RonS2112

On 1/4/2024 at 1:33 AM, gmasstermcd said:

I would even say arguably no one really cares if a 9.8 doesn't have a graders note, but a 9.6 that looks like a 9.8 not having notes is the worst. 

Well, yeah.....and at the risk of stating the obvious, parsing the difference between a 9.6 and a 9.8 should be a pretty exact science and therefore should ALWAYS have notes associated.

On 1/3/2024 at 6:40 PM, LordRahl said:

At this point why would you try to offload when you'd likely get busted? CGC is going to buy it back, presuming at the price paid for the book. In fact people that bought during the pandemic bonanza are probably ecstatic that this guy scammed them because they just made their money back and most of the books on that list are going for considerably less now than they were during the pandemic craziness.

Lots of assumptions here.  I'd think it's more likely that IF a regrade is appropriate, and IF that regrade results in a difference then CGC will reimburse the difference.  No one is getting a free book.

On 1/1/2024 at 9:04 AM, Steven Valdez said:

I think the question there is how does the guy have a seemingly inexhaustible supply of those particular keys (and others)?

1.  Invest some money in a few IH 181's and ASM 300's, making sure to buy low.

2.  Sell high.

3.  Go to Step 1.

On 1/1/2024 at 2:16 AM, migmtl76 said:

There are a few eBay sellers that always have Hulk 181s, ASM 300s and other big keys for sale like on an almost weekly basis. I wonder what they are really doing. 

Being smart?  If there’s anything like a sure bet in making money in this hobby, these two books are it.

On 12/31/2023 at 10:13 AM, MyNameIsLegion said:

After the boomers cycle out, younger generations will be left scratching their heads wondering what all THAT was about and at some point Goodwill is going to see trunk-loads of slabbed books not worth case cost.

Go to a local con and watch the total lack of movement of slabbed modern books.  What you describe is already happening.

On 12/30/2023 at 7:36 AM, WolverineX said:

I eagerly await this new pedigree. 

I know this comment is intended as tongue-in-cheek, but offering a free pedigree label for these books would be a really cheap, quick way for CGC to create value which might help compensate the owners of these affected books.

On 12/29/2023 at 7:12 PM, NewWorldOrder said:

The real scam is just how many people lack the basic knowledge of sending books to CGC that even cover case cost to begin with.

The amount of modern cr*p encased in slabs these days would indicate that this number is pretty low indeed.

On 12/29/2023 at 7:05 PM, EastEnd1 said:

Have you seen the videos posted in the last few days of how to do it?  And have you noticed how EASY it is?  

Why would you think it would/should be HARD for anyone who had precise knowledge of the technique for opening a slab?  I mean, it's not like CGC employees doing reholdering want to use a hammer to get a book out of a slab.  THere was ALWAYS going to be an easy way to get a book out that presented low risk to the book itself.  And if you think about it, it took YEARS for one technique to be made public.

Like it or not, this sort of thing is often times the cost of doing business on a large scale.

On 12/29/2023 at 6:58 PM, comeaux said:

You must have fell asleep in the part where it’s explained that there are qualified & restored books in blue labels, that shoots down your “buy the book theory”

And you must have fallen asleep when the pictures were shown of a Hulk 181 with a Blue 9.0 label that nonetheless looked like it had been run over by a car a few times.

On 12/29/2023 at 6:32 PM, comeaux said:

Tell me you didn’t read the thread without telling me you didn’t read the thread

I've read all 201 pages so far.  Anyone looking at the ASM 252 that started all this -- including the CGC worker who did the re-slabbing -- should/could have taken one look at the book attached to that 9.8 and realized something was up.  And the vast majority did not notice anything until it was pointed out to them.  To the tune of "hundreds of books."  But now, EVERYONE is pro, and has some slam to make on the quality of the slabs......85 million units later.

On 12/29/2023 at 6:16 PM, sledgehammer said:

This thing is going to blow the Ewert scandal away.

If it does, it's only because this one comes on the heels of a singulary pronounced era of greed and laziness in this hobby.  And it's part of a perfect storm of the MCU imploding and creators fighting with each other over how comics are written.  If you've got money to spend on comic books, the next few years are going to be a good time.

On 12/29/2023 at 5:30 PM, Mikey C said:

But the punch bowl is tainted and we’ll never actually know how many people have, are currently or will have tried similar scams with CGC’s $5 plastic case. 

You gotta love snarky comments like this.  How many of you drank the Koolaid and bought into the idea that your comics were slabbed, sealed and impervious to age for all eternity, only to freak out when your own unrealistic expectations have proven unfounded?  

The golden rule of "buy the book, not the grade" is there for a reason, but it seems many of you forgot that.

On 12/28/2023 at 4:47 PM, agamoto said:

You do understand that this individual committed fraud, right? Not just misrepresenting his books to CGC, but by selling his frankenstein creations on eBay, Instagram and wherever else he sold. It's wire fraud, and his sales that I've added up alone that are well into the 6 figures. Wire fraud is under the domain of the FBI to investigate, not the CGC or their private investigators and outside counsel, do you not get that? 

I perfectly get it.  Read your own words -- if it's not within CGCs domain, it CERTAINLY isn't within yours.  No one owes you a thing.

