Timed

Having that spine tick near Hulk's knee, as well as the top right corner bend match... it's hard to say they aren't the same.

Correct, but I think a "lax in the process" for employee QC is easier explained than a "lax in the process" for the actual grading/reholdering of books.

Yep, but at least the integrity of CGC's grading/guarantee as a whole isn't destroyed. Easier to question books worked on by 1 guy, instead of every CGC slab in existence.

Hot take; CGC has an easier path forward if they come out and explain this situation as a rogue employee being involved - even if this was not actually the case. Doing so, from a PR stance, would allow CGC to stand by their methods of "guaranteeing" books (even though we know how complacent and lax CGC actually is), and the blame would be shifted away from CGC as a whole. "We will take this as a learning lesson, and heavily screen our current and future employees..."

briva3 is the eBay, while @zaneglor_comics is the IG.

On some of the offending books, the graders' notes match the book scanned in. For example on the 8.5 IH 181 I linked earlier, the notes accurately described the visible defects. This must mean that these particular books weren't reholdered, but were actually "graded", but it's the loosest grading I have ever seen. Wondering how thicker the plot goes.

@zaneglor_comics on IG. Some posts already deleted, and account is now private. Backstory is in this video.

By the way besides the dog ear, check out the back. First thing I noticed. Crazy.

Another blatantly obvious fraud. That is a dog ear that would bring any other book to a 9.0 or 9.2 at best, even if a CGC grader was grading this book and got laid the same morning before work. Deeper we go.

I didn't have much belief in that myself at first, but now after seeing all these other books and the fact that the seller has admitted to having friends at CGC (keep in mind this was in private messages with the guy who initially found the swapped 252, as they were acquaintances already)... I just don't know now.

Going through the sellers' visible sold listings on eBay, a vast majority just scream scam. In what world is this IH 181 an 8.5? CGC cert lookup. Heavy spine ticks, bottom right corner crease, foxing... this is like a 6.5 or 7. Genuinely wondering now if this dude indeed had some "favors" done from someone at CGC.

His sold listings, or at least 30 of them, are still visible for me.

Looks like my biggest fear has come to fruition. With the qualified Hulk 181 confirmed swap, it now shows that this goes far deeper than we know.

Don't know if this has been mentioned, but in this livestream (timestamp 18:06) the guy that originally brought this to light mentions something very interesting... the fraudster said to him in DM's that he had "relationships with higher ups at CGC" and "calls in favors from time to time". For context, he had talked with the guy before this exposure - it was by sheer dumbness that the culprit exposed himself by providing conflicting info in desperation, when the house of cards had begun to collapse. This may explain how this has transpired.

The reason why I mentioned that the NM 98 MJ 9.8 didn’t have a custom label is because one theory floating around believes that the custom labels play a role in how these shenanigans have been happening.

There is no way the submitter would sue. Blatant fraud has taken place here and he would be laughed at on the way to jail. Well, the NM 98 that was swapped did not have a custom label on the new slab, so...

One of my biggest concerns now, is if this fraud tactic has been used for any type of books, not only MJ ones. I don't see why not; there would be less money to be made but definitely still money.

That's the bare minimum and more like one of the first steps that needs to be taken to get to the bottom of this. We have two confirmed cases of fraud by this seller, costing over $27,000 in just those two books, and these are just two that have sold recently where we have photographic proof of the reholdered books being different than the originals.

There it is; this is in fact the nail in the coffin. The submitter for the reholders needs to be contacted by the authorities ASAP.

It's believed that the culprit took the inner well (unscathed and still intact) out of a lower grade slab and slid it into the 9.8 slab. Instead of having to regrade all reholders, I think a better solution would be to write/engrave the CGC certification number on the inner well of each slab.

At least then I could say I own an ASM #3 9.6!

Back in November, I had posted this thread talking about how I had stumbled upon a book that I genuinely believed to be a 9.9... well, it was an ASM 300. I have submitted multiple 300's that ended up a 9.8, and the highest tier I have ever been upcharged to was the Express tier - even after that tier was "removed", I still have been getting upcharges to Express sometimes. Now, this particular copy was the best looking copy of an ASM 300 that I had ever seen, and I actually had a feeling it had a shot at a 9.9... ...but I doubt that I got the 9.9 because I was only charged the minimum $150. Don't do me like that, CGC!

Looks like I need to sign up for that then.

This is almost, if not, the nail in the coffin. Do you use GPA to find cert # sales or a different platform?