Ebay's newest "unapproved" slab: GSA

[Frank Provasek]

(Seller contacted me confirming that ebay told him by phone that GSA is an unapproved grading company, therefore GSA cannot be mentioned in the title or description...)

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MC036 eBay Listing Removed ( 175303233)

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Dear frankcoins(sales@frankcoins.com),

 

Thank you for your bid on the following auction-style listing:

 

290199123006 - 1880-CC Morgan Silver Dollar in GSA holder w/ box & COA

 

Unfortunately, eBay has removed this . All bids or offers on this listing have been canceled. Because the listing was ended, you no longer have any obligation to purchase this item.

 

Listings are removed for different reasons. For example:

- The way the item was listed may violate eBay policy.

- The sale of the item may be prohibited by eBay.

- The sale of the item may be prohibited by law.

- The removal may be part of a separate action taken by eBay that is unrelated to the listing itself.

 

We hope you understand that, due to privacy concerns, we're unable to discuss the details of why this listing was ended. However, please note that the removal of this listing should not suggest that this seller's standing in the eBay Community has been called into question.

[physics-fan3.14]

Wow. That's messed up. Ebay better get a hold of themselves; yeah, I understand that they are trying to curb counterfeiters and third world fly by night nonsense that gets people ripped off, but this is a truly legitimate, accepted government issue that carries a premium to collectors, not some third world junk. Wow.

[DC Dawg]

I don't know who's worse... the customer service rep I spoke to in India who read a -script and couldn't answer my question or the eBay robots who don't know their from a hole in the ground!

 

Scott

[ant]

i never resell (even if they say ok its our bad) cause i think they pull alot of stuff just to get them to relist. my friend had some "tinnies"removed cause they said it was "propoganda" but when i looked they had 7 of the same item listed and not pulled. i watched and the other auctions went through. they never gave any fees back or anything.

[BULLY]

(Seller contacted me confirming that ebay told him by phone that GSA is an unapproved grading company, therefore GSA cannot be mentioned in the title or description...)

 

290199123006 - 1880-CC Morgan Silver Dollar in GSA holder w/ box & COA

 

 

Now, in fairness, I will start by saying that without seeing the listing, I cannot speak with 100% authority on how the coin was represented.

 

However, I think something about this sounds WRONG, and I don't mean how Frank is conveying it. I mean I think what sounds wrong is how eBay handled this.

 

Now, I understand that because of abuse, the ANA worked VERY HARD with eBay so eBay could establish some guidelines on the sale of certified coins, guidelines which are largely hard to enforce unless someone complains because I truly don't have any belief that eBay has the resources to police the listings looking for such things. While their software can screen for certain things, from the eBay auction listings I see which constantly violate the policy, even from the most reliable of coin dealers (even from users of these very message boards), it is clear that it is superficially successful at best.

 

That said, this argument that describing a coin as being in a GSA holder is an "unapproved grading service" is clearly misguided, and is written by someone who does not understand coin collecting. It is someone assuming that because it is an acronym, it must be a grading service.

 

IF a seller listed the coin in the GSA holder AND said that it was MS65 or something, then I see a problem (unless it was one of the NGC certified GSA holders of course).

 

If it is, in fact, describing the item accurately, as basically what is ORIGINAL GOVERNMENT PACKAGING, and eBay is misinterpreting "GSA" as referring to a Third Party Grading service instead of the General Services Administration, the government agency who packaged these, a simple fact, it should be addressed with eBay (I know, I know, that's never an easy task). It's no different than saying that the mint set or coin comes in OGP (box or envelope).

 

Frankly, as futile as it normally is, I think this one deserves a little (or a lot) of push back.

 

I had an issue with eBay which took me about three weeks and maybe about 2 emails PER DAY to resolve, but they finally got it through their thick skulls what I was trying to convey. It takes persistence, patience, and sometimes impatience, but it can pay off.

 

Therefore, I would try explaining this to eBay, even providing documentation about who the GSA is (links to government web sites maybe?) (I found these with little effort and admittedly not at lot of research as to their content, but they reference who the GSA is and the laws passed to make the coins available to the public, and when, and how (and even a photo of what it looked like, probably how it was shown in the auction listing!).

 

http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/home.do?tabId=0

http://www.coinresource.com/articles/gsa.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_(United_States_coin)

 

The other approach I would take it contacting the ANA (probably in writing, via email), especially if you (or the seller in this case) is an ANA member. I would quote the eBay policy about the sale of certified coins, and explain that I realize that the ANA did not MAKE the policy, but understand that the ANA helped them to understand what certified coins were and worked with them to DEVELOP the policy.

 

I'd go on to explain that eBay seems to have a misunderstanding that GSA holder does not mean a third party grading service, but is, in fact, a legitimate description of a type of holder that is specific and necessary, and that you're having a hard time convincing them of this. While you support the hobby and the integrity of the process of selling certified coins on eBay, it appears that they have become overzealous, and are preventing legitimate transactions based on misconceptions and this lack of understanding. Since THE ANA helped eBay come up with this policy, do they have any contacts at eBay they can use to help clarify this? It's worth a two-pronged approach IMHO. To quote Dennis Miller: That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

 

 

 

Can anyone tell I hate when well-intentioned policies go awry, and it's hard to fight city hall?

[RareSov]

Just another chapter in the long joke that is ebay.

[Conder101]

If it is, in fact, describing the item accurately, as basically what is ORIGINAL GOVERNMENT PACKAGING, and eBay is misinterpreting "GSA" as referring to a Third Party Grading service instead of the General Services Administration, the government agency who packaged these

That's my bet as to what the problem is as well. There have been so many complaints over the years about the alphabet soup grading services that now when they see "GSA" they are just assuming that it is another fly by night service and deleting the auction. They have no idea what GSA means.

[DC Dawg]

If it is, in fact, describing the item accurately, as basically what is ORIGINAL GOVERNMENT PACKAGING, and eBay is misinterpreting "GSA" as referring to a Third Party Grading service instead of the General Services Administration, the government agency who packaged these

That's my bet as to what the problem is as well. There have been so many complaints over the years about the alphabet soup grading services that now when they see "GSA" they are just assuming that it is another fly by night service and deleting the auction. They have no idea what GSA means.

Considering that eBay and eBay Live has deals with companies that run GSA auctions for non-coin related items, one would think that they would have some idea of this government agency.

 

Scott

[BULLY]

If it is, in fact, describing the item accurately, as basically what is ORIGINAL GOVERNMENT PACKAGING, and eBay is misinterpreting "GSA" as referring to a Third Party Grading service instead of the General Services Administration, the government agency who packaged these

That's my bet as to what the problem is as well. There have been so many complaints over the years about the alphabet soup grading services that now when they see "GSA" they are just assuming that it is another fly by night service and deleting the auction. They have no idea what GSA means.

Considering that eBay and eBay Live has deals with companies that run GSA auctions for non-coin related items, one would think that they would have some idea of this government agency.

 

Scott

 

Well there's where you went awry, right there, the key word: THINK. One would have to THINK.

 

Any of us who deal with eBay with any regularity know that they are programmed NOT to think. The responses are robotic, and there is no thinking involved. One must convince someone at eBay to think, and it takes a lot of convincing.

 

[James_OldeTowne]

Whenever I see threads like this, I am just floored. The absurdity of eBay policy enforcement has become appalling beyond belief.