO A HUMAN'S WORK! Hiumans don't understand why they dov what thjey do sometimes which is called emotions & computer programs have no emotions which is why eBay is so broken.

For every negative feedback you leave: IT GOES AGAINST YOUR ACCOUNT! For every complaint you make against someone else: IT GOES AGAINST YOUR ACCOUNT! For every non-5-Star feedback you get as a seller (regardless if it's warranted or not): IT GOES AGAINST YOR ACCOUNT & YOU PAY HIGHER FEES!  You cannot win on eBay no matter what you do anymore.

As I stated before I'm permanently physically disabled with a rare form of Muscular Dystrophy & I cannot walk more than a few steps anymore at age 45. So I don't have the luxury like almost all of you do to go to shows or card shops anymore since 2005. So eBay is my only real choice to buy cards cheap.

I got four bad hobby boxes of 2011 Topps Allen & Ginter from Dave & Adam's Card World or DACW (the biggest buyers of illegally obtained cards in the USA for MANY years). They were all missing the third hit per box. And all I got out of four boxes was (8) common sports jersey/bat cards. I did not pull any beard cards, flower cards, or anything other than inserts that were more than one per box. There are several 1:144 & one per case (12-boxes) insert cards making the overall odds one per box. I GOT NONE OF THOSE IN FOUR BOXES!
The price difference between hobby & retail is HUGE with most Topps products these days. Retail boxes yield one hit if you are lucky, but hobby boxes are supposed to have three. Hobby boxes are supposed to have an autograph 1:63 packs, and retail are 1:200 packs. With all the common autographs & the doubnle printing of those common autographs they should have been one per box in hobby boxes & one in every other retail box. Anyway, hobby boxes average $75.00 a box, and retail were down to $30 a box, but are back up to around $40 a box now. I strongly suspect that DACW knowingly bought bad boxes from Topps yet sold them at no discount which they often do. If you ever see any recent boxes on DACardWorld.com for less than half of what they are selling for everywhere else- don't expect to pull the cards you are supposed to per box! Plus you are NEVER guaranteed that the card company will help you either. But after many e-mails, Topps did make good & they sent me an unripped rip card, a few Flora flower cards, a Bazooka back card & a common autograph. The same week I bought one retail box & pulled a Shawn Michaels ($175 in  Beckett) autograph redemption card!!! I'm sticking to retail boxes to complete my mini master set that I decided to make after this fiasco.

I need to further explain "bad boxes". Since I worked as a Senior Manager for a big card company, I know things that none of you will ever hear elsewhere & I never lie or exagerate which is why
 I have never been sued after fighting fraud & never holding my tongue in this hobby for over 15-years now online alone & 20-years total. Bad boxes occur when the card company has orders for more boxes than they have inserts for. So they keep making boxes after certain inserts run out. They always purposely make an overage of up to 20% of the entire print run to have extra inserts for replacements. But these are usually pulled FIRST & are NEVER used to put in boxes. When card companies sell the bad boxes they usually discount them greatly & let the buyer know they are bad boxes, but that's only if the printer tells them they did this which is not always the case. 

<<<<<NEARLY ALL CARD COMPANIES DO NOT MAKE THEIR OWN CARDS!>>>>>
They use big printing companies that have no connection to the card company at all! If this is news to you, then you've been relying on Beckett for your hobby info for TOO LONG! The Dallas/Ft.Worth, TX area is a hot spot for hobby elitism. Beckett is there, so is Panini (formerly Playoff), Heritage Auctions, and the printing company that prints & packages nearly all the cards in the hobby: Great Western Inc.. I took a late night peek at their entire card production area (all the way in the back next to the freight train tracks) in 2002 and thought it was quite interesting that nothing but Jamaicans were printing our cards. Now please don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with Jamaican people. It's just when was the last time you saw a Jamaican card collector? I'm of the opinion that at least one person in the room making our cards should know almost all there is to know about our hobby. Even the boss was Jamaican. I stayed there behind their industrial sized shredder where no one could see me for well over an hour. A couple of employees even took pot smoking breaks on the loading dock- who's door was wide open! Maybe this is why there are so many screw-ups in card boxes!!!
I even pulled many cards out from under the shredder. I pulled a 2001 Fleer Flair Drew Henson partially completed RC - this card never existed according to Beckett!

 I also pulled a Press Pass football Draft insert of Julius Peppers that was different from the ones put in packs- I still have that card. You would think they would do a better job destroying these cards- BUT THEY DON'T! As far as I know Great Western still prints almost all the cards in  the hobby.

