Can The Youngest Sports Card & Autograph Collecting Generation Destroy This Hobby For Good?

YES, That's a BIG 10-4!

Much greater than 50% of all under age 30 (or so) collectors in this hobby never had a Price Guide to give them even the slightest bit of hobby INSIDE INFORMATION, "Reader's Write" in Beckett was gone years ago (where if you knew enough things about the hobby, you could learn more by what Beckett DID NOT say to answer a collector question- than by what they did say!) and Beckett's only purpose that they have served in this hobby for over TEN years was to promote EVERY product, every card company told Beckett to heavily promote and that was their SOLE JOB! You see Beckett has always WORKED FOR THE CARD COMPANIES, but never more-so that after 2004. Mike Payne who was the President of all of Beckett in 2001 told me in an e-mail "You do things we could never do- because we are afraid of losing advertising dollars from card companies that we couldn't go on without." I'm paraphrasing of the top of my head, but everything in that statement I just typed was discussed between Mike & I at least once in 2001 with the exact meaning of that statement. That was him admitting that Beckett worked for the card companies and not for collectors at all anymore- AND NEVER AGAIN!  

Most dealers became so jaded and greedy that they'd never dare tell anyone anything that they considered to be "hobby secrets", so where in the world were these below 30 collectors going to learn anything conducive to being a smart collector who know what products to stay away from, and what to collect? THIS GENERATION HAD NO ONE!!! So this created an environment where they decided to come up with their own interpretations of what goes on in this hobby and 90% of it COULDN'T BE MORE INCORRECT! In short, this created an entire generation of hobby egotistical DUMMIES who listened to no one who tried to help them for free by sending LONG explanation e-mails after people like myself saw them being ripped-off by BIG Full-Time eBay Sports Card sellers who nearly all OVERCHARGED for Shipping & Handling which has ALWAYS been against eBay's Rules! Then to stop this, eBay made all bidders and winners of items ANNONYMOUS! So the most educated buyers/sellers on eBay could no longer warn this UNEDUCATED generation which was the worst thing eBay ever did. It also made it quite difficult to spot SHILL-BIDDING which occurs FREQUENTLY in the Sports Card area on eBay since they made bidders mostly ANNOYMOUS!  

Since I embarked on ridding this hobby of as much fraud as I possibly could- all by myself in 1997 online, I knew for a fact that I would have a rather large following even though there was no such thing as: Labels or web site/page Tags yet to help put your pages in Search Engines. This had to be done manually for EACH PAGE which was a long boring process or if you were rich you'd have to pay someone to do your work for you. I always believed that money means NOTHING at all when you are fighting a just cause because if you have that fire in your belly to fight the good fight- there's not enough hours in a day to work on doing the fight of your choice and I enjoyed fighting Card Company & Price Guide fraud more than most could ever understand.. I KNEW this had been occurring since I started in this hobby as a full-time collector in early 1987. So I spent over 14-years gathering as much inside info from every angle in this hobby so that one day I'd know this hobby far better from every angle than any other single person that existed. I hit that point in early 2001.

 

After the first two years of having my web site "Sport's Collector's Scoop" on AOL's FREE Web Site service, I had a mailing list of close to (200) hard-core, very educated collectors who wanted to know anytime I uncovered anything new as far as previously UNKNOWN wrong-doings by anyone that would directly negatively effect collectors who I put on my e-mailing list. Most times it went out Monthly, but anytime I uncovered something important, I'd send an UPDATE to the whole group.

 You need to understand that the only people who PAID others to set-up and run web sites for them in the 1990's was relatively obscure web sites like: small bakeries, specialty retail shops, and stuff like that. I was the very first person to have a web site devoted to fighting fraud in any hobby run by just one person 100% FOR FREE and I did it only to HELP ALL COLLECTORS, especially children that most hobbyists (and Price Guides, Card Companies way before anyone else, etc.) seem to have totally forgotten about; which is simply SHAMEFUL!

