VintageComics

I've had books worked on by resto experts and have NEVER paid upfront. 
This is just bad decision making by consumers. Who would pay for a renovation on their home upfront? 
I feel terrible for people who lost their money but I just can't see how anyone thought it was going to be a good idea. 
This is a clear example of "buyer beware". On a positive note, our most costly lessons are our greatest teachers and I'm sure nobody will make that mistake again. 
Good luck everyone. Genuinely. 

Can you summarize the video? I'm kind of tired of watching a bunch of fanboys lathering each other up while spreading 10 mins of information into 2 hours.
If this guy was REHOLDERING 1000's of books, that would be an obvious flag so I'd like to see some proof of this rather than just guess like this. 

Ah.  I misunderstood the previous post.  If you're a golden-age collector, especially, I would never imagine you could fulfill your wants just by shopping at stores.  But I'm not sure why it has to be an either/or thing either.
I will quibble with your assertion that not putting comics on-line is "irresponsible" (responsible to whom?).  But I guess i'm irresponsible.  I used to do shows and mail order and eBay and the whole shebang.  But now my stock stays in the shop.  I don't do mail-order.  It's walk-in or not at all.  I have nearly 100% sell-thru on anything that's remotely decent.  Sometimes within hours, sometimes within weeks, occasionally within months.  But sooner or later it sells.  I don't have trouble selling comics in my shop, so why would I add the bother of setting up at shows or running to the post office all week?  Sure... I might get more in some online or auction venues.  But I'm at the point where I can retire whenever I choose to, so getting a few more dollars isn't worth the hassle to me.
But moreover, it's a very deliberate decision, partly for the reasons many have stated above.  It may be old-fashioned, but I want to have a brick-and-mortar location where customers can walk in and find an assortment that you don't find in other shops.  I don't want to have a boring shop because everything I get immediately goes on eBay or some big auction house.  Now stock is only as good as the collections that can be obtained, and that varies a lot from month to month and year to year.  But you can't have it both ways.  People on here are complaining that they don't go to shops because they never have anything other than moderns.  Then if a shop does carry vintage stuff, they're called irresponsible for not making it available online.  So... which is it?
It's like the other famous dilemma that occurs among many collectors.  They don't like a shop that doesn't have a lot of big hot books.  But if you do have them, they complain that prices are too high.  Because high prices are the only way they are going to stay on your walls.  I try to keep my prices reasonable which is why everything eventually sells.   And I have a variable but good mix of older stuff on any given day.  But I could have a great mix of stuff if I over-priced.  If all the stuff I bought in just the past couple of years were on the walls at one time, it would be a fascinating display indeed.  But customers wouldn't buy it, because the books would have to be well above market to maintain that display. 
In-store selling isn't for everyone.  It's a niche approach to selling.  But if I put everything good up for auction, I would disappoint most if not all of my existing customer base to favor customers-unknown across the country.  And that, in my mind, would be "irresponsible" to the folks that have supported me for 40 years, and to those that drive a few miles out of their way as they pass through from out-of-state.
 

Because I went out of my way to notify Comiclink about the ASM #129 conversation here, asked them to look into it and then relayed the results back here and all you could reply to my post with was snark. 
You have NO IDEA how many people are working behind the scenes that aren't posting here and your snark shows a lack of appreciation for these efforts. 
A simple 'thank you' would have been much more appropriate. 

I have been collecting for long before EBAY, CGC, etc. (although I am relatively new to these Boards) - I remember that clean (with chemicals) and press was given a purple label, but I always thought press alone was never considered "restoration" - I remember sending nice unrestored books to Matt before his company merged with CGC, and not being concerned that they would get a purple label - maybe this was "after" the time you are describing?? 

On the main thread, out of 200+ pages, there are about 25 posts that provide factual information. The rest are opinions, from wild to mild, in all directions. Speculative confirmation of earlier speculation. To be expected, in this type of weighty situation, but hard to slog through them all. 

I, too, would like you to demonstrate how this can be done.

I would like to see a video of you doing this and pictures of the books before and after. 