Be extremely careful on eBay, many sellers have hidden HIGH shipping fees, sometimes they don't send your cards if they don't sell for enough (because all you can do is get an immediate refund from them & then you won't leave negative feedback in their minds), and stay away from sellers with multiple bad feedbacks like tntnorthnj. Just lpook at his feedbackl, he averages (50) negative/neutrals EVERY MONTH! 

Probably for the last time (because of my illnesses) I donated over 40,000 cards to Toys For Tots in December. I made 400-count boxes for each child sorted by sport or subject with all stars & most indserts included. Plus every box had at least two Certified Autographed Inserts & every other box had a autographed Diamond King card by the artist: Dick Perez. Every year I'd write to a couple of famous people and always got 50+ by mail autographs to add. This was the 22nd year in a row I donated at least 30,000 cards a year. I wanted it to go to The Leukemia Society which was the charity that I started donating to after being inspired by my friend Gary Carter in 1989, but they told me "hospitals aren't accepting loose cards anymore because of the terrorism climate". I'm sorry, but that's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard! For starters I was speaking to the person who knew me for 22-years & I won a National Award from them in 1991! What was I going to do put a bomb in a 4X6 inch box!

Always fighting for collectors for free for you, & sometimes at my expense!

James McCay

It's over: NO MORE EBAY AS WE KNEW IT!

I've been hearing rumors that eBay has been making a transition behind the scenes for a while now to become a Amazon-lite basically. No more auctions, just stores & Buy It Now items.

After what I just went through since Aug. 22nd proved to me that this is 100% fact & they will do anything and everything to make that happen. But instead of doing it with some honor by sending a system-wide e-mail to everyone, they opted to quietly do it by indefinitely suspending anyone who does not fit within their new mold of sellers or even big buyers for that matter as well.

If you fight for your rights under eBay's rules; YOU ARE GONE!

If you are a seller and fight Buyer Complaints: YOU ARE GONE!

If you are a buyer and leave negative feedbacks for people who send you unmentioned damaged items and then sellers refuse a partial refund, or never get your item and the seller never responds & you leave negative feedback each time: YOU ARE GONE!

The list of reasons goes on & on. But eBay will never tell you what it is that you need to do to fit their NEW BUSINESS MOLD!

It kills me how every time I called eBay with an issue over the past 6-months they kissed my butt royally saying: YOU ARE A TOP RATED SELLER & FROM LOOKING AT YOUR ACCOUNT YOUR STATUS IS ONE OF THE HIGHEST I'VE EVER SEEN IN EVERY CATEGORY AND YOU ARE SO GREAT AND WE THANK YOU, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH (just fix my problem you idiot)! It started sounding more & more cultish as time went by.

Here's an example that should blow your mind- on Aug. 22nd a seller who charged me over $8.00 S&H for empty trading card boxes that fit in a medium Flat Rate Priority box (I checked), yet he shipped them Parcel Post & it took 11-days to arrive. I kept politely asking him where my boxes were after 5-days passed and he was obnoxious right from the start. Every e-mail to him after that he got nastier & nastier. He never said through all this that he sent them Parcel Post. I had to find out from the shipping label, same goes for the shipping date which he lied about.
So I left a truthful, unemotional negative feedback. His response was this e-mail:

Dear cardcop**,

GO FUCK YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!!!! I have your address saved, I travel to new
york area often.  We will be in touch!

-shindig_747

Even though I have been fighting hobby fraud for all collectors for free since 1997 online, I never received such a threatening e-mail.
So I immediately called eBay and they said he would be suspended immediately, probably indefinitely.
So three days pass & he's still selling. I call eBay again and the woman this time was just as upset by that e-mail as I was. She asked if I left follow-up feedback to address this e-mail. I did not, so she said "you need to". So I mulled it over for 24-hours (so I didn't write anything I'd regret) and I left this "Told me to F--- Myself & he's coming to see me. BRING IT THEN!" or very close to that. I wanted him to know that I was no easy target, because that invites retribution. The next thing I knew, I was suspended as a buyer for 90-days because they said I had too many Buyer Complaints (ONE!).

