SECRETS EBAY NEVER WANTS YOU TO KNOW!

SECRETS EBAY NEVER WANTS YOU TO KNOW!

I've been wanting to cover this topic for quite some time now, but my discovery of this secret had nothing to do with myself (since I haven't been on eBay for a year or more) and my eBay Member helpers weren't involved in this specific fiasco either. So I waited to totally protect the person who reported this NIGHTMARE to me with absolute proof (copies of eBay e-mails, copies of the CROOK seller's eBay e-mails, etc.).

 

This story starts with a semi-expert female Tiffany collector and her grown children who chipped in to buy a $500.00+ Tiffany item from an eBay Seller. The children also did all of their homework before buying this Tiffany item for their mother's birthday. This is a very honorable woman whose been more in her life than anyone deserves because quite frankly this world is full of scumbags who couldn't care less about anyone but themselves and they are more an enemy to decent people in this country that the IRS, the Government, and the 1% of Super Rich people COMBINED. I say this because 99% of the time these SOCIOPATH scumbags have had a lifetime of practice stealing from people, so the average person would never have a clue that they were being scammed until it was way too late. If you think you are immune: YOU ARE JUST AS IGNORANT AS YOU ARE EGOTISTICAL AND DESERVE WHATEVER HAPPENS TO YOU! Fraud is at an all time high in all areas of collectibles and you all need to wake up and accept this as fact!     

 

I have been investigating fraud at all levels in the sports card and memorabilia hobby at my own expense to help others since 1992 with as much vigor as if I was being pain a Million Dollars per investigation, but I do every one for free. I know no one else does this, but then again I never met anyone like myself before and neither has any hobby expert (as per their words if they took the time to get to know me).

 Either I do something to the absolute best of my ability, and/or will learn everything I can possibly learn before doing any investigation- OTHERWISE I WON'T DO IT AT ALL. I admit there are several things I REALLY wish I could fight since 2005 but my illnesses just won't allow me to and that bothers me every single day.

 

So this woman gets her Tiffany gift and red flags are seen. So the woman starts questioning the buyer and the answers don't fit, or change with time. Then the seller lists ANOTHER ONE of the EXACT SAME Tiffany item (which was SOLD OUT by Tiffany for a LONG time) that she was given as a gift from her children that bought it from this same eBay seller.

Of course the buyer files an eBay Buyer Protection case at this point. Anyone would have been confident that they had an iron-clad case against the seller, BUT NOT ON EBAY!!! eBay tells her she needs a letter FROM TIFFANY (not a Tiffany expert, or Tiffany Retail store) but from Tiffany itself ONLY! Tiffany sellers who are experts likely know that Tiffany will not issue letters stating one way or the other whether their items are authentic. But why would an average knowledgeable Tiffany collector know this?  

 

This woman did not know that: as why would she? This is not something Tiffany advertises, nor is it something eBay advertises anywhere either. It's something collectors ONLY find out AFTER THE FACT the hard way.

 I call this FRAUD, plain and simple!

It turns out that eBay has UNWRITTEN RULES as rules that TRUMP their BUYER PROTECTION POLICY (and Seller Protection Policy too!) in all collectibles categories!

If you pay more than $500.00 on eBay for anything that can be construed as a collectible and it turns out to be FAKE: you are ON YOUR OWN! eBay's Buyer OR Seller Protection Rules or Policies no longer apply.

SO IF YOU ARE A COLLECTOR OF ANYTHING; THIS APPLIES TO YOU AND YOU HAD BETTER READ CLOSELY OR YOU'LL BE STUCK WITH A WORTHLESS PIECE OF JUNK AND YOU'LL BE OUT $500.00 (or your children will as was in this case).

