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This is very disturbing......www.sportscollectibles.com

I just had a really weird and unsettling experience. 

I currently have a signed item that I am selling on eBay to (hopefully) raise some funds for another piece I have had my eye on. The piece I have listed is signed by a person that I have great interest in. Periodically, I do a Google search of their name adding "autograph" to see if anything pops up of them fresh to the market.

Tonight I was floored to see my item on eBay come up on Google....except it's not my listing and it's not on eBay. Instead, it's being offered on a website by a business who is not me, that I don't know and have never done business with. The website is www.sportscollectibles.com. Also, the price on their website is almost three times the amount that I have set as a Buy It Now on eBay but they have a "markdown" on it which is still twice what I am asking for it on eBay.  On top of all of that, they have used the scan of the piece that I provided on eBay on their site....as well as taking information that I provided in my description to use 

As I say, I do not have this piece on commission with www.sportscollectibles.com and actually have never heard of them until this evening.

What's going on here?  Anyone have any experience with this company?  Are they scammers?  Also, what would be your advice on what I might do?

Thanks!

Here is their website...it's pretty slick.

Sports Memorabilia & Autographed Sports Collectibles

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Whole Situation is wrong & unethical.

Blue Nile does this as well with diamonds .....they have zero inventory as well & list the inventory of others in the industry from the Rappaport dealer database w permission however from the dealers they use.

That's also odd...but the difference as you point out is that there is a permission given by the actual dealers/owners.  As I've said, the sportscollectibles guy on a chat actually stated that he had the item in their warehouse and the next day on a chat claimed to have pulled it from the warehouse and had it before him to describe it more thoroughly....all the while hanging framed on my wall. 

In addition, I would place a note on my listing that “I am the true owner of this item & it is in my possession. Be wary of other listings that may  claim ownership & list it w/o my permission & claiming TPA.

Well my item I purchased from them is no longer on their site. No contact or eBay changes but I’m sure they are looking for a like product which I’m positive they will not find.

I had one of those 'make an offer' to watchers on ebay of said item.  I'm sure it's someone from Sports Collectibles.  I only dropped it by 5% in an offer.  Their next step should be a counter offer way less or should be canceling my order and refunding.  I doubt they would do this and take any $ amount loss to buy it and unknowingly sell back to me the customer, well until someone might recognize the name on receiving it and the same name/addr shipping to.  I should have arranged that differently but don't see this going thru.

Looks like "case closed" for me!  I hadn't gone thru my emails yet today from Sports Collectibles is that they have credit me for my purchase in some formatted email, not a personally typed note or any explanation at all.  The email in identifying item of purchase did display their regular price, based on teh sale price I bought at from storing item in my cart, not the then current higher reg/sale price after my first ebay increase.  This email might have come before I sent an offer to random watcher (them likely, probably came earlier in day from ebay.)  But I had said previously today that my item is no longer listed, but also nor are 3 other JSA items of mine, likely the other 2 as well but those names when searched come up with site error, so they are probably fixing things, or have at least removed my ebay acct searches from posting my authenticated items on their site.  Of course this will still go on with everyone else, but thanks for making this site aware of how they operate.  Hope others will at least tell them to remove you/you acct from searches.  If you care how a business, including your own ebay biz operate, you will also do what you can, and not just care about getting a sale or the money, as one individual here has indicated their stance on.

Todd, the sportscollectibles position, as I understand it now, is that the only way that a person can get their property off of that site is to contact them directly and tell them basically to "cease and desist". The burden of having your stuff removed from their website falls upon you as the actual owner that they have lifted the descriptions and photos from. 

This assumes that you actually know your stuff has been uploaded on their site to begin with. I mentioned at the beginning of this thread that I only came to know my eBay listing had been cut and pasted on their website was when I did search for other examples of the signer's autograph that I have for sale. They have used the language of saying that they work with "many vendors" that want their items up on their site.  I've spoken with a few collector friends who also have TPA items on eBay that they have also now discovered are on that website. Like myself, they had no idea their listings were being used by a company they had no relationship with.

As someone above correctly pointed out, sportscollectibles has a professional looking website with items that they are representing as part of their stock. If a potential buyer sees an item on their autograph dedicated website and then happens upon the same item on eBay from the real owner who might not have much feedback as a smaller seller...guess who the potential buyer might think is the fraud?

I don't mean to sound somehow self-righteous in this.  It's just that this seems so wrong in so many ways. Not the least in that it can possibly really hurt hobbyists who dabble a bit and are also small sellers....and have done the work for that company.

You simply caught them playing the game.  

That’s why I hope more sellers become aware and tell them to “cease and desist”, the more that do that, maybe they’ll get a clue and change their method of selling unowned items.  However my 6 items no longer show up likely because of what they went thru of an unsuccessful eBay purchase they would have lost money on reselling to customer (me) having to refund it.

Funny, I just found a former item of mine that I sold (maybe it was on their site previously) but now the eBay owner has it listed for 7x what I sold it for or best offer, thus Sports Collectibles has it (on sale, ha) for 1250.  At least eBay buyer bought it first and can do as they please, unlike Sports Collectibles routine.

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