Updated April 9, 2024
Buying and selling collectibles can be serious business or just enjoyment for collectors. The popularity of some items and the vulnerabilities of some buyers allows for fakes and scams in the market.
We have a put together a list of marketplace types with their level of risk of the transaction going sour.
1. Sprunger Marketplace - (risk: low). Sellers who list items in our online marketplace are subject to photo ID, payment and IP fraud detection, and proof of item possession. Buyers receive either an NFT or Web3 COA for the item purchased. This provides proof of creator and ownership, digital identity, added content and traceability on the blockchain. For high value items, buyers are subject to the same screening process as the seller. List an item here.
2. Web3 Marketplaces - (risk: low). Essentially, you are buying a non-fungible token (NFT) that is paired to a digital or physical collectible. The Web3 record or ledger for the item is proof of ownership since the metadata has a description of the item and the Web3 wallet address of the current owner. Movement or transactions of the item can be viewed by anyone using a block explorer. When an NFT is purchased, the transfer of payment, ownership and the ledger update is completed in seconds. Digital items are accessible immediately after purchase. Physical items are shipped to you by the seller.
Popular Web3 marketplaces include OpenSea, Rarible, Nifty Gateway, SuperRare, Foundation, KnownOrigin. Sprunger Originals can tokenize your physical collectibles for your personal collection, donating or for selling on many Web3 marketplaces.
Related: Web3 Presence
3. Auction and Buy & Sell sites - (risk: low to high). Most online auction sites that specialize in collectibles have a long history of trust and success of selling higher value items. Nuts to bolts sites don't have enough safeguards to prevent scammers from posting collectibles for sale that they either don't have in their possession, are fakes or have been altered. Some sellers will post trading cards in forged slabs in buy and sell sites. You will want to avoid these unless you can identify fakes.
4. Dealers and events - (risk: low to medium). Retail dealers have a reputation to uphold and will have safeguards in place to protect the buyer. Pop-up sellers at events may not have done due diligence to verify the authenticity of an item for sale. They can be hard to find afterwards if you are not satisfied with the item purchased.
5. Social media groups - (risk: medium to very high). While many transactions go smoothly, many fail. An increasing number of sellers regularly post a fake account, fake item or don't ship an item and change their profile often to repeat the scam. Vouches and coining don't offer solid buyer protection like other platform safeguards do. Also, many group experts look for deals that you post, make a purchase and resell your item bundled with other cards for a higher price.
Recommendations: Do not buy high value items unless the seller and item have been verified. A Sprunger Originals Verified Seller Certificate is a Web3 COA that proves that the seller is legitimate and the item is in their possession. The Web3 COA can be presented on any social marketplace platform. The Web3 COA has a traceable wallet, transaction and contract IDs.