 

I have never been more sickened by learning such information, NEVER! The ONLY WAY you may be able to get around this and force eBay to enforce THEIR RULES is if you are willing to pay an attorney THOUSANDS of dollars to win your $500 back??? This of course is something only the top 1% of the USA population might do, but then again even the ridiculously rich in most cases are not stupid enough to spend thousands to win $500??? It just doesn't hold water, which is EXACTLY why eBay does this!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have a Sports Card and Autograph story that falls right in with this Tiffany story, but on the other end of the spectrum.

First I need to say that I do not think anyone should be allowed to sell ANY autographs on eBay unless they are On Card Certified Autograph Inserts from established card companies since their Authenticity rate since 1990 is over 99.99% AUTHENTIC! No one can claim an Authenticity Rate anywhere near that number.

I personally would allow Steiner and Tri-Star Autographs to be sold on eBay because the have spent decades building a reputation for selling autographs that they have only personally obtained in-person at private signings. They don't sell autographs they bought from others (at least that's what I know) if it's proven otherwise for either company- then I'd make sure those autographs would NOT be allowed to be sold on eBay.   

 

Now I'll quickly explain WHY I said this.  It is far too easy to forge autographs: I've forged autographs and sent them to PSA/DNA or James Spence (or someone in my group has with other members present) and they were Authenticated as real EVERY time!!! I feel safe to say that there are as many Authenticated forgeries on the market as there are real Authenticated autographs. Is 50% Authentic a justifiable reason to pay as much (or more) for an Authenticated autograph vs. an On Card Certified Autograph Insert from a large card company? Well that's what's happening on eBay for over a year now!

 

Too much time has passed since Operation Bullpen from the FBI out of San Diego was fresh in people's minds and a whole new generation of IGNORANT BUYERS are buying forgery after forgery on eBay simply because they are TOO LAZY to do just a little research on Google!

ANY AUTOGRAPH COLLECTOR (other than ONLY On Card Certified Autograph Insert collectors like myself) NEEDS TO GO TO GOOGLE and type "Operation Bullpen FBI San Diego" and read until your eyes can't take anymore. Then wait a couple of days and start where you left off until you read the ENTIRE Operation Bullpen report!  OR you can go to Amazon and buy: Operation Bullpen Paperback – October 15, 2006 by Kevin Nelson  -

ISBN-10: 0978634004

ISBN-13: 978-0978634001

eBay has ANOTHER UNWRITTEN RULE for sellers of autographs and any collectibles. Regardless of whether you accept returns OR NOT (which is a "CHOICE" EBAY give every seller). If the buyer complain that they want a refund, eBay will AUTOMATICALLY GRANT THAT REFUND! So why does eBay give sellers a choice to check off as to whether they want to accept returns or not? TO GIVE SELLERS A FALST SENSE OF SECURITY, that's why!

 

eBay doesn't know, nor do they care that there are many buyers on eBay (mostly the young generation who learned FRAUD from the last generation) who buy MINT cards purposely so that they can switch it for their damaged card and then they will request a return. When the sellers says what ALL their listings say: "WE DO NOT ACCEPT RETURNS", they simply contact eBay, open a case saying they received a damaged item (a lie), and eBay will AUTOMATICALLY ISSUE THE BUYER A RETURN. To add insult to injury eBay makes the seller pay the return shipping fee for the lying buyer!!!

 

THE SICKEST PART OF ALL OF THIS IS THAT NO ONE HAS ENOUGH MONEY, BRAINS, OR ABILITY TO START AN AUCTION ONLY SITE THAT FOCUSES ON COLLECTIBLES ONLY WITH RULES THAT BENEFIT EVERYONE EQUALLY TO GET ALL OUR COLLECTIBLES OFF OF EBAY WHICH WILL BANKRUPT THEM???

COMC is a joke if you need to sell because you need money, like many do for medical bills thanks to F-------- USELESS OBAMACARE AND BUDGET CUTS TO THE DISABLED AND ELDERLY!!! If you cash-out of COMC THEY GET 40% (if you are owed $100- you only get $60??? Come on now...)!!! I have a very high level of INTEGRITY AND HONOR, so I can't sell my items through crooks on eBay by consignment (WHO ALL SELL AUTOGRAPH FORGERIES THEN BLAME THEIR CONSIGNEES), I don't need to mention any names. So what option is there??? NONE!