And here's a bit of news.  If it is "only" six figures, then there's a good chance that the FBI won't waste the time to prosecute this; it simply isn't worth the time it would take.

On 12/28/2023 at 4:35 PM, agamoto said:

 

I've spent dozens of hours scouring through the perps archived sales records from eBay going back to 2006, examined 100's of the dudes submissions and helped identify over a dozen swapped books. I'm in a position to know better about what I'm talking about. You're not. 

You don't need to look at hundreds of comic scans to understand what a company legally owes you as a customer.  Your "demands" sound very shrill and totally unreasonable.

On 12/28/2023 at 4:26 PM, agamoto said:

I mentioned this in another thread, but I'll add it here. 

The CGC response does not cut it. There are federal crimes happening here, likely well into the 6 figures, and that's just ONE person. It is the FBI's job to investigate such crimes and I want to hear CGC tell us. CGC needs to be honest with us AND itself. The issue with their holder and their process means that MANY individuals may have been taking advantage of the loopholes and the fraud could be 10 or 100 times more.

CGC has no authority to ask eBay for sales data, user data, IP addresses, previous ID's... They can't get at instagram posts. They can't look at paypal records, facebook marketplace records, etc. Hiring a private investigator and outside counsel doesn't cut it.

You need to call in the FBI so they can investigate this fraud against CGC AND consumers fully. Only they can get at the full breadth of data that needs to be considered here. That includes examining CGC themselves for possible inside connections that helped this perp, or others to facilitate this fraud.

 

Yeesh.....such hyperbole.  CGC has indicated an intent to make this situation right.  Let's give them a chance to do that.  They don't owe you anything else.

If it bugs you that much, learn how to grade your own books, start going to your local cons, and buy raw.  Doesn't get much simpler than that.

On 12/28/2023 at 1:27 PM, VintageComics said:

Maybe. Maybe not.

But what struck me the most, and that NOBODY has questioned is why he never shows a clear shot of the "properly" sealed edge. 

Sleight of hand to get YouTube views is probably the answer. 

The POINT is that in a five minute video, he shows how easy it is to crack a slab leaving virtually no trace.  Now imagine someone who's gotten good at it.  

I mean, do you think that CGC uses a hammer to crack every book they're going to re-slab?  The scammer either learned how CGC re-opens their own slabs or was smart enough to figure it out on his own.  And ImmacualteComics is a chemist by trade, so this should have been right up his alley.  And apparently, it was.

On 12/28/2023 at 2:40 AM, agamoto said:

CGC definitely knows who that seller is, or at least the name/address/phone and CC# they're using to pay for their shenanigans and have their goodies delivered. That's really all that matters. Armchair detective doxxing is/was a bad idea, unless we can be 100% an alias or the identity of a friend/neighbor/spouse isn't being used to mask who they are. 

You are correct.  But I think some here should get used to the idea that it is possible (in fact likely) that the scammer’s personal info will not be shared with us.

On 12/28/2023 at 12:24 AM, BEAUMONTS said:

I wonder how many Ffffssss Black Rock give about comics.  Any respectability CGC ever had is long gone.  It has been proven over and over again with multiple issues from damaging historical books for the sake of "improved" grades, gift grades for "Pedigree" collections for major auction houses, horrible grading especially as of late, and outrageously egregious quality control.  This "scam" is just a symptom of a broken business , it was going to happen sooner or later with what seems nobody at the rudder.  Who really cares what CGC is "doing behind the scenes", there apathy and greed created the perfect storm and it's come home to roost.  I feel bad for the "customers" who were taken in this scam in CGC's corporate apathetic slothful greed.

Yes, but you can’t ignore the apathy and greed on the part of a large segment of the consumer base, which also fueled this scam.

On 12/27/2023 at 11:28 AM, namisgr said:

While I'm far from an apologist for the company, I think CGC is on holiday and so understand why there wouldn't be a formal response.  I'd expect one after the first of the new year.

I'd not keep my expectations too high.  They will likely say something along the lines of, "we're investigationg this, we remain committed to high quality, etc" without providing much in the way of details.  Regardless of the impact this may have on this board and an insular Youtube community, I'd guess that most people who own/sell/buy slabs don't know or care about this scam.  In the end, people who like slabs aren't going to stop deling with them because of this.

On 12/27/2023 at 11:33 AM, pdags said:

I get it.  Maybe on Christmas Eve there wasn't quite enough evidence to show how bad things were...  But I've worked big jobs.  If you're above a certain title and making above a certain salary you work when needed; even if it's Christmas (Which I've done).

 

A little perspective, please.  I used to work on an Air Force Combat operations crew. THAT was a job that required working on Christmas.  Comic slabbing is decidedly NOT.

On 12/22/2023 at 1:51 PM, uncannyjames said:

You do realize that StickyGoose is to comics what flat-earthers are to science.

Sticky strikes me as a good guy, but yeah -- he seems to have a weird way of deciding what side of an issue he's going to come down on.

On 12/22/2023 at 1:17 AM, Iconic1s said:

 

If he was resubbing the same 9.8 over and over to get a new 9.8 cert # to pull his scam then the census is also garbage for all of these issues, and will probably never be accurate.

 

You can’t blame this scam for the census being .  Cracking, pressing and resubbing is a way of life for some speculators and that practice ruined the census a long time ago.