Greetings, Traders!
Today we are introducing a change to our Terms of Service that introduces one additional protection mechanism for our Senders. Specifically, we are clarifying the effect of images shared with a Receiver prior to the trade.
Ever since we introduced the ability to share images in Cardsphere messages, Senders have been enthusiastically using it to demonstrate the condition of more expensive cards to Receivers. Think older sets - most cards in circulation from older sets are less than near mint and almost none of are cheap. This has been a boon to Cardsphere community with even more trades happening for older and more expensive cards. However there have been a few disputes where the images shared introduced complications and uncertainty in the ruling process.
As a result we are adding the following clause to our Terms and Conditions:
A Receiver cannot dispute the condition of items for which the Sender has shared images prior to shipping and for which the Receiver and the Sender have agreed on a specific condition, providing the images accurately demonstrate the actual condition as ruled by Cardsphere staff.
What does it mean in practice? Here are two example scenarios:
Scenario 1
Alice has committed to send Bob a card from Alpha. Prior to shipping Alice has shared some great quality images with Bob that reveal all imperfections. Alice and Bob agree that the condition of the card is SP. The card arrives, but Bob decides to dispute the condition down to MP. Ted the admin responds and rules against Bob, because the images shared clearly demonstrated all imperfections which Bob has previously agreed to treat as SP. In this case sharing high quality images prior to sending protected Alice from Bob's attempt to downgrade the condition.
Scenario 2
Alice has committed to send Bob a card from Alpha. Prior to shipping Alice has shared some low quality images with Bob that reveal some imperfections. Alice and Bob agree that the condition of the card is SP. The card arrives, but Bob decides to dispute the condition down to MP based on some imperfections that were not clearly revealed in the images shared. Ted the admin responds and applies regular Cardsphere grading rules, because the images shared did not demonstrate all imperfections to Bob before shipping. In this case poor quality images did not provide Alice any additional protection.
In the event of damage that is not demonstrable via photos (cigarette smoke odor damage, etc) or damage occurring in transit, normal processes will be followed as well.
I hope this clarifies the new policy. If there is one thing we want you to take away from this article: do share images and make sure they accurately reflect the cards.
