I received this message from another collector and determined that the content was serious enough to post here. The original message was written by a major Canadian numismatic dealer. The message informs us that eBay no longer recognizes ICCS as a grading service and that users who insist on putting ICCS grades in their item header can be suspended. No matter how many times I read this message, though, it just does not make any sense. Judge for yourself:
Re: ICCS Coins Officially Out On Ebay
I don't normally monitor this site as we just don't have the time however.we recieved a disturbing call yesterday that I feel compelled to share with everyone.Our Ebay rep Molly, who we have been in contact with many times over the last few years primarily when we were running our Ebay Live auctions called to give me a personal overview of their new policy.
Any of you who have been at a floor auction and wittnessed Ebay lock up on us know our frustration. She's the lucky lady who we would vent upon. Anyway,she called directly to inform us that the upper echelon at Ebay has decided to recognize only 5 grading services on their platform and without exception.They are ANACS,NGC,NCCS,ICG and PCGS. Starting Monday no listing will be allowed to have the grade or grading service listed in the header unless it is graded by one of the 5 approved services. If it is not,it is to be considered a raw coin.
Needless to say, I had lots to say and to Molly's credit "she"was very empathetic to "our" woes however, it is not her call she is simply the messenger. I practically begged for the opportunity for a grouip of us to have at least a conference call with Ebay management responsible for this decision but she was quick to point out that at this juncture it is not a topic open for discussion as this has not been a rash decision but, rather a long and arduous one going back over a year on their part.
I pointed out that this is a major blow to the Canadian coin business and to ICCS. I was adamant in the fact that ICCS and Brian Cornwell were beyond reproach in their ethics and contributions to numismatics in Canada in the last 25 years. ICCS coins constitute probably 80% of real coin sales at auction and the prices realized are often multiples of what other certified coins bring in the same grade. We used to keep track of hits on coins on our website before an auction and the ICCS coins would have for instance 20- 200+ hits and the other services of the same coin and grade would have 0- less than 5 so you tell me which service has the greater respect in the Canadian collector's eyes?
I asked how a collector is now supposed to do a search for their coins of interest and she stated it will no longer be possible as a search will not pick up the key words in the body or description of the coin ad. Any listings from Monday forward will be removed if they do not comply and one time warnings of suspension from Ebay will be given. The body of the ad can give the grade and the photo can have the holder visible.
I told Molly that it is very unlikely that a collector will manually scan thousands of coins looking for just 2or 3 coins that fit his/her criteria. Unfortunately that is what they will have to do at this point was her response. Sandy and I had discussed this earlier in the week but it did come as a surprise so qucikly. The amazing thing to me is that Ebay was never in contact with Brian at ICCS which I found out when I immediately called him with the news.
They obviously don't give a $*&% about the well being of the innocent but they don't do a damn thing about the crooks of their platform. We have a guy who gave us 2 negative feedback about 6 months ago and has been back on with 3 different ID's since.We have multiple foul letters from this jerk which were forwarded by us and others to Ebay and he is still on their system screwing people out of their items every week and they do nothing! Yet we have hundreds of good people trying to make an honest living with a great affordable product that works and Ebay puts the screws to it. Go figure.....
