eBay vs PWCC: What’s It All About?

When on August 17th I noticed that I had received an email from eBay, I didn’t think much of it. The subject line was “Customer update,” so I just figured eBay was telling me that it had upgraded its security or billing system. But I did a double take when I opened this email up and saw the letters PWCC within the text.

         It stated in part that “individuals associated with PWCC have engaged in shill bidding,” which eBay prohibits, of course. Cutting to the chase, eBay kicked out PWCC, a major seller of all kinds of sports cards. Why? And why now?

         A few thoughts come to mind. First, if PWCC has indeed been involved in shill bidding, it didn’t start on August 16th. It could be that eBay’s hand was forced by an outside entity, like the FBI. For the past two years the government has been looking into PWCC because of allegations that it was working with one or more card doctors to allow these fraudsters to get more money for the cards they auctioned on eBay.

         Perhaps the FBI sent a message to eBay executives that indictments against PWCC were coming soon. But admittedly this would be very unusual because it never says a word about its investigations until they’re made public through a press conference. So, this is pure speculation on my part.

         Still, it’s a huge move on eBay’s part. It will cost them money. But when you look at the entire company (net income of $1.8 billion in 2019, according to Wikipedia), losing PWCC as a customer isn’t going to break them. Whatever the reason, it had to be pretty compelling.

         Another factor to consider is that for a number of months now PWCC has been slowly developing its own auctions on its website. eBay can’t be thrilled about this. But doing this out of spite doesn’t make much sense. Any business that makes moves out of spite isn’t very professional. You would have to question the wisdom of eBay executives behaving this way.

         One commentator on the net54baseball forum believes that PWCC has done far more than eBay or any other consignor in trying to eradicate shill bidding. He points out that for its own auctions PWCC will send you emails to confirm that you intend to purchase an item after you’ve placed a bid for the first time. Otherwise, it will cancel the bid.

         In addition, you must be vetted by the PWCC finance team if you want to participate in their premier auctions. Finally, if you win an item in any of their auctions but don’t pay for it they will ban your account and you won’t be able to bid again.

         And how did PWCC react to being kicked out of eBay? Its executives said they were shocked and to their knowledge none of their employees have engaged in shill bidding.

         “PWCC goes to great lengths to ensure that its employees follow eBay’s rules and PWCC employees do not have access to eBay’s bidding records or information,” the company’s statement said. This statement also reveals that PWCC has worked with eBay for more than 10 years to remove the bid retraction option for buyers, eliminate forced return policies for buyers, and reduce the “significantly not as described” window from 30 days to three.

         Bottom line? This all happened for a specific reason that isn’t totally clear right now. Any speculation might be spot on or completely off base. One thing I can guarantee: Answers will be forthcoming, the fog will lift, and everyone following this move by eBay will end up shaking their heads and saying, “Okay. I understand now. It all makes sense.”