For those who aren’t familiar with PWCC, it’s the world’s largest trading card auction house. The company was established in 1998 and hosts monthly auctions for graded cards.
In 2020, we saw a giant boom in all corners of the market from sports cards to a resurgence in interest for the Pokémon TCG. People realized they could make money by buying raw cards, sending them to companies like PSA for grading, and selling them for a premium.
PWCC, in their own words, “set the market, simply because we reach the largest base of collectors and investors.”
Most of the time, when appraising the value of a graded card, PWCC auctions will be looked to to help determine value.
We watched prices shoot through the roof last year, and although they have settled down a little, there have been noticeable instances of cards selling for well above market value. When that happens a few times, it could be assumed that someone was just willing to pay more for something rare. But as many auctions started to raise suspicion, problems began to arise.
All of a sudden, eBay released a statement yesterday stating “individuals associated with a trading card seller, PWCC, have engaged in shill bidding. As a result, eBay has restricted PWCC’s selling privileges and listings, effective today.”
Shill bidding, for those unfamiliar with the term, essentially means driving the price of an auction up with bids from someone associated or within the company who is selling the product.
As of today, PWCC has responded saying they were shocked to hear about this and that eBay never presented any evidence of this claim. Their response reads: “to PWCC’s knowledge, its employees have never engaged in any behavior that violates eBay’s agreements and policies. PWCC is considering all available legal options in response to eBay’s defamatory press release and its bad-faith action to restrict PWCC’s privileges on eBay.”
It is well known within the collecting community that PWCC has been planning to move their auctions to their own website for some time now. Some are speculating that eBay is simply bullying them because they were already planning to leave and take tons of sales with them.
According to PWCC’s response letter, “Today’s unilateral action by eBay simply hastens PWCC’s move to the new platform.”
Here’s a few interesting videos discussing this situation:
You may also like
-
When We Were Young Music Festival Returns in 2022 with My Chemical Romance, Paramore and a LOT More!
-
THE “COOLEST” YOUTUBE DJ SETS OF 2021
-
Courtney Cole Explores Healing Frequencies on New Single, “Light”
-
Talking Funko and YouTube with Crystal Lea
-
Almost Two Decades Later: The Matrix Resurrections Official Trailer