Until everyone gets on board to FIGHT all Card Companies/Price Guides starting with the worst (as of November 2015) - Topps, Beckett, Upper Deck, then Panini: everything will continue to get worse and worse for collectors and our hobby will be GONE FOR A VERY LONG TIME until a baseball year like 2001 comes along again (free of steroids this time) if that's even possible which I'm not sure it is.

James McCay -my direct e-mail since 2004: cardcop04@gmail.com

 

eBay Truly Did Make S&H Improvements (11/1/15 SADLY NOT ANY MORE!) to the Sports Card Area!

11/3/15- A SAD UPDATE- eBay has reverted back to the way they were from 2011-2013: THEY COULDN'T CARE LESS ABOUT SELLERS BREAKING RULES AGAIN, AND THEY ARE STARTING TO PUNISH BUYERS WHO COMPLAIN ABOUT THESE BAD SELLERS WHO BLATENTLY BREAK EBAY'S LISTED RULES: THAT ARE RIGHT ON EBAY's PAGES! 


I had one of my connections deal with a SUPER HARD-HEADED sports card seller who they won two regular sized cards from for around $3.00 per card. The seller's listed S&H price was $2.99. Then they get an invoice with a $3.99 S&H fee. So I had the buyer politely explain to this seller (NEWROCKSPORTS) with a foreign name I wouldn't dare guess where they could be from- that they cannot charge this $1.00 HIDDEN EXTRA CARD FEE due to eBay's HIDDEN FEE and eBay's Reasonable Shipping fee rules.


His response: he filed two UNPAID ITEM COMPLAINTS against the buyer!!! Because it took this seller FOUR DAYS to send the buyer a combined S&H invoice to begin with. So knowing how eBay works - they had no choice but to pay and fight this after they receive the items.
This seller didn't even have the slightest bit of common-sense to make it look like he made the extra effort to protect the cards he sent!


So they get the cards shipped in a .20 cents (OR LESS) no-name bubble envelope, he printed the shipping label through eBay, and the cards were in regular USED top-loaders, both with irremovable tape on each top-loader (making them WORTHLESS). So this seller's ONLY ALLOWABLE S&H FEES are postage ($2.04), and the bubble envelope (.20 cents) for a total allowable maximum S&H fee of $2.54 (eBay's MAXIMUM allowed fee for sports cards UNLESS additional postage or supplies are necessary and used: and neither was the case.


So they e-mailed the seller back and fourth SEVENTEEN (17) times- (5) of which eBay TOLD THEM to ask the seller again to refund the $1.00 S&H HIDDEN FEE. First they spoke to Apple (like the fruit as she stated) a Buyer Complaint Specialist (which is a new eBay employee title, Trust & Safety employees used to handle all cases such as this as recently as a three weeks ago), she told them what I already knew: the seller cannot charge HIDDEN fees, plus this certainly can be considered as FEE AVOIDANCE as well (paying your eBay/PayPal fee with S&H profits).
So she said she would e-mail the seller (which SHE NEVER DID!) to tell him he was breaking eBay's S&H rules (which he refused to look up on the eBay links they sent him, or what they told him with my guidance) so I EXPRESSED STRONGLY to Apple that an eBay employee must notify this seller by e-mail of his wrong-doing OR HE'LL KEEP DOING THIS TO EVERY BUYER WHO WINS MORE THAN ONE ITEM, period!
The fact that he had no negatives or neutrals for doing this before has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the facts here which the seller kept bringing up OVER & OVER! Who knows maybe this seller just went bad starting with my friend?


Apple said if the seller doesn't refund the dollar (which was not the point at all in any of this!) in 48-hours, the seller will be suspended. Plus she added "why don't you leave NEGATIVE FEEDBACK for today to warn other buyers that this seller refuses to follow eBay's S&H rules" to my friend. So they did exactly that- within eBay's rules only stating the FACTS.


So they waited 72-hours & nothing changed, no refund, the seller was just as cocky as ever (so no e-mail from eBay to the seller), and no SELLER SUSPENSION! They wasted over an HOUR OF THEIR TIME SPEAKING TO APPLE AND ABSULTTELY NOTHING SHE SAID SHE WOULD DO WAS DONE!!!