 

I live on Social Security Disability (since 2003- I "WON" it in 2006 after 3-yrs of fighting) which hasn't increased yearly in SIX YEARS! Then my mother stole over $10,000 from me to gamble with (she's the worst gambling addict I ever thought existed & ONMLY on slot machines). HER ENTIRE HOUSE IS OWED ON LOANS FROM GAMBLING!!! Sure the Government try to make it LOOK like they raise SS & SSD by $40-$60 a year, but then my Food Stamps are LOWERED by EXACTLY THAT AMOUNT OF MY INCREASE EVERY TIME OR THEY RAISE MEDICARE PREMIUMS TO THE EXACT AMOUNT! Do they really think we are that stupid, NO they just know we are too sick to do anything about it.

 

Try living on $1,180 a month in this economy. I am legally homebound and 99% bed-ridden and thanks to 'budget cuts" I can't get any help from the government (city, state, or federal) at all. I can't stay on my feet for more than 5-minutes or I will collapse. Try being 6 ' 7" tall & 255 pounds and collapsing with no strength in any of your limbs. Each time I fall it's life-threatening. Plus I have no family, my mother's mind finally snapped after living with severe mentally illness and she's in a Nursing Home with no mind left, and my father who abandoned us when I was 18-months old passed away in April, 2015. So now I have literally no family left being an only child OF an only child. Not that my family ever did much to help me, but it was more important just knowing they were there- even though they were little to no help. And forget about "friends" when they realize how sick you truly are they are GONE- that was 2007.

 

Just know I'm still fighting for all collectors no matter how sick I get. Maybe this will eventually inspire SOMEONE to do what I did when I was healthy from 1997-2004 online with a website fighting hobby fraud when I won EVERY case I investigated at one level or another. Don't forget I put TWO card companies OUT OF BUSINESS by myself (Playoff and Pacific) for fraud most wouldn't believe and had NO ONE helping or guiding me. Think what you could do if you get a group of a dozen or so hobby experts who are collectors only- fighting only for collectors?

PLUS YOU HAVE ME TO GUIDE YOU!!!

James McCay - cardcop04@gmail.com

 

   

MANY 2015 UPDATES: Topps & Panini Redemptions +++

PANINI POINTS INSTEAD OF REDEMPTIONS

Well by now most know that Panini turned to a POINTS system (instead of REDEMPTION cards) to choose from cards they put up on a special website. At first I thought this may be an improvement UNTIL I found the OUTRAGIOUS SHIPPING & HANDLING FEE they charge to ship your card to you. It's over $4.00 to ship one card! That's certainly not worth it if you are trying to redeem 400-points or less since nearly all of those cards can be bought on eBay for $5.00 or so.

Plus Panini has been sending absolute CRAP replacement cards for older actual redemption cards they have owed to collectors. I was owed (4) FOOTBALL redemptions that were owed to me for well over 4-months and they send me four worthless common player STICKER basketball autographs. PANINI KNOWS THAT I HATE STICKER AUTOGRAPHS AND USED TO GET ME ON CARD REPLACEMENTS IN THE PAST (considering that 75%+ of all my redemptions since 2011 had to be replaced!).
No matter how many people tell them that they WANT THE REDEMPTIONS they sent in a good majority of the time and have no choice but to accept whatever card companies pick for you: they should go above and beyond to help you get a replacement you would prefer in order to keep this hobby alive!!!

Now just like Topps, Panini doesn't care at all about collectors anymore!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Topps is just as bad as ever with replacing redemption cards if you are LUCKY enough to get that done AT ALL!

