We're an eBay affiliate and may be compensated on purchases made through clicks. 

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

Views: 29785

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies to This Discussion

I'm not sure how a COA no matter new or not gets them back in the door?  A COA is a COA... It gets a face lift....so what's so different about it?  I'm not sure I underdstand if this is the only reason or maybe eBay just made a new choice to allow them back in..

The new COA allows them to evaluate the current quality of authentication separate from the older authentication quality.

maybe Frost can come online and explain it so we hear it from the issuer.

my take is simple - it eliminates an argument of a more generic like COA can be copied or associated with an item that it was not originally issued for.  The more precise the COA is related to the original item the less likelihood it can be misused.

Who is going to review the "Authenticator" who is issuing the coas? Ahhh the "new" eBay.
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.

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

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.  

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???

 

I have been dealing with Tyler at this URL:  http://www.toppixautographs.com/index.html

eBay is a private company. And as such it has every right to protect its name. I have dealt with the major players like JSA, Beckett and PSA to name a few, and I've dealt with some of the other companies that say they are experts at authenticating. In fact I have sent known "False signatures" and many many more "True Signatures" that I personally witnessed to many of these companies. The results are pretty close to what I expected. The companies that you see everyday on eBay did a much better job of weeding out the false signatures. A much better job. 85% of the bad signatures came back as false. They also didn't approve several that were real and I was a little upset, but i have resubmitted some and most did come back as real as they should have.

The other companies that I see many people defending did not send back a single false signature on any of the known false signatures I sent. That is very troubling when we know there is a glut of phoney signatures in the system. I would rather have to re-submit a signature for authentication than know I have an automatic "positive" on the sent signature.

Ebay is doing the right thing. They want everyone to know they are doing the best they can to limit the presence of false signatures for sale on their site. It is good business because it gives me more confidence as a buyer that what I'm getting is the "Real Thing". It should give the rest of you the same confidence. But I know there are many people who paid a lot of money to these authenticating mills and are upset that they will lose money for doing so. I'm sorry, but next time do your research and go with the most reputable companies. They will not always be right, but they do try to be honest. We need to do everything possible to keep the rate of false signatures making it to not just eBay, but any site offering signed memorabilia for sale.

You must be brand new to the hobby. Ebay does very little these days to eliminate forgeries.

Ebay has very little interest in "doing the right thing" unless there's a significant legal threat or case. The site is jam packed with absurd forgeries and really always has been. They make minimal to no effort in removing even the most blatant of forgeries because, presumably either 1) they were fighting a losing battle in a "he said/she said" hobby that can appear near-impossible to navigate to non-collectors or novice collectors, and/or 2) EBay realized the sheer amount of money they take by dismissing the sale of forgeries as caveat emptor. Regardless, I consider them to be an accomplice to the crime these days.

RSS

Photos

  • Add Photos
  • View All

Videos

  • Add Videos
  • View All

© 2024   Created by Steve Cyrkin, Admin.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Privacy Policy  |  Terms of Service