I think my original question is being overlooked….other than the fact that ASM 194, 238, and 252 are on this submission and got 9.8’s (and that we may not agree with the grading on all of them), is there some evidence of impropriety that I’m missing.  Is there evidence that it came from the same suspect?  Or that it was a reholder submission?  I have no connection to ComicLink or the submission, but it seems like there should be some non-circumstantial evidence of impropriety before we call out an auction house for not removing the listing??  I agree that shining light on this issue is in the community’s best interest, but we have to remember that while channeling Hercule Poirot is good….channeling Cotton Mather not so much.

@drotto
You're already muddying the waters by leaving out the most important part of the line you quoted, which I BOLDED for you below.  
CGC has officially stated that this individual will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.
Which part of that did you miss?
 

Just to recap with additional comment and recommendation...
Your FF#2 is an original owner book purchased by Stu Janis and dubbed as being from the “Christopher Avenue Collection” by Comic Connect.
Comic Connect submitted the book for grading to CGC and it was subsequently certified a Universal 8.0 on November 5, 2013. It was brought to market by Comic Connect along with the rest of the Christopher Avenue Collection and first sold on March 12, 2014, per their website listing.
As was pointed out by several forum members, the book is the same copy from initial certification until now. No manipulation is visually apparent, trimming or otherwise, when comparing all subsequent resale images. It is the same book.
What now?
IMHO, the YouTube influencer that led you to believe your book was trimmed along the bottom and right side, which was sold to you by the suspect perpetrator of “Slab Swap,” needs to issue a public retraction and state that he made his accusations without the benefit of conducting visual analysis of all publicly available imagery before broadcasting his reckless statements. He used your book as his big bombshell announcement to tie the alleged perpetrator into it, along with publicizing the involvement of a “major comic book shop” in NYC, which together fueled his sky-is-falling rhetoric and hobby-implosion fearmongering. While he comes across as a good guy, and he very well may be, that particular video is counterproductive in the discovery of suspect fraud in the purported Slab Swap scandal.
PS. If he is suggesting that the book was trimmed before certification, then he needs to states so with clarity and precise language. That would then mean CGC and Metropolis Collectibles/Comic Connect collectively missed the trimming. If that is the case, then resubmit your book to CGC for that reason and that reason alone. Not because it’s a suspect book of Slab Swap.

He isn't going to say anything of any actual worth. "Pssst... I know something and it's HUGE" but never actually divulges what that something is so as to not be taken to task for it when it's proven incorrect.

I still don't think you get my point. My point is, in plain English... the more fraudulent books that are out there, the higher the chances of getting caught. If there were thousands of them out in the market, they would have been caught before now. The CPR part of my post is just justification for why people would crack a book, because cracking it would be necessary to figure out it's a fraudulent book. CPR has nothing to do with this guy's scam. But it does have something to do with catching said scam. I really don't think I can make it any clearer than that. 

No. I'll put in crayon for the kindergarten students. 
CGC looked into the book and said it was fine. 
I know you think you're doing all the heavy lifting with your one-liners but there are a LOT of people co-operating behind the scenes. They're just not making YouTube videos or posting here to announce it. 

You clearly have never worked with the federal government. What you are suggesting would be an absolute train wreck. Your books would be in limbo for years with no compensation. No one is going to do that. CGC would be foolish to try that as they would get skewered by all of the owners of these books. 

No, I agree with your statement below.
As I've repeatedly stated, I can see CGC using AI for some smaller aspects of grading, but I've generally been right about more things than you in the past so I'm willing to bet on myself again and take the over as to when CGC will use AI as a grading standard for grading it's books. 
 

Not a shill. I don't even have a dog in this fight.
Not scared - again, nothing to fear, nothing at risk.
I'm just countering the Chicken Little's of the world. And thread hijackers. 

About 30 years ago I was having a religious debate with a guy about the 10 commandments. 
I soon realized he hadn't ever read the Bible, he'd only seen the movie. 
So then I asked him a specific question about his beliefs, to which he replied: "I don't know. I'm going to have to see the movie again." 
I literally died on the spot.

My son has seen it (he's a real intellectual) and I'm looking forward to watching it with him. I've actually been waiting for some time.
 