So eBay is back to their 2011-2013 tactics: LIE TO BUYERS JUST TO GET THEM OFF THE PHONE & hope they give up!   


Next they call on 10/29 and get transferred to CLARITA in the Buyer Protection Dept. They had to explain EVERYTHING again. They told her they WANT TO SPEAK TO APPLE, then she said "we can't transfer calls to specific employees" (BULLSHIT!). She told them basically the same thing Apple told them- they were 100% in the right and the seller was 100% in the wrong. Then she read ALL the eBay e-mails between them and she said "you even sent correct links to our S&H fee rules for sellers". So they told her YES, they have these rules MEMORIZED unlike most eBay employees.  
She never did what she said she'd do either! Plus the NEGATIVE FEEDBACK I was TOLD by an eBay Buyer Protection employee to leave WAS REMOVED BY EBAY AGAINST THE SELLER!!! And the seller left a LIE Positive/NEGATIVE against the buyer which is still there!!!  Then the buyer's entire purchase price (around $10 was refunded). Yet they made it CRYSTAL CLEAR TO BOTH APPLE AND CLARITA THAT MONEY DOESN"T MATTER TO THEM, WHAT MATTERS IS ALL THE BUYERS THIS SELLERS WILL RIP-OFF IN THE FUTURE.


So they tried calling eBay today and suddenly all the CALL EBAY links in eBay HELP that were on eBay until 10/29 DISAPPEARED??? It took them over 5-minutes to find a CALL EBAY link and that link didn't work! eBay made their position clear: THEY NO LONGER CARE ABOUT BUYERS & NO LONGER CARE THAT SELLERS ARE BREAKING EBAY'S LISTED S&H FEE RULES!


The oddest thing is that when I get one of my connections to talk to a seller as a fellow seller they almost all say- "eBay ONLY PROTECT BUYERS, THEY NEVER PROTECT SELLERS AT ALL" (which is what all eBay Sports Card sellers have been especially saying since this hobby collapsed by 2010 due much to their OWN GREED)!!!  


So don't be surprised if you win (5) items from a seller who says NOTHING about extra items won fees and only AFTER the auctions end you get hit with a $5.00 S&H fee when their only listed fee is $3.00!


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With all the fighting I've done against eBay and their policy of protecting sellers at all costs (and suspending any buyers who went after their BAD sellers) since 2010-11, I honestly thought I'd never make any changes. But once again I was pleasantly surprised and all my hard work paid off. You need to understand that I spent well over 60-hours on the phone with eBay Specialists since 2011. This was hundreds of phone calls to change their thinking and their rules to benefit honest collectors of any lightweight collectibles and to STOP sellers from charging such high shipping fees for combined items (which has been AUTOMATIC on eBay in this hobby since I've been online in 1997). So don't let ignorant greedy sellers tell you "well then I could charge $3.00 PER ITEM instead of discounting my S&H fees." BECAUSE THEY CANNOT DO THAT EITHER UNDER EBAY'S REASONABLE SHPPING FEE RULES- REGARDLESS OF OUR INDIVIDUAL HOBBYWIDE RULES!!!!

A little over a year ago eBay reinserted Reasonable Shipping & Handling Fee Rules in their HELP section (which used to be HELP- then was stupidly changed to Customer Service- and now is HELP again). Then they reworked the pages these rules were on to the point they are at now which truly helps all collectors of lightweight easily packaged collectibles in bubble envelopes that weigh 6-ounces or less mainly.

Every eBay buyer & seller needs to read both these pages and follow the rules on them please:

1) http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-practices.html#postage

2) http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/reasonable-shipping.html

From 2010- late 2013 eBay allowed all eBay sellers to break any rules they had or used to have and removed. THOSE DAYS ARE OVER FOR GOOD BUT IT IS UP TO BUYERS TO ENFORCE THESE RULES OR THEY MAY EVENTUALLY TAKE THEM AWAY AGAIN! So if buyers decide to be lazy and allow sellers to overcharge them for combined shipping & handling them you have no one to blame but yourselves. Then I will never try to change eBay rules for the benefit of all collectors again because it will show that you don't really care- no how much you complain to the WRONG people.

