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PAAS Certified Autographs Removed From eBay, Allowed Back Within a Few Months

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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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Robert Sledz on February 26, 2012 at 5:24pm

How are you so sure your authentic autographs won't be next on the chopping block? It's all politics. You all don't get it. It happened with Crude oil. It's happeneing on the market place on eBay. No more Buyer beware. Cuz buyer doesn't know how to check and verify and ask questions? Seriously, folks?

Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on February 26, 2012 at 5:42pm

Buyer beware? This where sellers are allowed to sell anything they want? How is that good for the hobby? Every new collector starts out as a begineer. Its fair to rip them off and just say buyer beware? That is pretty ignorant. I know why dont you take a stand and boycott EBAY and sell in a storefront? Oops thats no good. You'd be forced to claim the income and actually have to pay taxes on your sales.

What do autographs and authenticity have to do with crude oil?

Permalink Reply by Robert Sledz on February 27, 2012 at 12:02am

Yea. BUYER BEWARE. Very simple language.

And as for Crude oil analogy, it's a comparison, Rick. If you don't get the connection, I can't offer one.

Permalink Reply by Robert Sledz on February 26, 2012 at 5:12pm

But to employ eBay's methods is unfair merchant practices.

Permalink Reply by Robert Sledz on March 10, 2012 at 3:31am

Bull. Can any company today "police" themselves?" Seriously?

Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on March 10, 2012 at 8:52am

companies "police" themselves all the time. in many companies it is called "Quality Assurance", "Quality Control", and it is designed to improve the quality of product going out the door.

Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 10, 2012 at 2:13pm

DB...you posted a reply here that I deleted by mistake, sorry. I'm on my phone and thought I deleted the one below it.

Permalink Reply by Robert Sledz on February 26, 2012 at 4:58pm

It's still a stupid rule and if you don't think it's run vis a vis politics, you got your head in the sand.

Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on February 26, 2012 at 5:11pm

Their ball their rules. Not the only company in world that does this. If sellers dont like it they can always have yard sales. Actually the best place to sell their junk. Yard sales are full of bargain hunters who would love to score an $18 autographed 8 x 10 of Mickey Mantle.

Sucks for the EBAY seller but they need to blame the authenticator......they should have taken better care of their own reputation.

Permalink Reply by Robert Sledz on February 26, 2012 at 5:14pm

Unfair merchant practices. Same with the whole Crude oil market. Monopoly on goods that hurts the competition cuz it grows so small that today there is NONE. There is no competition for crude anymore. It's a monopoly. Hence the same atmosphere eBay is doing today. Tomorrow watch. We will not have a choice from who to buy autographs and decide for ourselves what's authentic and what's not. They think they can do it better by themselves and who to pick to sell them. Then, it ends up pulling you even though you may be an excellent collector!

Permalink Reply by Michael Kasmar-AutographPros.com on February 26, 2012 at 7:22pm

So by your logic Robert, you'd prefer to get back all the forgeries and unsuspecting buyers being ripped off by the 100,000s. You'd have eBay re-gather all the scum of the earth forgers with their current online sites using pay per click advertising and let them back on ebay so they can buy mansions with the $ they can steal again from customers on eBay. You actually liked it back when the # of forgeries the FBI stated was pretty accurately at about 80-90% of the autographs there being fake. Correct me if I am wrong but are you saying it's worse now than before?

I get your gloom and doom theory that they may take autographs away all together but the reality is, fighting forgeries, as clearly shown by the efforts of this site, is a tiresome and neverending job. I myself applaud ANY EFFORTS done toward trying to help the hobby and unknowing consumers from being ripped off. It's unrealistic to think that a mom or dad is going to do the due diligence to find out what a real Justin Bieber autograph looks like and known forgeries or secretarials. Buyer beware, seriously!?!?!?

Permalink Reply by Robert Sledz on February 27, 2012 at 12:07am

No, I am simply saying that The Buyer ought to be able to have enough brain activity to study, research, examine and verify whether something is true or not.

There are items like this true by verification of UACC members of high esteem and then turn out to be nothing more than secretarials. So why should they not be placed on the same scrutiny?

If your certified, you should be able to sell it. If someone buys it. They can always return it under the rules.

You applaud now. When it's your sellers that get jacked, we shall see if you'll applaud then. ;)