 

Topps hasn't sent MOST actual redemptions owed from late 2011-late 2013 at all because: THEIR EMPLOYEES AT DURYEA, PA STOLE MOST OF THESE REDEMPTION CARDS! Both a CS Supervisor and regular employee told me this whole story personally by phone in 2012-13: it has also been told to other collectors and dealers by DIFFERENT C.S. employees until Topps told them to SHUT UP about this truthful story.

 

In the process of this clusterfrack Topps had all their Executive e-mails and phone extensions BLOCKED from any contacts OUTSIDE OF TOPPS communications! There are only two reasons for them to do such a thing: the Executives don't want to be bothered, or other Topps Managers want to hide these facts from Topps Executives. IN ANY CASE THIS IS BY FAR THE WORST SCREW-UP IN THE HOBBY IN AT LEAST A DECADE AND NATURALLY COLLECTORS GET SCREWED MORE THAN ANYONE!!!

 

About a year ago a Topps CS Manager told me- "don't accept replacements for cards you really want, we'll be replacing those autographs with the actual card you are owed when the season ends for the athlete."  That turned out to be just another of Topps' lies that are more often spewed by Topps than the truth since 2011. 

I've been waiting for two 2013 UFC Knockout ON CARD Autographs: Alistair Overeem and Antonio Nogueira. UPDATE- 5/13/15 STILL WAITING!

In very early January 2015 on Topps Redemption card UPDATE: http://toppscards.tumblr.com/  they stated that they are working hard to get these UFC autographs completed and shipped. WELL I STILL DON'T HAVE EITHER OF MY UFC AUTOGRAPHS AND THEY FINALLY UPDATED THAT STATEMENT IN EARLY MARCH AND THE PLAYERS LISTED THAT TOPPS OBTAINED WERE NOT THE PLAYERS I HAVE BEEN OWED FOR ALMOST TWO YEARS!

 

Then I received a BADLY damaged Blake Bortles Topps Finest STICKER Auto/PATCH card #/50 from a pack. There was a bubble under the sticker almost the size of a dime. COME ON NOW, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO QUALITY CONTROL?  This is the SECOND time in a year that I got a badly damaged $100+ Topps card right out of a factory sealed box. The first one I just donated because I was so stressed out by Topps that I couldn't handle it at the time. But I wasn't giving up on this Bortles. Topps was lucky I gave up on the damaged Eddie Lacy/Gio Bernard DUAL Auto/PATCH card numbered to /25. I don't even own a Lacy autograph now because of this screw up by Topps and I won't buy one because 95% are STICKER AUTOGRAPHS and the ON CARD autographs are TOO EXCPENSIVE!. It had a bad dinged corner AND a terribly scribbled Bernard autograph that NO ONE would be able to identify as his autograph??? 

 

So I spent like $7.50 sending the Bortles to Topps by Priority Mail/Insured to Topps because I DO NOT TRUST TOPPS AT ALL ANYMORE! A few months pass and I called Topps and after several tries I got MINERVA. REMEMBER THAT NAME BECAUSE THIS IDIOT IS NOW IN CHARGE OF ALL TOPPS REPLACEMENTS! She was confused right off the bat. It took her 15-minutes to find that I even sent them this card for a replacement (luckily I sent it INSURED w/TRACKING) and got a call back a day later. Then she said "I'll have to send you a replacement because we don't have any Bortles autographs to send you." WHAT HAPPENED TO TOPPS HAVING REPLACEMENTS FOR ALL CURRENT YEAR PRODUCTS TO RESERIAL NUMBER WITH A NON-DAMAGED CARD??? That in itself is very scary and makes me think Topps is in far more trouble that I ever imagined!

 

THE SAME IS HAPPENING AT PANINI, THEY DON'T HAVE EXACT CARDS TO REPLACE FOR YOU FOR DAMAGED CARDS YOU PULLED FROM CURRENT YEAR PRODUCTS JUST LIKE TOPPS!!! THIS IS SCARY SINCE THIS HAS BEEN BOTH COMPANY'S POLICIES SINCE BEFORE 2000! 