I helped eBay understand the sports card hobby and how 99%+ of all combined shipping purchases in Sports Cards never weigh more than 3-ounces (or have 3-ounces paid postage on the envelopes), and how supplies like top-loaders MUST be brand new and free of any irremovable tape for the seller to be able to include the .05 cent cost of each loader into the price of S&H. I also got eBay to understand that QUALITY bubble envelopes of almost any size- #000, #00, and #0 can be bought RIGHT ON EBAY for .25 cents each (in lots of 25 or more) with FREE SHIPPING & HANDLING! The ignorant sellers who pay $1.79 for a padded envelope at the Post Office is beyond my understanding...
Now anyone with half a brain that had been selling on eBay for over a year knows that eBay's PRINT SHIPPING LABEL (free of fees) service that they worked out with the USPS is by far the cheapest way to get postage ANYWHERE! Anyone who is still going to the nearly bankrupt Post Office to get postage by standing on lines (with employees they DO NOT WANT TO PAY) and paying up to $3.37 postage for a 2-ounce bubble envelope are OUT OF THEIR MINDS! Why in the world would anyone do that when they can print their own labels EASILY from home on plain paper, on the cheapest printers they make ($40 or so) using black ink only (SET TO DRAFT which prints 3X-5X as many pages per cartridge) and almost NEVER paying more than $2.25 for postage & that's for a 6-OUNCE BUBBLE ENVELOPE or package (small box for instance)! A bubble envelope that weighs up to 3-ounces costs only $1.93 using eBay's Print Shipping Label service!

I had a friend contact an eBay Shipping & Handling Specialist several months ago by phone and they spent almost an hour on the phone making sure that eBay will back buyers who call complaining about sports card sellers who charge more than $3.00 total (no matter how many items are won) as long as the envelope weighs no more than 6-OUNCES. You have to explain to basic eBay employees that you know for a fact that your package will weigh 3-ounces ($1.93 postage), or up to 6-ounces ($2.25 postage), and that bubble envelopes are .25 cents right on eBay (with FREE SHIPPING) and these are basically the only allowable fees that eBay's REASONABLE SHIPPING FEE rules (listed on the links I've posted several times on this page) explain that sellers cannot charge $4.00 (or more) for the items you won.
You can do this BEFORE you pay, or you can wait until after you receive your items and then call eBay. BUT NEVER AGREE TO RETURN THE CARDS SIMPLY BECAUSE THE SELLER MAKES THAT AN OFFER (after you ask why you were overcharged for S&H- WHICH YOU NEED TO DO BEFORE CALLING EBAY) THAT YOU DO NOT WANT TO ACCEPT! Some slick sellers will try to get you to agree to return the cards (especially if you won them for a good price) and then you may get stuck paying RETURN S&H FEES!!! If you do it after you receive your items, tell eBay and/or the seller that you were giving them every opportunity to show that they could justify charging the amount they did within eBay's rules like sending your package Priority Mail, or putting all your cards in brand new, free of irremovable tape Premium Top-loaders when you bought many cards- for example.

NOW KNOWING EVERYTHING THAT I JUST MAY HAVE TAUGHT YOU JUSTIFIES YOU CHARGING $2.50-$3.00 Shipping & Handling on eBay when selling sports cards and NOT EVER CHARGING AN EXTRA FEE FOR ADDITIONAL ITEMS WON! SELLERS: You got that right? If not e-mail me or read these pages!

