87% of eBay's trading card experts 'earn less than a living wage,' say union organizers

TCG authenticating is an integral part of any trading card ecosystem, especially for big-time collectors or players who just want to honor some of their greatest cards. But life for the people behind the authenticators isn't so easy: earlier this month, one of the biggest authentication centers rallied to demand better wages and respect. 

The Campaign to Organise Digital Employees in the Tech, Games, and Digital Industries (CODE-CWA) announced that members of eBay's authentication center in Syracuse would be holding a rally on October 3 to demand a living wage. "The majority of eBay authentication centre workers in Syracuse earn less than a living wage for a single person without children," CODE-CWA says in a tweet. "eBay is worth almost $29 Billion." 

The authentication centre in Syracuse deals with thousands of Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Magic: The Gathering cards a day, and most of the work sees authenticators standing in one spot sorting inspected cards for hours on end. "It's pretty rough when you're just standing in one spot, sedentary, for extended periods of time," an authentication worker, Giacona, says (via Polygon). "A lot of my co-workers have sciatica issues. It hurts more to not move than it does to move." 

Giacona also reveals that her wage starts at just $16.25 an hour, and in a larger report by CODE-CWA, it is revealed that the median wage at this authentication centre is $18.25 per hour, with 87% of authentication centre workers earning less than a living wage in Syracuse. 78% of respondents also reported feeling financially insecure due to low wages. 

This financial insecurity means that around 66% of workers have to rely on friends, family, or public assistance to get by, with many workers reporting that they often have to delay buying groceries or getting necessary medical care. 

So far, workers have tried to reach out to eBay to make headway on new agreements for better wages, but it's been difficult. "When we began the bargaining process, we agreed with the CWA that we would address the non-economic components of the contract before discussing economic topics like wages," eBay told Polygon. "We have a handful of remaining non-economic proposals to agree upon before we move to economic discussions, which we expect to occur soon." This just sounds like stalling to me, and there's been no further information shared about wage discussion in the following weeks, so I'm unsure as to what "soon" means. 

"I put everything, my whole heart, into my work," another authenticator worker, Megan Wheeler, says. "And to see that come back with almost nothing, to hear them say they care but not show it, to go through something that should be as wonderful as pregnancy and preparing for a family, and to be worried about choosing between my job or my family. It feels terrible. It feels like it belongs much further in the past than in 2024." 

However, after a successful demonstration with the Syracuse community members last week, many workers are still hopeful for a positive outcome. The Syracuse TCG authentication centre is one of the largest employers in the area, so if the demands are met, it could have far-reaching benefits. "It'll enrich the community and the local economy as a whole," Giacona says. "That's our hope."

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that workers at the Syracuse authentication center are on strike. There is no strike.