Fanatics collect - sooo many issues

[Rrat]

Where to even start lol

The main issue is for the second time a card I purchased there, that cgc authenticated (they have someone in house at fanatics) has been rejected by PSA as being fake.

The timelines are awful, none of those posted on their site are accurate.

The “dealer program” was pitched with many great perks, however none are actually delivered.

The worst customer service in the hobby, not even close.

They seem to break a lot of my slabs in the warehouses 2 so far (in 3 months).

Very high rate of delinquent auction bidders, with no action against them. And since fanatics only defaults thé card back to you after 2 full weeks of waiting, a card ypu thought you sold can be in limbo for a while, and will take at least another couple weeks to relist.

There are no penalties for delinquency, only the sellers get punished by the incredibly slow action.

I dare you to find a timeline on their site that they actually meet.

Plus side, the grading process is pretty good, and fast. But once cards get back to be vaulted it can take a while to be able to list. Thé cgc auth process is even worse, sending a raw card for auth then auction = a full month to get sold and paid out.

There is more, but I’ve forgotten., my first thread so maybe I’ll save some for later.

Tread very carefully with these clowns, I think the best way to use them, especially for an international seller seeking to avoid tariffs, is grade ghere, then send cards to sell elsewhere. ALT is fast, professional and modern.

I warned you!

[Blazed]

Originally Posted by Rrat

Where to even start lol

The main issue is for the second time a card I purchased there, that cgc authenticated (they have someone in house at fanatics) has been rejected by PSA as being fake.

The timelines are awful, none of those posted on their site are accurate.

The “dealer program” was pitched with many great perks, however none are actually delivered.

The worst customer service in the hobby, not even close.

They seem to break a lot of my slabs in the warehouses 2 so far (in 3 months).

Very high rate of delinquent auction bidders, with no action against them. And since fanatics only defaults thé card back to you after 2 full weeks of waiting, a card ypu thought you sold can be in limbo for a while, and will take at least another couple weeks to relist.

There are no penalties for delinquency, only the sellers get punished by the incredibly slow action.

I dare you to find a timeline on their site that they actually meet.

Plus side, the grading process is pretty good, and fast. But once cards get back to be vaulted it can take a while to be able to list. Thé cgc auth process is even worse, sending a raw card for auth then auction = a full month to get sold and paid out.

There is more, but I’ve forgotten., my first thread so maybe I’ll save some for later.

Tread very carefully with these clowns, I think the best way to use them, especially for an international seller seeking to avoid tariffs, is grade ghere, then send cards to sell elsewhere. ALT is fast, professional and modern.

I warned you!

Interesting

Considering all the ATH's that are being pumped

Wondering how many of the ATH's aren't getting paid for

[Rrat]

Good question…6 straight auctions with at least one defaulted sale for me, and usually I have about ten items per auction

[Rrat]

One default was thé all time high on an Arch Manning AMA PSA 10 (panini instant)…180 draft weekend, defaulted…much less two weeks later lol

[Rrat]

Six months now fanaticscollect collect has been “taking on” my feedback and “making changes” to fix “pain points”.

In reality things are getting worse in multiple ways; processing slower, accuracy getting worse, and it’s clear that this org can’t get out of its own way.

Defaults have increased, and the time it takes to return something defaulted to my vault is now over 15 days…they always blame accounting.

Intake is slower, longer to open a package and way longer to get it moving….took 12 business days for them to fulfill a shipping request from my vault.

Management is not effective, there are no supervisors or anyone capable of making the changes. The managers are not aware of their own policies, or timeslines.

It’s a weird and costly poop show

[mjohnatgt]

Originally Posted by Rrat

The main issue is for the second time a card I purchased there, that cgc authenticated (they have someone in house at fanatics) has been rejected by PSA as being fake.

Can you show images of these?

[Rrat]

Let me know if pics attached, first time trying

lol nvm there they are

[mjohnatgt]

Images are there, but too small to understand. Did the PSA submission state that it was rejected for "Questionable Authenticity", or is this a parallel that is not checklisted? PSA has some hard and fast rules about modern cards needing to be checklisted in order to grade, and it looks like they rejected it for that reason. May not be counterfeit. Are people really faking Michael Penix RCs?

[Rrat]

Have no idea, can’t get any info from fanatics about it at all, but psa definitely grade this card. But agreed, not sure why if it came back n4 they’d resend it for me, but also not sure why they won’t provide the rejection code…

They also sent me after another company, Burbank cards, before refunding me the auction price after several hours of emailing.

The customer service at collect lacks in transparency, urgency and accuracy on the best of days

If it’s N9, and not obscure, then that would mean altered likely…which also feels problematic for their auctions. Tho not sure it’s really in the cgc authentication process to check that I guess

[Rrat]

I can’t seem to get any info off the qr either, but I’m not the most savvy at such

[daeve]

Originally Posted by Rrat

The main issue is for the second time a card I purchased there, that cgc authenticated (they have someone in house at fanatics) has been rejected by PSA as being fake.