1) http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-practices.html#postage

2) http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/reasonable-shipping.html

BTW if you charge more than $3.00 S&H for a 6-ounce envelope NO MATTER HOW MANY ITEMS THE BUYER WON, YOU ARE BREAKING EBAY's REASONASBLE SHIPPING FEE RULES!!! Just because you state in your listings that you charge this extra fee, THAT DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE ALLLOWED TO ACCORDING TO EBAY'S FAIRLY NEW RULES- AND YOU ARE NOT! Plus not only are you breaking that rule, you are committing FEE AVOIDANCE which means you are charging that extra .25 cents - $1.00 (or even more) per extra item won solely to pay your eBay & PayPal fees which is one of the worst S&H related rules you could ever break on eBay and is a very suspendable offense. All it takes if for four different buyers to complain about a seller breaking these new rules, and they will get suspended. This is what the eBay Shipping & Handling Specialist told my friend.

THE DAYS OF SPORTS CARD SELLERS CHARGING ANY EXTRA FEES FOR ADDITIONAL ITEMS WON IS OVER, BUT BUYERS MUST REPORT SELLERS TO eBay WHO ARE DOING THIS OR IT WON'T WORK!

So now the ball is in your court buyers! I don't have an eBay account because I continued fighting for ALL OF YOU when eBay decided to stop protecting all sports card buyers from the WORST CARD SELLERS ON EBAY (like tntnorthnj) and everyone else who broke eBay's rules on a regular basis in 2010 and beyond, so I was PERMANENTLY SUSPENDED because I refused to stop reporting BAD sellers. eBay told me the reason I was suspended was- "consider this us parting ways" which is the only reason eBay ever gave for my suspension that was not a lie. As recently as three months ago eBay still couldn't tell me why cardcop05 was suspended. Plus I love how eBay allowed bad sellers to add feedback comments AFTER my account was permanently closed!
I had PERFECT FEEDBACK as a buyer and a seller and have two Awards to prove it from 2011 that I received in the mail postmarked a week AFTER I WAS SUSPENDED??? Explain that one...

I have a few friends who are using their eBay accounts to notify every sports card seller they come across that these rules now exist and that they could be suspended if they continue charging any extra fees for additional cards won. Other buyers start to do the same thing. Just politely explain that there are fairly new REASONABLE SHIPPING & HANDLING FEE RULES that sellers need to follow, or you could be suspended if you don't and your current rules are not following these rules.

Here are the links from eBay:

SCROLL DOWN & CLICK "SHIPPING & HANDLING COSTS" IN THE PAGE MIDDLE HERE:
1) http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-practices.html#postage

And HERE:
2) http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/reasonable-shipping.html

Members of blowoutcards.com (that won't let me post on their site), feel free to contact me DIRECTLY by e-mail if you disagree with anything I ever say and we can discuss things like mature adults as always (BUT NO ONE EVER DOES!). Anyone can contact me anytime (I check my e-mail at least weekly even when I'm very sick):

cardcop04@gmail.com

eBay (as of 11/1/15 FORMER) Improvements Regarding Reasonable Shipping Fees & Sports Cards

                                                  11/1/15  VERY SAD UPDATE-          
eBay went back to their 2011-2013 tactics where they no longer care about sellers breaking ANY eBay Rules and they are giving buyers who call them about these bad sellers the run-around for HOURS and it's just a total waste of time.
I had a friend fight a seller who charged him a HIDDEN S&H fee of $1.00 (for EACH additional item won) for one extra regular sized card he won on the same day as another card!  THIS CLEARLY BREAKS EBAY'S HIDDEN FEE RULE AND FALLS UNDER FEE AVOIDANCE RULES AS WELL. The seller's TOTAL allowable eBay Reasonable Shipping fee rules for his 3-ounce package $2.54. It was $2.04 eBay PRINT SHIPPING LABEL postage, and .20 cents for the cheap NO-NAME bubble envelope he used. The top-loaders were USED and had irremovable tape on them, so they could NOT be charged for and no other expense was over a penny or two. THIS SELLER WAS CHARGED $3.99 S&H & EBAY MADE EMPTY PROMISES AND EVEN TOLD MY FRIEND TO LEAVE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK WHICH EBAY REMOVED??? Then the seller left Positive/NEGATIVE feedback against the buyer, and the buyer no longer could get eBay on the phone after trying for over an hour.  
eBay was showing hope there for a FULL 6-months, but they flushed it all down the toilet AGAIN! This should finish eBay for all honest/honorable buyers and sellers very soon.


