Filed by: Carlo Alberto Tomasini
To: eBay Inc. — Office of the CEO; Trust & Authenticity Guarantee Program Leadership

 
1. WHO WE ARE
We are the collectibles community — buyers and sellers of trading cards, sports memorabilia, and high-value collectibles. For over 25 years, this market has transacted on eBay and built the trust that made eBay a leader in the category. eBay did not create this market. Collectors did. This petition asks eBay to respect the community that built it.

2. WHAT WE ARE ASKING
We ask eBay to:

A. Reform the Authenticity Guarantee (AG) program to adopt a transparent, per-leg, tamper- and impact-evident chain of custody, modeled on ISO 22095:2020 (Chain of Custody — General Terminology and Models) principles and reinforced by CISA chain-of-custody controls (unique asset serialization, tamper-evidence, continuous monitoring, and defined breach response).

B. Limit inspection scope to authenticity, not grader-level condition adjudication. Flag an item only when it differs from the listing to the naked eye — not on micro-condition calls (corner wear, surface scratches, centering) that constitute grading, a service sellers did not consent to.

C. Make dispute resolution transparent and two-party: when a discrepancy is alleged, both buyer and seller review the same time- and geo-stamped pre-shipment and post-arrival evidence (including packaging/seal condition on unpacking), rather than a unilateral, non-appealable determination.

D. Allow buyers and sellers to OPT OUT of forced third-party authentication when they mutually agree to a documented, direct buyer-to-seller chain of custody meeting the published standard in Section 5 below.

3. WHY — THE PROBLEM
Since 2020, eBay has required high-value trading cards to pass through a third-party authenticator before reaching the buyer. As of approximately three weeks before this filing, eBay lowered that threshold to $200 (from $250), applying to both raw and graded cards — pulling far more of the market into a process it cannot opt out of.

This inserts a leg into the transaction that neither the buyer nor the seller chose and neither can decline. A card that leaves a seller's hands in known condition can be damaged, mishandled, or swapped in transit — and both parties are bound to a process they cannot refuse, even when they would prefer a documented direct handoff between themselves.

When a collector ships a card directly to an authenticator or grader for their own purposes, they control the packaging and the handoff. eBay's AG removes that control and forces the leg — while denying any opt-out, even to sellers willing to provide superior, documented custody themselves.

4. THE EVIDENCE
The following reflects publicly reported events and the documented experience of the collecting community.

Active litigation: As reported by ecommerce journalist Liz Morton (ValueAddedResource), a buyer has sued eBay and PSA over a card valued at approximately $53,000, alleging the authentication process failed to catch altered listing images and clear condition differences.
Authentication failure: As reported by the same outlet, a counterfeit Michael Jordan card valued at roughly $23,000 passed through eBay authentication — one of multiple documented counterexamples to leadership's public claims.
Leadership credibility: eBay CEO Jamie Iannone has been publicly reported as stating that, to his knowledge, no counterfeits have ever passed through eBay authentication centers — a claim hobby enthusiasts have publicly contradicted with documented cases.
Processing delays: eBay users have reported multi-week authentication delays, with PSA citing "unprecedented" submission volume.
Community experience (scope): Sellers across eBay and hobby forums report cards being flagged or returned over condition calls — surface flaws, corner wear — with the common refrain, "I am not a grader." The community's contention is that a program marketed as authenticity verification is, in practice, conducting grading that sellers never agreed to.
Documented mishandling: Sellers have publicly reported receiving back cards that were damaged or not the same card, without recourse — precisely the chain-of-custody gap this petition seeks to close.
Note: Quantified public data on AG dispute and mishandling rates is not currently available. This petition relies on verified program facts, publicly reported cases attributed to their sources, and the documented experience of the community. It will be supplemented with aggregated complaint data as it is compiled.

5. THE STANDARD (Opt-Out Requirement)
A seller electing to opt out under Section 2(D) must provide a chain-of-custody record modeled on ISO 22095:2020 principles and CISA chain-of-custody controls, meeting all of the following — a standard stricter than eBay's current process:

Full pre-shipment condition record — front and back, out of sleeve, all four corners and surface under raking light, time- and geo-stamped, with continuous (unedited) packing video showing the item sealed into its protective packaging.
Unique serialization + tamper-evident seal — a serialized, void-if-opened seal, photographed at sealing.
Impact/environmental indicator — a shock or tilt indicator (e.g., single-use impact logger) enclosed, so post-arrival status can localize damage to a transit leg.
Per-leg tracked, signature-confirmed custody — full carrier tracking with signature on delivery.
Post-arrival record — buyer documents package/seal/indicator condition on immediate unpacking, time- and geo-stamped, before opening, closing the custody loop.
Immutable, retained records — all documentation retained and available to both parties and eBay in the event of a dispute.
An opt-out sale meeting this standard provides equal or greater protection than forced third-party authentication — because it makes every leg auditable and assigns liability to the leg where a break actually occurs.

6. THE ASK, RESTATED
We are the market that made eBay — buyers and sellers alike. We are not asking to avoid accountability; we are asking to provide more of it, verifiably, and to have the choice to do so. Reform Authenticity Guarantee. Honor its true scope. Make disputes transparent. And give buyers and sellers who mutually meet a documented, rigorous standard the right to opt out — together.

Sign to tell eBay: respect the community that built this market.