 

So MINERVA asks me what I would prefer so I told her- any ON CARD AUTOGRAPH or AUTOGRAPHS of established players of retired semi-stars or better, or Hall Of Famers from products like Topps Museum, Gypsy Queen, or Topps Tier One from any year that equal the $150 value of the Bortles card.
I don't think I could have possibly made this any easier for MINERVA because every product has about 5% overage on Autograph Inserts after all boxes are finished being packaged. In short, if there are 400 autographs made of any particular player, they have at least (20) leftovers and times that by the (50) or more different players I would have liked and they have at least 1,000 ON CARD autographs laying around just from overage from each product from each year! Plus Topps has around 50% of all redemptions left-over after the expiration date has expired. So Topps has tons of Museum and Tier One autographs from 2014 on back and she could find $150 worth of cards from those products for my replacements??? OF COURSE SHE COUILD HAVE, but she knows nothing about OUR hobby and is a MORON in general, period!

 

So she tells me "I have to talk to my manager and I'll call you back." Guess when that was? NEVER! I had to call her back after waiting a month. Then she says "I have a 2013 Bowman Sterling Carlos Correa/Springer dual auto #/35 worth $150, do you want that?" I said yes considering how little I trust Topps, I'll be glad to get anything at this point, so send me that card."

 

So I waited and waited and FIVE WEEKS LATER after hearing nothing, I call MINERVA back again on 3/17/15. I was told she was not working today. So I told the CS employee that I want to speak to her boss. he said "she is the boss".

 

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS, ONE OF THE BIGGEST MORONS I'VE EVER HAD TO DEAL WITH AT TOPPS IS THE CUSTOMER SERVICE SUPERVISOR!!! 

 

So I explained all the problems I had with her spanning over 6-months and whenever she says she will do something, SHE NEVER DOES. So the guy takes my phone number (with over 2-hours left in the day at Topps) and says the Manager will call me back. UPDATE-AS OF 5/13/15 NO ONE EVER CALLED ME BACK!

 

If all of this doesn't scare you away from buying new Topps product boxes, then you deserve whatever happens to you!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PRESS PASS IS GONE FOR GOOD (bankrupt) AND I GOT SCREWED OUT OF A TRE MASON GOLD RC AUTOGRAPH THAT I WAS OWED FOR 8-MONTHS! So I e-mailed the only executive left at press Pass and told him my whole story. if he had a heart he would have sent me something for the $15 I paid for that card. But he never even responded, but the e-mail did go through correctly and I e-mailed him very soon after the end of Press Pass was announced. THE BOTTOM LINE: NO ONE CARES ABOUT ANYONE ANYMORE NO MATTER HOW MUCH GOOD THEY'VE DONE FOR THIS HOBBY MAINLY TO BENEFIT HOSPITALIZED  CHILDREN. If they don't care about people who've dedicated their lives to helping others for nothing in return, then they don't care about anyone! I GUARANTEE THIS EXECUTIVE IS STILL GETTING HIS PAYCHECKS OR AUTOGRAPH INSERTS IN PLACE OF HIS PAY!   5/13/15 UPDATE- NO ONE EVER CALLED ME!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Something very scary has been going on in the Certified Autograph Insert area on eBay since Feb. 2015. Cards that have been in PERMANENT COLLECTIONS for a decade or almost two are all of a sudden being put up for sale AND auction on eBay in numbers far greater than I've ever seen before (at least for the last TEN YEARS). I'm talking about especially; superstar ON CARD autograph/jersey cards from the very early 2000's that almost never found their way onto eBay in the last several years. Plus it's not just certain cards, it seems like many collectors are giving up on collecting and are getting rid of their very best/rare cards in their collections. Short term this will cause the prices of these cards to drop eventually as long as this lasts (and I think it will). So if you are a gambler, now's the time to start looking for cool Certified ON CARD Autograph inserts you couldn't find for years.