                                                  11/02/14
I was contacted by a woman who has taken it upon herself to find that there are now three different eBay Customer Service pages describing what sellers CAN and CANNOT charge for Shipping & Handling. She also said she contacted eBay and confirmed specifics with an eBay S&H Specialist. This woman knew what she was talking about because she mentioned things that ONLY a person who really did the research would know. These are things memorized in my memory that confirmed that everything she said was truthful.

      SO eBay COLLECTORS HAVE A REASON TO BE HAPPY! 

Sellers can NO LONGER charge $3.00 to start, then charge you .25 cents, .50 cents, OR MORE  for each additional item (especially with no maximum fee). I've been fighting eBay to reinstate the rules that they removed in 2010 regarding Overcharging Shipping & Handling fees ever since then to STOP GREEDY SELLERS from paying their eBay/PayPal fees with their VERY HIGH Shipping & Handling charges.
For a few years, you couldn't find anything in the Customer Service search box if you typed "overcharging shipping fees", or other similar terms. eBay made it that you had to SPECIFICALLY type the word "Unreasonable" or "Reasonable" ONLY in regards to finding high shipping fee rules. Then the rules were so loosely described that NO ONE agreed what they meant! WELL, EBAY CHANGED ALL OF THAT NOW!  If you are a Buyer or a Seller of sports cards on eBay, you need to read these eBay Rules pages:

 SELLER SHIPPING RULES: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-practices.html#postage

MORE SHIPPING FEE RULES: Type "high shipping fees", or "overcharging shipping fees", or "unreasonable shipping fees" in the CS search box and eBay will take you to a SIMPLIFIED page describing what sellers can and cannot charge in their shipping fees.

SELLER GENERAL RULES: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/rules.html

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NOW WE CAN DISCUSS HOW TO GET SELLERS TO FOLLOW THESE RULES AND HOW TO GET EBAY EMPLOYEES TO UNDERSTAND THE SITUATION WHEN A SELLER OVERCHARGES YOU FOR SHIPPING.

Sadly in the Sports Card hobby on eBay, nearly all sellers old and new are disgruntled at EVERYONE! They are mad at eBay, PayPal, card companies, price guides, the economy, Obama, the government as a whole, the world, and the list goes on & on. I personally made a lot of money from this hobby on eBay in the short desperate times in my life where I couldn't find a job or wasn't making enough to live on when I lived in Florida. There was not one year since 1989 that I did not donate 30,000 sports cards or more in any year! So I am grateful to this hobby forever for the help it provided me, and the ability it gave me to donate a huge number of cards every year for 25-years.

So why are these disgruntled sellers so mad? I have no idea- you'll have to ask them because I can't for the life of me figure out why they'd take out their frustration of the ONLY people (eBay BUYERS) that are still enabling them to sell ANYTHING! With the way the hobby fell apart in 2010, sports card sellers are lucky to still be able to sell anything at all! If these knuckleheads who OVERCHARGE BUYERS for shipping had any common-sense they'd only charge the actual postage cost and eat the rest of the cost just to keep buyers HAPPY that will buy from you again!

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So, OK now that we know sellers will try to get every penny they can from you let's discuss what they CAN & CANNOT charge you for in the Shipping & handling cost specific to sports cards and you should use this guide to explain these things to eBay as well if your seller charges you $4.50 to ship (4) single cards that cost them $2.17 in postage, .25 cents for a bubble envelope and used top-loaders (they CAN'T charge you for used top-loaders!!!). It is eBay's opinion that sellers must try to find the cheapest way to ship, pack, and care for your items. So I'm making it easy, here I'll put the cheapest way (and most effective way) to ship sports cards! Send a link of this page to sellers if they are doing things that are dumb costing YOU MORE MONEY in Shipping Fees because your seller is IGNORANT!!!

