eBay now authenticates single trading cards in the UK from £250 — half the floor the programme launched with in May, and the second cut in five months.

The terms are eBay's own. The company's UK seller page for the trading-card Authenticity Guarantee lists four conditions in one block: the listing must sit in collectable card games, sports trading cards or non-sports trading cards; it must be a single card; it must be listed or sold at £250 or more, exclusive of postage; and it may be either ungraded or graded. There is no fee and no choice about it — eligible listings are enrolled automatically and carry the badge.

eBay pays for the whole journey. Its UK page states that for eligible items "eBay covers the cost of authentication and fast, tracked delivery from the authentication facility to the buyer," and that returned cards are inspected by the same experts before they go back to the seller. The cards are verified by PSA, which eBay's page describes as having certified more than 65 million items since 1991. eBay is clear that this is authentication rather than grading: "there is no grading or re-grading in this process."

Three thresholds in five months

The £250 figure is the third floor this programme has carried in the UK, and it has only ever moved in one direction.

  • May 2026 — the programme launches in the UK, originally covering eligible single trading cards priced at £500 or more, according to Value Added Resource's account of the launch.
  • 13 July 2026 — eBay UK announces an expansion to single cards priced at £350 and above, "excluding postage, down from the previous £500 threshold," in eBay's own forum announcement.
  • October 2026 — eBay's October seller update carries a further reduction. Value Added Resource, reporting on that update on Oct. 6, writes: "In the UK, the minimum price for trading card authentication is dropping to £250+."

eBay's UK seller page now states the £250 figure directly, which is where the programme's live terms sit. Its July announcement is where the exclusions sit: lots, sets, kits, decks, boxes and packs are not eligible, and eBay warns sellers not to list a multi-card lot as a single card, because doing so "can incorrectly trigger Authenticity Guarantee and may cause delays after the sale."

What the seller gets

eBay attached two protections to the programme when it expanded it in July. Sellers who dispatch inside their handling time and provide tracking are protected against negative or neutral feedback, and Item Not Received cases tied to the authentication journey are removed from Service Metrics. Neither is new with the October change; both belong to the same programme the lower floor now admits more cards to.

The US version of the same programme publishes a different number. eBay's American page states that eligible cards are "$200 and above," covering sports trading cards, collectible card games and more, ungraded and graded, with a signature required on cards over $1,500. The two markets are priced in different currencies and route a different band of cards: £250 in the UK, $200 in the US.

Analysis: What has changed three times is not what the programme does but how far down the price scale eBay is willing to fund it. Authentication is a cost eBay has chosen to absorb rather than pass on — there is no fee and no opt-out, and the seller's only obligation is to post the card in once it sells. Each reduction widens the pool of listings that qualify for that subsidy. The programme launched in May at £500, was at £350 by mid-July, and sits at £250 now: three thresholds, each one lower than the last.

A card worth £250 is now worth authenticating to eBay — twice as far down the market as the company was willing to go in May, and a line it has moved twice without once moving it back.

Sources: eBay's UK seller terms for the trading-card Authenticity Guarantee (pages.ebay.co.uk), which state the £250 threshold, the single-card restriction, the graded and ungraded split, and that eBay covers authentication and tracked delivery; eBay UK's own announcement of the 13 July 2026 expansion to £350, which records the previous £500 threshold and the exclusion of lots, sets, kits, decks, boxes and packs; eBay's US programme page for the $200 floor and the $1,500 signature threshold; Value Added Resource's Oct. 6, 2026 report on eBay's October 2026 seller news for the £250 reduction and the May launch at £500. The blog has referenced Authenticity Guarantee once before, in passing, in CASE #0003.