We are an eBay affiliate and may be compensated for clicks on links that result in purchases.

TPA Relationships with Auction Houses

Starting to see a disturbing trend in this hobby. We have TPAs working “exclusively” with certain auction houses. While Heritage for example Accepts from PSA, JSA, BAS, etc. Houses like Rockhurst and Retailer Mill Creek Sports seem to be in bed with Steve Grad and Beckett. R&R with Epperson and Real!, etc. I see less diversity and multiple COAs and more single-sourced from the same TPA who clearly is getting paid to authenticate hundreds upon hundreds of pieces. I wonder if this is affecting the integrity of what’s being placed in the market?

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Eddy on October 27, 2024 at 9:17am

Doug -

This is an interesting topic and I appreciate you raising it. I have mixed feelings about this and hopefully there will be a spirited discussion following.

Like it or not, those TPA letters and/or certs do often make a great deal of difference as far as investment and resale. One phenomenon I've noticed is that some eBay sellers that I follow seem to regularly buy up items at RR which have been "pre-certified" for RR by PSA. They also purchase the PSA full letter of authenticity you can add to an RR item as part of your winnings and quickly attempt to flip these items on eBay for substantial profit with the letter accompanying their new eBay listing. Purely from a business perspective, this makes a great deal of sense. The flipper has also done ZERO authentication work themselves.

It's interesting for me to see "new items" in some of these sellers' eBay stores with those letters and then look back at the archived recent sales at RR to see the difference they are hoping for in their investment.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Doug James on October 27, 2024 at 9:28am

Thanks and fully agree. Heritage does this with “pre-certified PSA”. They guarantee PSA passes it if you send within 90 days.

I guess after that gizmo turns into a gremlin 🤔

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Eddy on October 27, 2024 at 11:01am

To your original point, Doug...

Here's RR's statement concerning their pre-certification by PSA on a random listing:

*This item has been pre-certified by a trusted third-party authentication service, and by placing a bid on this item, you agree to accept the opinion of this authentication service. If you wish to have an opinion rendered by a different authenticator of your choosing, you must do so prior to your placing of any bid. RR Auction is not responsible for differing opinions submitted 30 days after the date of the sale.

There's a lot of weight being put here on the PSA opinion. Until recently, they had been using Beckett for this exclusive role. Having previously in earlier years used PSA, I believe. I wonder why the periodic switching back and forth of TPA affiliation?