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

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

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Eddy on January 4, 2021 at 5:35pm

Interestingly enough, one of the items now on their site that I have is a JSA authenticated piece. This weekend I had a real lowball offer on it on eBay. I made a realistic counteroffer and it was never replied too.

Anyway, I looked at the feedback of the party who had made the offer and it's full of autographed items in the last month that they have purchased at what seem to be low prices. The few that I checked all seem to have JSA, PSA or Beckett certs. or letters. One of the items purchased that was interesting to me is now on the sportscollectibles website at three times the amount....I'm sure it's them.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Eddy on January 4, 2021 at 5:38pm

BTW...who is the owner(s) behind sportscollectibles.com ?

Are they known and active in the hobby? I would think they would

be as high volume dealers.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Todd Johnson on January 4, 2021 at 6:08pm

The "About Us" link and write-up is at the bottom of their website. Sounds like they've held shows or signings in the past. But bio not updated based on the 2019 baseball comment at the end. No names of ownership that I've seen yet.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Todd Johnson on January 4, 2021 at 6:03pm

And can you share that ebay acct name that made that offer that is probably them? I'd like to look them over as well.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mike Shepherd on January 4, 2021 at 6:23pm

The images of the items that you as the original sellers posted on eBay may be protected. You might want to at least look into that possibility.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Eddy on January 4, 2021 at 6:51pm

That's a good point, Mike. I don't know if they are protected.

I've always kind of been annoyed a bit when sellers use a watermark on their items...particularly autographs when the watermark obscures the writing a bit and it's more of a challenge to see the item on the scans.

However, given this issue, I can begin to perhaps see the wisdom in a watermark. It would stop dealers like sportscollectibles in their tracks.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Todd Johnson on January 4, 2021 at 6:55pm

5 of my JSA'd items show up on their site, few that have a pic w/ celeb with my watermark on the pic, not necessarily the signed item but in same image. I think their site is just a search engine like google and it finds stuff on ebay and possibly other sites and possibly programmed for generalized titles and descriptions, and the mathematics of their numbers.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 4, 2021 at 8:03pm

It's owed by Fanatics, the largest player in sports private signings. It's also known as sportsmemorabilia.com, and they own hollywoodmemorabilia.com as well.

A lot of dealers non-exclusively consign to them, and then they pay your retail price. They're pretty careful about authenticity and meaningfully guarantee everything for life, but they do price thing really high.

Send an email to Kenley Matheny at kenley@sportscollectibles.com and ask him to remove your things immediately if you want, and put you on their list of eBayers not to grab things from.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Eddy on January 4, 2021 at 8:25pm

Does Fanatics purchase it on eBay from us and they are the eBay verified address we send it to? Surely we don't send it at their direction to the address of their buyer.

Feedback on eBay is always a consideration..... as well as definitely keeping buyer and seller safe.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 4, 2021 at 9:06pm

They buy it from you on eBay unless you consign it yourself. A lot of dealers do that, and then have it on eBay as well.

I don’t think it’s a good move especially if you’re a dealer. If somebody googles your peace or checks out sportsmemorabilia.com, and your piece is a third of their price, they may think yours is fake.

Why don’t you give them an invoice for what they used without telling you? Looks like they bought the pieces to me. Honestly, I think you’d win in court, not that you’d sue them.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Eddy on January 4, 2021 at 9:29pm

This all started for me when I was googling "Errol Flynn autographs" and I saw my eBay Flynn with a huge dollar amount under it offered by sportscollectibles.com in the google image results. I thought I was seeing things.

There are a total of 11 Flynn pieces on their website....every one of them from eBay and all different sellers except for a couple of signed checks from one source. As you can see below, the quality of the scans of the 11 Flynns on their site vary since they are all coming from different sources that they lifted from eBay.

errol flynn - Sports Memorabilia & Autographed Sports Collectibles