My Post Office is one of the 3,700 being closed and I've been missing tons of mail over the last two months (June & July mostly) or so including bank statements, credit card bills, etc. Luckily every eBay item that I bought an was missing was below $15.00 (two were sent wiuth Delivery Confirmation as well- where of course it wasn't the buyer's fault at all), & everything else was $3-$5 each. I CANNOT CONTROL ANY OF THAT- YET EBAY BLAMED ME FOR IT???! So I called eBay & they said they were going to reverse my suspension over three different times. That never happened to this day. HOWEVER- the person who threatened me is STILL SELLING all the while since Aug.22nd & a month had passed at this point!!!
Then I had to be hospitalized because I have a very rare form of Muscular Dystrophy & five massively herniated disks in my neck & low back with severe multiple nerve damage>>>> BTW-eBay is well aware of this and I asked them several times to make a note of this on my account & the fact that I've helped them fight fraud for 14-years- THEY NEVER DID THAT.
I'm in severe-excruciating pain 24/7, but after this eBay episode my pain went to 10 out of 10 & I was hospitalized from late Monday Aug. 28th until Friday, Sept. 2nd. So I get home and take care of my eBay business first before I do anything else because I sold two items (the buyers knew I was hospitalized) and wanted to get them out 1st thing Sat. morning with good free bonus cards. I take fast/safe/affordable ($2.50 for unlimited cards bought) shipping very seriously since I started on eBay in 1997.

So it's now Sat. Sept. 2nd in the late afternoon & I decide to relist items I had listed before I went into the hospital. I got to item #6 & out of nowhere a screen pops up saying "YOU ARE SUSPENDED"! So I click My eBay and that warning comes up on the lower left hand of the screen saying "your account is suspended".
So I call eBay again and finally spoke to Grace from Trust & Safety. She told me the case number and said this was all a big mix-up. She said I never should have been suspended for ANYTHING & that shindig_747 should have been suspended by Aug.23rd indefinitely. She "promised" me TWICE that by the nest day, in 24-hours (Sunday???) my account would be fully reinstated & the case against shindig would be upgraded to urgent. That never happened either. HOW MANY LIES CAN EBAY EMPLOYEES TELL WITHOUT GETTING FIRED???

Next I get Carly who couldn't find a reason to keep me suspended so she actually put me on hold & searched my feedback until she found a questionable feedback which she stated I received a warning about (but of course never did since she was creating complaints while we were on the phone!!!). I knew at this point I was done with eBay whether I wanted it to be or not. So I said bye & hung up.
Out of curiosity I called a regular Customer Service employee (Tim) right after speaking to Carly. I asked him if there were any Feedback Abuse cases against my account. He said no, then said oh wait a minute one is just coming up now. I said "yeah, being typed by Carly- right?" & he agreed. I said I'm sorry you have to work with that nasty witch, to which he had no comment.
Then I gave it another try on  Fri. Sept. 9th. I didn't even bother asking who I was speaking to, it didn't matter in the past, so why should it now? They said you are indefinitely suspended and it is unappealable!!! When I asked why shindig_747 who threatened me is still selling she said "that was probably his first offense" (look at his feedback -IT WAS NOT!), "so you don't get suspended for first offenses". He used the F word in it's full glory, and threatened me in the worst way! Plus in a later e-mail he said he was going to borrow his friend's 9MM before he comes to NY!!! And he didn't ever get suspended from eBay??? My feedback is 100% & his is much lower with several negatives...

I saved pages on eBay to my computer showing my Seller Dashboard showing my Policy Violations at LOW during the first week of Sept., but now (Sept. 24th) it shows MEDIUM, plus all mention of any violations were removed??? Taking that into account with my PERFECT ratings in every other category, nothing justifies a suspension of any kind. Plus I received another eBay Award for being a Top Rated Seller! IS THIS INSANE OR WHAT?   So I called eBay one last time on Sept. 24th & got a very polite young lady who was very understanding at first and agreed with my situation and then said, "please hold while I check your account". When she came back her tone of voice was suddenly nasty. She said you are permanently suspended for leaving that feedback saying the "F" word. I told her that this was a quote from an e-mail from a seller and she said "I know all about that now" & I didn't use the F word I put F***, plus it waasn't my idea to leave that feedback it was YOUR EMPLOYEE'S IDEA! She said in her nasty tone "we consider this with you a permanent parting of ways". So I told her to start looking for a new job because eBay will be bankrupt soon by treating people like me like this. I truly believe that.
I'm glad I'll never use eBay again at this point and you all should consider quitting before you are forced off just as I was. I had to change my bank account number & credcit card because eBay are nothing but untrustworthy crooks at this point. I have proof of everything I said here and will prove it in court if need be.

FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT & NEVER PUT UP WITH FRAUD LIKE THIS!

James M.