PAAS Certified Autographs Removed From eBay

Update: PAAS certified autographs with their new COAs and LOAs, which came out in May or June 2012 are now allowed on eBay again.

eBay has removed virtually all autograph listings with PAAS (Professional Autograph Authentication Service) COAs, apparently due to authenticity concerns.

It is estimated that approximately 800 listings were wiped out, and less than a dozen remained. eBay sellers reported that all of their PAAS autographs were removed except those also certified by other third-party authenticators. Sellers were told they would face possible suspension if they attempted to list them again.

While there has been no official statement by eBay, Michael Frost, PAAS's president and authenticator, acknowledged eBay's actions when I asked by email, but would not say why, suggesting we contact eBay. However he denied it was due to authenticity concerns.

However, emails from eBay provided to us by recipients contradict that.:

Why were the listings for my autographed items ended?
- We received reports regarding the authenticity of the autographs in your listings. Please be aware that we regularly receive such reports from rights owners, law enforcement officials and members of the eBay community. These reports were not the determining factor for why your listings were removed but they were taken into consideration.

In the past, blanket removal of a company's COA by eBay has been followed within a few months by an official listing on eBay's banned COA list. More on this situation as it develops.

Tags: banned, ebay, frost, p.a.a.s., paas, professional autograph authentication service

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Permalink Reply by Michael Frost on August 9, 2012 at 11:38am

I would be glad to answer any questions pertaining to the new Certificates of Authenticity being used by P.A.A.S.

First I would like to thank eBay for giving P.A.A.S. a chance to be reinstated as a trusted autograph authentication company. I also would like to thank Steve Cyrkin for his input and concerns, believe it or not he was also very instrumental in P.A.A.S. being reinstated on eBay.

I would need to explain the removal of P.A.A.S. for a brief time from eBay was not solely an autograph authentication issue. We had to repair some issues with the P.A.A.S. website and also remove some links that were not in accordance with the rules of eBay. There was also some issues with eBay's confidentiality that needed to be removed from some testimonial's and advertising by P.A.A.S..

As for the Certificate Of Authenticity issue P.A.A.S. as well and many other companies COA's have been copied and misused for fraud throughout the world. I have secured over 100 fake P.A.A.S. certificates of authenticity that were forged and issued to items that were never reviewed or examined by P.A.A.S.

We have added some security measures to our Letters of Authenticity, our seal, signature and our database to help protect the authenticity of our C.O.A.

I am sorry but due to security reasons and on going investigation that is the best I can do at the moment for an explanation.

I do wish to make myself available to members of AML for any questions of concerns about issued COA's or autograph authentication. There has been a lot of misinformation throughout the blogs and websites that may also need to be addressed in the future. I will be available as long as all information and remarks are truthful and we can all try to remain positive.

Thank you.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin on August 9, 2012 at 4:29pm

Thanks, Mike, but I don't deserve credit for eBay giving P.A.A.S. another chance. You convinced them you did.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Sledz on January 1, 2013 at 11:55pm

I don't buy anything from PAAS anyway. I have a dealer who is PADA but he sells only signatures that are obtained directly from the actor, which is nice.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Frost on January 2, 2013 at 12:24am

Robert, I do not understand what you may be refering to? This discussion is a year old and if you read the update you would see that this is no longer the case. P.A.A.S. is a autograph authentication service and does not sell or buy autographs. What PADA dealer have you been using that only sells signatures that are obtained directly from the actor???