The Complete Guide To Safely Buying Sports Cards on eBay

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I’ve had the unfortunate experience of breaking the news to many eBay buyers that the card they spent many thousands of dollars on was fake.

Thankfully eBay has strong buyer protection rules in place along with PayPal guarantees.

They also offer options to dispute the transaction through your credit card company. 

Thus, many of the buyers I’ve spoken to have been able to recover their funds.  

Still, I hope that eBay can develop a program for sports cards, similar to what they have done with sneakers and watches.  

Despite this, I decided to create this guide to help buyers protect themselves from the most unscrupulous of eBay sellers. 

eBay does a good job of shutting down fake listings if enough people complain, but oftentimes many fall through the cracks.  

Note that eBay does require that any cards that have a questionable authenticity be listed as a reprint.

Yet, buyers are still bidding up these cards thinking they’ve found a diamond in the rough.

This guide to safely buying sports cards on eBay will help you avoid these mistakes.

And hopefully, help you become a better-informed buyer. 

eBay is a great resource for baseball card collectors.

It offers the largest marketplace for both buyers and sellers.  All Vintage Cards is an eBay affiliate and we also have a store on eBay.

No medium will get you more attention for your listings then eBay. 

Yet there are also many undesirable sellers, who are leveraging the power of eBay to scam unwitting buyers. 

This happens unfortunately far too often. I keep seeing clear reprints or counterfeits that are selling for way too much money.  

A fake US Caramel Babe Ruth, a very common counterfeit card that is commonly sold on eBay as the real deal.

Thus, it is clear to me that many buyers on eBay are very ill informed. They won’t realize until years later that the card they spent hundreds or thousands on is a fake. 

So, here are the key things every eBay buyer should focus on when purchasing sports cards from the eBay marketplace. 

Closely Examine The Seller’s Feedback Rating

This is the most important thing that you can do as a buyer.  

Normally I don’t like to buy anything from a seller that has a feedback rating below 99%.  I’d say that 1 complaint out of 100 sales is probably the most I’m comfortable with.This is because a seller always has a chance to rectify a problem if there is an issue. So, there shouldn’t be any room for error.

There are, yet, those occasional instances where a buyer is being a pain and there’s not much you can do about that. 

Check Out The Most Watched Cards on eBay Right Now!

Check to see that the feedback involves sales or if it also includes feedback as a buyer.  Many scammers on eBay will boost up their feedback by buying many smaller priced items.  

Note that getting solid feedback as a buyer doesn’t take much; you pay for the item on time and a seller can leave positive feedback.

As a seller, it takes good communication, quick and efficient shipping, along with the delivery of the promised product.  

If you examine a seller’s feedback and they have say 100 positive reviews, yet 99 as a buyer, I would be wary. This person has only received feedback on one item on eBay as a seller.

Are you willing to be the test dummy for one of their first sales on eBay?

Here’s a good example of a buyer with limited seller feedback and many positive buyer feedback ratings.  

jenny08051987 has 100% Positive Feedback on 403 ratings.  

So, a  buyer would likely see that 100% and assume that they can buy with confidence. 

Yet, jenny08051987 just sold a fake 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card for $1500.

Fake 52 Topps Mantle that sold on eBay.

If we look at her profile, we can see that nearly all of that feedback has come as a buyer. And not as a buyer of household supplies or clothing, yet as a buyer of trading cards. We can see this based on just the sellers of the items that she has purchased from:  

This is just a small sampling, there she has hundreds of purchases from sports collectibles stores.

So this gives me some inclination that jenny08051987 has some sort of idea about the sports card market.  

Out of over 600 positive reviews as a buyer, she has received feedback on two items as a seller and both more than a year ago. 

And then jenny08051987 comes out of hibernation to sell one of the most valuable baseball cards of all time.  

Not to mention it would be idiotic not to have a card like this graded by PSA or one of the other major grading companies. 

She did, per the eBay rules, list the card as a reprint, but when is it okay to sell a worthless counterfeit for $1500?

eBay needs to institute a rule which limits what a seller can list for sale if they have less than ten positive reviews.

Common Terminology on eBay Auctions from Scammer Sellers

“found it in grandpa’s attic….” “inherited these from my grandfather….””don’t feel like waiting to get these graded…””someone passed these down to me 45 years ago…””acquired this in a storage auction sale…”

I will point out one imporant thing.

If a seller has limited feedback does not mean that they are some sort of scammer.  

If you are buying a card from someone with limited feedback, spend more time communicating with the seller.

Ask for more pictures to help confirm ownership and/or authenticity.  

Examine The Seller’s Other Items For Sale on eBay

Often times a closer examination of a seller’s other items for sale can provide clues on whether a seller is a scammer (or not).

Here’s an example of one seller that eBay needs to shut down.  