Firstly they must use eBay's PRINT SHIPPING LABEL service because they charge the LOWEST price for actual postage, period. You simply print the shipping label on plain paper which you tape to the bubble envelope. If you don't have a printer, YOU SHOULDN'T BE SELLING ON EBAY! Printer's cost $35-$40 these days as you only need a BLACK INK cartridge set on DRAFT and your ink will last to print literally several hundred shipping labels!
The Post Office is still facing bankruptcy, so the LAST THING they want is you to waste their time at the Post Office window causing the Post Office to pay employees to stand there and do what sellers NEED TO BE DOING FROM HOME FOR LESS MONEY! For example, a 3-OZ package will cost you $2.17 ($2.07 for a 2-OZ package) in postage using eBay's Print Shipping Label Service. The same envelope will cost you $3.37 from any Post Office window!!! To those who do not know: TRACKING HAS BEEN FREE FROM BOTH THE POST OFFICE WINDOW AND EBAY FOR WELL OVER A YEAR NOW! So eBay's statement that sellers can add tracking costs to handling fees is OUTDATED and VOID!

*** USE ONLY EBAY'S PRINT SHIPPING LABEL SERVICE FOR YOUR POSTAGE AND TO PRINT SHIPPING LABELS! 



I can't believe that there are still ignorant sellers paying $1.49 or more for shipping envelopes at the Post Office when quality bubble envelopes of many different sizes cost .25 cents each RIGHT ON EBAY in lots of (25) or more. Size #000 is best for a 2-3 REALLY THICK cards or up to (8) cards in regular top-loaders.

 

You no longer need to put something like a Styrofoam Peanut in the envelope to make it thick enough for TRACKING! That stopped when the Post Office made tracking FREE well over a year ago (if not two years!). 

SELLERS: STOP PUTTING UNREMOVABLE "INVISIBLE" TAPE ALL OVER THE PLACE MAKING IT SO DIFFICULT TO GET CARDS OUT OF YOUR UNNECESSARY WRAPPING!!!

The best tape to use BY FAR is blue masking tape on top-loaders as it can easily be removed without leaving glue all over the place! All you need to put is a VERY SMALL piece just on the tops of loaders. You only need to put tape across the open end of top-loaders to keep cards from sliding out. It is never necessary to put tape around several top-loaders and wrap the tape AROUND AND AROUND two or three times: all that does is it DESTROYS the reuse of every top-loader you used. I can't tell you how upsetting it is when I get cards in brand new top-loaders with "invisible"
 tape on top of each one. Even folding over an end doesn't work, especially in winter. Colder air makes the glue UNREMOVABLE with "invisible" tape no matter what! THAT MAKES THOSE TOP-LOADERS GARBAGE! Most (if not all) collectors have their own way of keeping their cards in top-loaders. Some don't put anything on top of the loaders but many do just to keep the cards from sliding out or around if you drop the top-loader. NO ONE wants a crooked piece of irremovable UGLY tape on top of their top-loaders!!! SCOTCH (or any brand of) INVISIBLE TAPE IS IRREMOVABLE!

eBay CONSIDERS .25 CENTS TO BE THE MAXIMUM HANDLING FEE THAT SHOULD BE CHARGED FOR SEVERAL ITEM SPORTS CARDS SHIPPING IN THE SAME ENVELOPE!

To those sellers who think it's OK to charge .50 cents extra S&H for each additional card won: IT IS NOT ALLOWED ANYMORE AND IS CONSIDERED UNREASONABLE SHIPPING FEES BY EBAY! Let's break this down for the slow sellers:

1) We already established that a 3-OZ envelope costs you $2.17 in postage (extra ounces are like .07-.10 cents using eBay's Print Shipping Label Service).

2) We already established that sellers can buy quality bubble envelopes right on eBay for .25 cents each (OR LESS)!

3) We already established that the maximum handling fee allowed for multiple items shipped in the same envelope is .25 cents.

