Guide
Listing Check: what we can tell you about an eBay listing before you buy
We now look at every eBay listing we track and show you what we found — who's selling it, where it ships from, how the photos compare with ours, and what the piece has actually sold for.
If you collect Scotty Cameron covers, you already know the feeling. A piece you've wanted for years turns up on eBay, the price is right, and the seller has four feedback and ships from somewhere you weren't expecting. You zoom in on the photos for twenty minutes and still aren't sure.
We can't tell you whether a cover is real. Nobody can, from photographs. But we can tell you what we see, and we've started doing that on every listing we track.
What it looks like
On any item page, each eBay listing now carries a small marker. Green means nothing stood out. Amber means there are a few things worth a second look. Click it and we'll show you exactly what we looked at and what we found.
What we check
Some of it comes straight from eBay, reported exactly as they publish it:
- The seller's feedback — the raw count and the percentage. We don't show a percentage for sellers with only a handful of sales, because 100% from seven buyers tells you nothing.
- How much they're carrying — a seller with a hundred live golf listings and almost no feedback history is a different proposition from one with the same stock and ten years behind them.
- Recent negative feedback, and what it was actually about. Most active sellers pick up the odd negative; a pattern in what buyers are complaining about says more than the count.
- Where it ships from, and whether returns are accepted.
The rest comes from our own records, built up since 2007:
- Which piece we think it is, matched against our catalogue.
- Our photograph of that piece, side by side with the seller's. This is the part we'd actually point you at. Shape, stitching, lettering and fabric tone are what settle a cover, and they only read when you can see both at once.
- What it has genuinely sold for, by condition, from the sales we've recorded.
What it isn't
We're not an authentication service and we're not affiliated with Scotty Cameron, Titleist or Acushnet. We don't score listings and we don't rate sellers. Everything we show is an observation about a listing, not advice on whether to buy it, and certainly not a judgement about the person selling it.
You'll also find that most listings come back clean. That's deliberate. We spent a fair while tuning this, and the first version flagged something on three listings in four — which is useless, because if everything is worth a second look then nothing is. We threw out the checks that fired on half the market, including a returns check that turned out to prove nothing at all: eBay's Money Back Guarantee already obliges a seller to take back anything counterfeit or not as described, whatever their returns policy says.
Roughly seven listings in ten now show nothing. When something does come up, it's worth your attention.
You'll also find that most listings come back clean. That's deliberate. We spent a fair while tuning this, and the first version flagged something on three listings in four — which is useless, because if everything is worth a second look then nothing is. We threw out the checks that fired on half the market, including a returns check that turned out to prove nothing at all: eBay's Money Back Guarantee already obliges a seller to take back anything counterfeit or not as described, whatever their returns policy says.
Roughly seven listings in ten now show nothing. When something does come up, it's worth your attention.
Where to find it
It's on the eBay listings section of every item page, and on the shop page for each piece, where you can also sort and filter — including hiding anything with notes against it. On shop pages you'll see some listings marked as not tracked. That's honest rather than ominous: eBay's golf category is far wider than our catalogue, and we'd rather say we haven't looked than leave you guessing.
It's free, there's nothing to sign up for, and it's coming to the iOS app shortly — that update is with Apple for review now.
It's free, there's nothing to sign up for, and it's coming to the iOS app shortly — that update is with Apple for review now.
One thing worth saying plainly
None of this replaces the things that actually protect you. Buy from people with a record. Ask for more photos and walk away if you don't get them. If a price looks too good for the piece, it usually is.
What we can do is put what we know in front of you at the moment you're deciding, instead of making you go and find it. That's all this is — but on a $400 cover from someone you've never dealt with, it's not nothing.
What we can do is put what we know in front of you at the moment you're deciding, instead of making you go and find it. That's all this is — but on a $400 cover from someone you've never dealt with, it's not nothing.