After examining this user’s feedback, we see that drewcecil1985 has a 112 positive feedback score over the past twelve months.  

Yet this seller has not sold any items for over a year and that feedback score has been built primarily as a buyer.

So then all of a sudden, drewcecil1985 decides to list some cards for sale.  

These cards will likely have sold by the time you are reading this. However, all of the cards he is selling are clear fakes. 

Here is one the seller had for sale — a counterfeit 1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson.  

The auction is now at over $200 with several hours left. Thankfully not into the thousands yet, but someone is going to get screwed royally on this card. 

Here’s the seller’s description for the card on the eBay auction:

1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson #79. Condition is “Very Good”. I acquired this card (among thousands of others) recently through a storage auction sale. The previous owner had hundreds of boxes of cards, mostly vintage and some modern. A few cards were graded, but most were not. I do not know the history or authenticity of the card with 100% certainty. Per eBay policy, I will be selling it as an aged reprint. Bid accordingly. Sales are final, no returns. Good luck!!

So while this seller is technically following the eBay rules, he is still implying that this card might be real.  

And in fact, with 100% certainty it is a fake.  

So there is no grey area, no possibilities of an authentic card here.  And someone is going to pay WAY TOO much for this card, thinking that it might indeed be real.  It isn’t.

But suppose you walked into this listing and you aren’t sure about the authenticity. Start examining the seller’s other listings.  And this is what you would find:

Mr Cecil has some of the hobby’s most valuable cards for sale, including two 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle cards.  

Sometimes, non card collectors are clueless and don’t realize they have fake cards. I get it.

But I’m not comfortable with someone doing so without zero homework.  

You’re telling me Mr Cecil came across two 52 Topps Mickey Mantle cards and just decided to throw them up on eBay?

As a buyer, you should immediately notice that all these cards are selling well below the actual book value.  

That’s an immediate red flag. Since other buyers haven’t stepped in to bid these cards up close to the actual value.  

Thus, the combination of ‘found it in a storage locker’, with zero seller feedback, priced way below market, along with a collection of the best cards in the hobby should be enough to tell you to walk away.

Avoid eBay Sellers That Won’t Provide Clear Images

One of the hallmarks of a scammer is the lack of clear images.  This usually entails avoiding the areas of the card that might help identify the card as a fake. 

Limited clarity on a Fleer or Bulls logo on a Jordan rookie is one example.  At that point if you are still trying to pursue the card, and the seller will not provide clear images, you must move on.  

I have been in situations when the seller is just not very technically inclined or they have a phone that takes poor photos.  

1986 Fleer Jordan sticker sold on eBay. A terrible photo is either an indication of someone that does not know how to take pictures or someone trying to hide something in the listing.

Still, today, if you are unable to examine higher quality photos of the card, there is a much higher probability of you getting scammed. 

In addition, check out their other items for sale. If they have crystal clear images on other items, yet the one in question has blurry images, it is likely a clear sign that the seller is being deceptive.  

Feel Out The Seller For The “Real Story”

I’ve covered listing red flags, like ‘inherited from grandpa’ or ‘found in a storage locker’. Sometimes those stories end up being true. 

If you see an unusual story, but still want to pursue the item, make sure to have more detailed discussions.

If the listing says ‘inherited from grandpa’, send a message, ask more about grandpa and the collection.

How did ‘grandpa’ get the cards? Was he a collector?  

Often times you get a story with intricate details. This is good news.

A seller with a limited response and sparse details has no story to tell and is likely out to take advantage of you. 

Watch Out For Relisted Items on eBay 

This is not always true, but sometimes, if you see an item relisted after a month or more from a previous listing, there is a good chance the card is a fake.  

And if it has been relisted many times, that is a huge red flag.

I recently heard from a buyer that almost bought a fake Derek Jeter Rookie card on eBay that turns out had been relisted a few times.

Often, a buyer will receive the card, authenticate it, and determine that they want to return it.

A buyer might return a card because they didn’t get what they thought they were buying. But, if there were authenticity concerns and you see it relisted, there is a very good chance that it’s a fake. 

But remember, a relisting isn’t always a red flag!   

Here’s an example:

Here’s a 1933 Goudey Gehrig card that sold for $2200 in December.  Yet the card was recently relisted.

A recently relisted Gehrig 1933 Goudey.

This is an ASA Acugrade graded card which has a history of grading altered or fake cards.  

In this case, maybe it was a buyers remorse sort of deal–the seller feedback is excellent and my guess is that they helped alleviate any buyer concern. 

This card could very well be real, but it also is probably trimmed if it is authentic.   It looks like maybe somebody also may have tried to crack open the case at some point and gave up. 

I’m always learning about different ways that the bad apples will try to take advantage of people on eBay.  So, if you’ve been taken or if you have any additional advice for eBay buyers feel free to comment below or shoot me an email at ch***@*************ds.com