I already saw the effect of this as a friend just sold a very rare/expensive Auto RC Insert. It was a 2001 Elite Albert Pujols RC autograph #/100 which was the Holy Grail of RC Autograph Inserts for a decade. Low Beckett=$900, High Beckett= $1,200 (and those prices haven't changed in MANY, MANY years).I thought she'd get at least $800 for it. The bidding started at $599 and it only got two bids and ended at $655. The card has a very minor corner ding, but few of these cards don't have any corner damage due to the entire holo-foil front that has handled by the players.  

 

If you saw the way many players ship cards back to card companies you wouldn't believe it unless you saw it. WELL I SAW IT. I've literally seen players send (400) cards in an (800) Count box back to Playoff totally loose with absolutely nothing to keep the cards from bouncing all around the inside of the box from left to right and back again. So this literally destroyed the first 20-30 cards on each side, plus can ding corners on nearly every card in the box depending how many times a Post office employee drops the box.  When Playoff would send (400) cards to a player, they'd send them in a box that fit them as snugly as possible or they'd add black foam padding on each side to stop the movement of cards during shipping. But some players get careless, don't use the padding to ship cards back and collectors wonder why they pull autographs with dinged corners. This is also the reason that rarely some autographs had to be replaced entirely. Plus some players man-handle cards while they are signing them. ALL OF THESE FACTS WOULD BE GREAT TO PUT IN A AUTOGRAPH INSERT ONLY PRICE GUIDE, DON'T YOU THINK? If you agree, then e-mail EVERYONE at Beckett and tell them you want a Certified Autograph Insert Only Price Guide!!!

 

5/13/15 UPDATE - I bought a 2001 Fleer Legacy Albert Pujols RC Autograph in MINT Condition for $150.00 which I may get graded by BGS. This is the Pujols Autograph RC I always wanted because it's the ONLY one where he signed his last name clearly with the "o"! Plus it's a nice white background card where the autograph jumps out at you. It's just a really nice looking card. It's serial numbered higher than most of his RC Autographs, but so what??? Not many people care about the difference in serial numbers anymore as a new breed of collector has taken over the hobby:

ON CARD CERTIFIED AUTOGRAPH INSERTS ONLY COLLECTORS RULE OUR HOBBY!

I predicted this over 16-years ago and it finally has come to pass. If the people at Beckett had half a brain, they'd make an AUTOGRAPH INSERT ONLY PRICE GUIDE. But I've been telling them to do this since at least 2000 and they never did, so I don't expect them to do anything intelligent ever anymore which is why I haven't bought a Beckett Price Guide in years. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

FINALLY:

 

PLEASE KEEP REPORTING SPORTS CARD SELLERS WHO ARE CHARGING .50 CENTS OR MORE FOR EACH ADDITIONAL CARD YOU WIN (whether they mention it in their listings or not)! This is totally against eBay's Reasonable Shipping Fee rules and these sellers MUST BE NOTIFIED BY EBAY THAT THEY ARE BREAKING THESE RULES. You need to tell eBay this or the seller will not stop overcharging! The only way to do that is for at least THREE different buyers to complain about the seller using those extra fee profits for paying their eBay/PayPal fees! That's the one rule that eBay NEVER let sellers get away with.

 

So this is how you need to explain it to eBay (AND YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND AS A SELLER):

 

Since it's a FACT that using eBay's PRINT SHIPPING LABEL service is by far the cheapest way to get postage ($1.93 for a 3-OZ package, and only $2.25 for a 6-OZ package), and being that quality bubble envelopes (poly or paper) are .25 cents each RIGHT ON EBAY w/FREE Shipping, plus all other expenses don't add up to more than $3.00 total ($2.25 +.25 +.30 for cases/penny sleeves +.05 for tape ) 

There's absolutely no justification to charge more than $3.00 TOTAL shipping (NO MATTER HOW MANY SINGLE CARD ITEMS ARE WON) in the Sports Card area if the package weighs less than 6-ounces (which 99.9% do). 

