What is eBay's Authenticity Guarantee for trading cards?

eBay's Authenticity Guarantee is a service that sends an eligible trading card to an authentication facility before it reaches you, where PSA inspects it. It covers single cards in eBay's card-singles categories that sell for $200 or more, raw or graded, and graded cards only from PSA, SGC, CGC and BGS. Buyers must be in the US, sellers in the US or Canada.

What it checks depends on the card. A raw card is checked for authenticity and against the listing's description of its condition. A graded card's holder is inspected for tampering and its case and label are checked, but nothing is regraded. If a card fails inspection, eBay refunds the buyer in full, and for a PSA slab whose holder is fake or tampered with, PSA deactivates the cert number.

Before you buy one

• Don't rely on the badge alone. Look for the blue Authenticity Guarantee badge, but eBay says some eligible listings may not show it right away. An auction qualifies by the price it sells for, whatever it started at, so judge eligibility by the card and the final price.

• Know what's left out. Sets, lots, boxes and packs aren't eligible, and neither are listings offering only local pickup or shipping to a P.O. box. A seller outside the US and Canada can't offer it at all, which matters for cards bought from Japan. Plan your own checks for those.

• Read the return policy. If the seller takes no returns, an authenticated card is final sale, and only damage in transit can be returned, within three days of delivery. Read it before you commit.

The fake cards guide compares it with eBay's Money Back Guarantee. A ChaseBoard watch can be set to Authenticity Guarantee only, so listings without it never reach your alerts.