Interesting, I wasn't aware this was an in-house CGC authenticator. Just bought a card via weekly auction, my first in a long while at FC [honestly probably first auction won since they were pwcc]... and the card I won is also ultra modern and I figured they slabbed as authentic since it appears a couple corners/edges show white. The card is rare enough that I wanted it regardless of grade and decided to take the discount rather than overpay for a PSA 9.

Thus far I have had no issues with either pwcc or FC, and I seem to constantly have issues with ebay.

[thenightman]

I can’t get my account to work and they don’t care enough to help me fix it. I try my email and password, “something wrong, yadda yadda”. So I change my password, and I get an error. Rep emails me, “click on fanatics copyright, some yellow box with a code pops up, take a pic and send it to me. I follow this weird ass request and 48 hours later I get someone else asking me to do the same exact thing. Now I’m just irritated.

[jamcas997]

Originally Posted by thenightman

I can’t get my account to work and they don’t care enough to help me fix it. I try my email and password, “something wrong, yadda yadda”. So I change my password, and I get an error. Rep emails me, “click on fanatics copyright, some yellow box with a code pops up, take a pic and send it to me. I follow this weird ass request and 48 hours later I get someone else asking me to do the same exact thing. Now I’m just irritated.

They claim you are suppose to have received a code, but I never received one.

[jimz]

Originally Posted by Rrat

I can’t seem to get any info off the qr either, but I’m not the most savvy at such

All the QR says is v1418692. There are apps that will read QRs for you, either on screen or from a file. It took me like 20 minutes to whip up something in Python. I've put the code into a Google Colab so anyone can run it on their Google Drive files (or where ever you copy the thing to, all code I write is public domained if I'm sharing it):

https://colab.research.google.com/dr...usp=drive_link

As for Fanatics Collect, I mean, it is legit insofar as it more or less functions exactly as auctioneers have functioned since the mid 1970s when the big art auctioneers decided to keep the "consignment" name while ditching the duties and functions associated with consignments except the part where you take on all the risk while they have custody but not title to your item. A consignee, or a factor (more commonly used in legal and historical contexts, but effectively are equivalent as the factor is always the consignee of merchandise before factories took on the meaning of place where #@#@#@#@ is made), is supposed to, and in many contexts/jurisdictions when it comes to trading in, say, bulk textiles, the agent for the consignor, who holds title therefore all of the risk associated with the sale. In turn, the consignor pays the consignee and the consignee owes a fiduciary duty only to the consignor. If you ever bought anything on the auction platforms, you should be asking "wait why is there a buyer's premium then?". Well, that's basically made up in the mid 1970s conveniently at the same time by Sotheby's and Christie's. But since they were taking money from both sides, there's no more fiduciary duty implied or otherwise because the conflict of interest is obvious. Does it sound anti-competitive? Totally. Is it screwing over both the buyer and seller? In many cases obviously. But the thing with norms is that they don't have to do it, and indeed there are places where they don't charge a premium, but you want eyeballs, you play by the rules of the places that attract the eyeballs. eBay aggressively and openly screws both buyers and sellers all the time, but as does Goldin, and REA, and everyone else to a degree. In the US, the defintion of consignment was industry specific and agent-client relationships (and problems) have existed in many forms, but the holding of merchandise without title is what creates this particular relationship. You might be paying them, but since the winner is also paying them, they are not incentivized, and are not obligated, to do all they can for your benefit.

Fanatics Collect's customer service AI is hilarious, honestly. It has talked me out of using their services when they first deployed it. It also freely admitted that it was reporting figures that lack candor and uniformity to aggregation services like Cardladder. This is why you test your software before putting it in production, guys. If you have a very specific question their actual humans are generally direct and honest if not exactly friendly, but hopefully you aren't using their support staff for therapy anyway.

There's a way to design auctions that incentivizes payment and honest valuations, but it really only works live and requires two rounds and it's most commonly used right now in the automated ad bidding system Google and others put in for ad placement bidding. Since nobody is likely to deviate from the current system of English auction with a proxy element, the best thing you can do is if you're selling a card that is likely to fetch anything over a hammer price over the amount handle by small claims court, you need an actual consignment service/person to handle the whole shebang. This is obviously only worthwhile if you do volume (if all you sell is 1 or 2 big cards a year it doesn't really make sense, but if you are selling 50 - 100 or more it should be obvious). This requires a degree of trust and vetting and seeing things eye to eye that really only you can figure out through vetting multiple services. It's not usually the most prolific but the ones who have experience with large, significant items being auctioned and is able to leverage some sort of relationship or straight up volume to find out whether the winning bidder is likely to pay, whether the underbidder may be interested if after 5 days the payment doesn't go through, and should be on it before you get on it. You need an agent, basically, and yes, they'll take a cut between 5-10%, and if you sell a card in the 5 digits that's not exactly pocket change, but someone who knows how to maximize value for you should also know how to keep nonpayment listings off of the aggregators so there won't be an artificial ceiling (especially if you are selling low pop cards since comps are going to rely a lot on a very small sample size). They shouldn't be making final decisions without your approval but you should establish an understanding as to what your expectations are and so you are spared of needing to micromanage. If that's the price point you want to play in, that's pretty much the price of entry in order to set up the optimal position for you as a seller. There absolutely are folks out there who provide all of the above but since it's not exactly the easiest of work (or let's be real, you can train an AI to do the drudge work, but you can't train one that has credit in the relationship bank, so to speak). Reputation is hard to build and easily destroyed, so you need to kind of keep at least some tabs on things from afar at all times, but if you keep it straight and clear with your guy/gal/people they should do the same for you. Having someone who does not need to balance both parties in order to hit some sort of equilibrium that benefits themselves to the detriment of both buyer and seller really levels the playing field. In a way you are also benefitting from the fact that anyone who is plugged in enough will be representing not just you but others and so, you would have somewhat of a collective bargaining leverage benefit, and that is hard to achieve when you fly solo.