My friend had a seller tell him that he didn't have a printer and that's why he charges $4.00 S&H (TO START) and then charges .50 cents for EACH ADDITIONAL item the buyers win! THAT'S THE LAMEST EXCUSE I EVER HEARD! Plus you need to know that this seller actually SELLS (not lists and doesn't sell) over (100) items to DIFFERENT BUYERS a week, had a sports card store for decades. YET HE DRASTICALLY OVERCHARGES FOR SHIPPING & HANDLING ON EBAY BECAUSE HE DOESN'T HAVE A PRINTER TO PRINT HIS OWN SHIPPING LABELS AND SAVE EACH BUYER AT LEAST $1.50 IN SHIPPING FEES! Have you ever heard anything as ridiculous as this before?

Maybe you should know that an HP 1010 printer at Best Buy costs around $35 (with all taxes included), and comes with FREE ink cartridges. Then you need to set your printer print setting to DRAFT and you'll be able to print at least five times more labels. In addition, replacement ink cartridges (you only need BLACK) cost less than $10 each (with FREE SHIPPING) right on eBay!

 

Plus so many bidders stay away from sellers who charge ANYTHING for additional cards won, so calculating in just ONE lost bid and that's .25 cents you lost on ONE CARD!!! Many buyers will buy a few extra cards just to justify paying the $3.00 S&H fee, so that's THREE MORE BIDS YOU ARE GETTING WHETHER THEY WIN THE ITEM OR NOT (another free .75 cents). Are some sellers that ignorant and hard-headed that they can't see how much money they are LOSING by overcharging for S&H???

 

Even most sellers who live on BLOWOUTCARDS message boards are finally agreeing with me that charging those extra per card fees are senseless as they lose bids, get lower seller ratings, and get angry buyers so why risk any of that (and that's without ANY ONE of them mentioning that it's AGAINST EBAY'S RULES AND THEY CAN BE SUSPENDED FOR OVERCHARGING S&H!)? This was the attitude on a thread where just a few idiots out of dozens (flydisco being the main ignorant JERK instigator) thought I was currently on eBay which I haven't been for many, many months now. When I want something on eBay, I have a friend bid for me- so I don't need to be on eBay! Then there's the couple of morons who said "cardcop's been dying for 15-years now." I pity anyone who makes comments like that about a truly terminally ill person (like myself)- one day they may say something stupid to a very ill person face to face and I hope they wind up sicker for life than the person they made the stupid comment to.

 

BTW- I've been terminally ill since 2009 when I was told my illnesses (main ones are severe General Myasthenia Gravis with Hyperthymusism blocking all medications from working right if at all) will only get worse and I'll be lucky to make it past 50-years old (I'm 48 now). I've been homebound and 99% bed-ridden since 2009 as well. I'm in severe-excruciating pain with severe weakness 24/7-365 and no I have no family, and offline friends prefer "out of sight, out of mind" with someone as sick as I am. So I've been terminally ill for almost 5-years now. If any of these morons knew the first thing about any of my illnesses (or cared) they'd never post such comments. The sickest thing is that the worst of these people believe in god... what would your god do to you for making fun of a terminally ill person? INSTANT DEATH sounds about right to me...

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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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!!!  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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??? 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

To update this question by email, please reply to this message. Because your reply will be automatically processed, you must enter your reply in the space below. Text entered into any other part of this message will be discarded.

[===> Please enter your reply below this line <===]

[===> Please enter your reply above this line <===]"

If your issue remains unresolved, please update this question here.

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.

To update this question by email, please reply to this message. Because your reply will be automatically processed, you must enter your reply in the space below. Text entered into any other part of this message will be discarded.

[===> Please enter your reply below this line <===]

[===> Please enter your reply above this line <===]"

If your issue remains unresolved, please update this question here.

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

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!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

 

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

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