So $2.17 + .25 + .25 = $2.67 & rounding off to $3.00 is OK as far as I'm concerned (to pay for top-loaders if BRAND NEW with blue masking tape ONLY on tops) and that is the MOST any sports card seller should charge you for shipping MULTIPLE sports cards to you safely packaged. That $3.00 amount is for an average package. If you win only one thin card, sellers should adjust accordingly. There are some sellers who understand the new rules, and have common-sense. These sellers are charging $2.32 average Shipping & Handling AND NO EXTRA CHARGE FOR ADDITIONAL CARDS WON! This is the RIGHT WAY to sell sports cards on eBay!!! I congratulate & recommend those sellers who do not charge for extra items won! THANK YOU!

If you explain everything I stated here to a sports card seller (especially more than once or one way) and asked for a refund of the amount they overcharged ($1.50, or $2.00 in most cases- I wouldn't bother for anything less but I still would tell the seller they are breaking eBay rules and send them a link of the Shipping Rules page) and they keep saying "I DID NOT OVERCHARGE YOU FOR SHIPPING!" Then call eBay and tell the eBay Specialist (ask if they are) that a Sports Card seller OVERCHARGED YOU for Shipping & Handling according to eBay's Reasonable Shipping Rules and you want to file a complaint against the seller. You can add that the seller refused to refund the amount that you were overcharged.

To end this page I want everyone to think back to collecting in 2001 when baseball was ON FIRE!!! This was before the steroid era, before Corporate assholes ran card companies, back when anyone could actually talk to card company and price guide big shots on the phone! Remember those great days? I certainly do. Would you sellers who are now trying to get all your eBay and PayPal fees out of buyer's Shipping Fees would have done this WRONGFUL ACT in 2001? Of course not. No one did this (for the most part) until 2009 when the economy began to collapse and cards stopped selling for as much as they used to.

Sellers taking out their anger on their buyers is the stupidest thing any seller could do because: it stops buyers from buying from you, it stops bidders from bidding on items they really don't want- but bid anyway while it's cheap just so they can justify paying the $3.00 shipping fee a little better.

SELLERS ARE LOSING MORE MONEY THAN THEY ARE MAKING BY CHARGING .25 CENTS OR MORE FOR EACH ADDITIONAL ITEM WON BUT THEY HAVE BECOME SO BLINDED BY FRUSTRATION THAT THEY CAN'T SEE IT- SO WE BUYERS HAVE TO TEACH THEM! This is perfectly OK according to eBay's Rules and eBay will no longer put strikes against your account by complaining about BAD sellers who are breaking  eBay rules!



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.

 

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!

------------------------------------------------------------ 

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.

How Sports Card/Autograph Crooks Return on eBay

I was forever banned from eBay with my ID cardcop05 a few months ago for fighting fraudulent sellers in the sports card area. You see eBay doesn't want to lose any more money from suspended/banned sellers and I was causing at least one suspension a week on eBay. Look at my feedback for that ID- it's near perfect. Yet they permanently suspended me for no legitimate reason! Everytime I got a supervisor on the phone they'd hand up on me!!! But all their regular employees told me "your account is perfect & you have one of the highest buyer/seller ratings I've ever seen" & my account had about 4,000 feedbacks too.

So I get a phone call from an eBay employee who tells me to "just open another account with a different credit card & bank account". So I did just that using the same Paypal account and I've been buying/selling on eBay again for the last 2-months! Remember- I was BANNED FROM EBAY FOREVER!!!
I cannot keep my mouth shut and hold my tongue when it comes to informing a fellow honest card collectors about something I'm aware of & eBay reads every e-mail you send though their system, so this caused me to get suspended again: ID cert-auto-inserts . But if I would have kept a low profile I could have stayed on eBay indefinitely. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT CROOKS DO TOO! If you still trust eBay and feel completely safe buying/selling there- you are a fool I'm sorry to say that, but it's the truth. EBAY IS JUST AS CROOKED AS THE MOST SINISTER SELLERS THEY NOW PROTECT!

James McCay aka Cardcop