"Hot' or 'thriving' is relative.
How 'hot' were comics when CGC started? They certainly became HOTTER after CGC made it easier to commoditize them.
Now that I've had time to think about it, what probably affects collectibles the most is how closely they're linked to popular culture. 
You don't see kids these days talking about countries or history but they all talk about sports and cartoon characters. 
Most kids don't have the attention span to care about stamps and what they represent. 
That might be the single largest reason stamps have suffered. 
 

Most people, I would think, don't want this happening, casting a pall on a popular hobby. Although a few CGC haters are overjoyed. For me, it won't have any direct effect.
I'm just tired of the fear mongers and alarmists out there speculating about how the sky will fall. The reality will be that almost nothing will happen, almost nothing will change in the marketplace.
And far from sitting back, you are yelling fire in a crowded theater. For some reason you are trying to create fear and doubt in people's minds. Your ludicrous statement, as soon as your 4 day detention was over, something like "worst case scenario" was made to stir the pot, see if people would fall in to your way of thinking. I believe a couple did, so success???
And now you want to plant some naive idea that everyone is at home sharpening screwdrivers in preparation of a mass comic substitution hysteria.
There's one on every forum, and you're that guy.

This is where I have to interject and remind everyone once again that what Rick @ Immaculate demonstrated is a rough proof of concept. He did not conclusively prove you can crack a slab and reseal it with no trace of alternation to the slab. He admits this in his video, and I've asked him to reiterate this as it's getting out of control.

Unfortunately, impossible. Even if they stuck just to the scammers taking advantage of the swap and reholder/relabel scam, only one guy has been nabbed at it, and only because he got greedy, only because he left a greasy fingerprint over every single comic book sale he's made on eBay for over a decade. Other scammers, with more intelligence and tact would have been smart enough to stay under the radar, at least I'd like to think that's the case.
Then you have to consider just how easy it is to get in and out of the case. I think folks like Dr. Rick are making it appear easier than it is and that hasn't really helped. As he's made clear though, it's just a proof of concept video.
I'm pretty sure that once that sonic weld is busted on the slab, the light refraction properties of that seal go out the window, even with a solvent to the rescue to try and smooth it out. Those pics you see in the census lookups. I think we're only seeing images under white light. I suspect they are checking the seal integrity of the slab, perhaps even able to identify a signature of sorts where the ultrasonic welder bonds the sides using other parts of the spectrum. You'll notice the light blue/purple opaque line on the edge all the way around. That's the intact weld. A lot of census images show several white bands on the side they place the slab next to. These lines are likely visible or distorted when a slab has been cracked and opened and I don't think a little xylene is enough to repair that. 

You're talking about this like it's something new.
Shill bidding has been happening since the dawn of time and I've been openly speaking out against it for over a decade on here myself, maybe even 15 years since I found out it was a common practice.
As I've always said, I've personally never had a book shill bid even though I've had offers like "can I throw in a bid for you" and I always reply with "bid whatever you want to pay for it", but you can often tell which books are shill bid by how quickly prices rise early in an auction while mine seem to sit at low prices indefinitely. 
As far as the "imitation bubble" we've already seen that too, here with CGC slab tampering and other things. That's where my analogy about keeping your money safe came in a few days ago. 
People stored their money under their mattresses until it became unsafe to do so, and then started storing them in banks. Now it's on the banks to keep your money safe, and on the certification companies to keep your products free from fraud. 
------------
Uncovering that ring is a great catch on your part, though. Bravo! 
As organizations build better mousetraps, the mice will continue to get smarter. 
The two things I would add that can improve on this is
a) building better mousetraps and
b) raising better children.
Society's values are a reflection of incoming generations and we've become a society that is lackadaisical in putting in the effort to raise better quality children but then complain when society falters. In many ways, the older generations are responsible for it and the very reason we need better mousetraps. 
Why on EARTH would you blame two auction houses for practices that have been happening since the dawn of time?
I can't imagine living a life where I see a boogeyman everywhere I look. 

If comics are following the same trends as all other collectibles, is it considered a hobby bubble or an economic bubble? 
And if it's an economic bubble, which it obviously was, why are people arguing the Promise books were a hobby bubble?