Oh, and I know that FC and Goldin all have "private sales" departments, just as Sotheby's and Christie's and Bonham's and all those. Those are very much centered around helping the buyer (since they pay more premium than the seller). The same dynamics still apply. Don't get fooled. Any sale can be private. None of it is private to the IRS unless it's done entirely on the blockchain or in cash anyway.

[Rrat]

Fun follow-up….even tho PSA rejected the card N9 (confirmed tho no further info) cgc will reauthenticate it so I can sell it.

If you are cruising for a bargain numbered penix to grade, avoid this one…

[Rrat]

« I can’t get my account to work and they don’t care enough to help me fix it. I try my email and password, “something wrong, yadda yadda”. So I change my password, and I get an error. Rep emails me, “click on fanatics copyright, some yellow box with a code pops up, take a pic and send it to me. I follow this weird ass request and 48 hours later I get someone else asking me to do the same exact thing. Now I’m just irritated ».


Wait a few months, that irritation turns to blinding fury lol

The customer service at FC is laughable until it’s cryable

Edit: figuring out the quote reply function

[thenightman]

Originally Posted by Rrat

« I can’t get my account to work and they don’t care enough to help me fix it. I try my email and password, “something wrong, yadda yadda”. So I change my password, and I get an error. Rep emails me, “click on fanatics copyright, some yellow box with a code pops up, take a pic and send it to me. I follow this weird ass request and 48 hours later I get someone else asking me to do the same exact thing. Now I’m just irritated ».


Wait a few months, that irritation turns to blinding fury lol

The customer service at FC is laughable until it’s cryable

Edit: figuring out the quote reply function

I told them to go ahead and delete my account. They were very quick with a response email to confirm that they deleted my account. Lol

[Rrat]

Originally Posted by thenightman

I told them to go ahead and delete my account. They were very quick with a response email to confirm that they deleted my account. Lol

I’d confirm to see if they actually accomplished this lol

You prolly have three accounts now instead

[jamcas997]

Originally Posted by jamcas997

They claim you are suppose to have received a code, but I never received one.

I finally got my code and was able to get my account set up.

[Rrat]

The last two weekly auctions have been a complete disaster at fanatics collect, zero views, and everything going well below comp.

If I could offer any advice, it’s a great place to buy cards and shipping them out is cheap…however I deeply deeply regret ever deciding to sell with them.

The extreme mismanagement has caught up, I really don’t see how this lasts much longer.

[majestik101]

I made the mistake of purchasing a very rare Mike Alstott card PSA 10 POP 1 through Fanatics Collect back in March. I won the auction fair and square, yet, even after winning the auction, I had to once again bid against myself (and others) during a secondary auction period. (Which, btw, had I known this, I probably would have passed bidding on the card altogether)

Thankfully, after winning the card a second time, I had to jump through hoops to get verified through their billing process, and then once that was taken care of, it took a whole month and a half for the card to finally get shipped to me from their warehouse location. This, after they hounded me daily for payment, which I paid them immediately so I could have the card shipped to me as quickly as possible. I sent numerous emails, but it still took them a whole month and a half to ship the card to me after I won it.

Never again will I purchase a card from these clowns.

The only positive thing I will say is that the card I won was well below comps, almost a steal, really, so I guess it was worth it, but what a tedious and unpleasant experience.

[Rrat]

Maybe most troubling, is how not concerned they are over flagging sales the last two weeks in the biggest football time…
We sellers are troubled, but fanatics (Mis)management doesn’t care a bit, just lurch8ng on with lazy indifferent inertia.

Worst customer service on the web, a real black eye on fanatics at a crucial time.

Buy here, but do not sell until they overhaul everything or sell the platform…

Update; if you think this is hyperbole, follow along and watch me set thé all time low on this Rome micro mosaic PSA 10
https://www.fanaticscollect.com/week...sa-10-gem-mint