Steven Valdez

On 12/23/2023 at 1:53 AM, jcjames said:

I know of an (ex)-CGC sig-witness who scammed people out of their HG books that he would swap out for his own personal lower grade books for sig-series. 

He was eventually caught, but no telling how many hundreds of books he did this with before getting caught, and I'm sure he wasn't/isn't the only one.

 

But in the case of this seller who cracks, swaps, then resubmits for reholder or ME without CGC checking, that's the CGC's sloppiness being exposed and exploited. 

And as you said, it's pretty certain this seller isn't the only one to have figured out that CGC's sloppiness is ripe for being exploited. 

 

 

Be good if someone could do a Mystery Diners style sting on them.

On 12/23/2023 at 1:44 AM, Axelrod said:

It's possible he has peeps that do that for him.  Delete anything negative and he might never see it himself.  Then gives him deniability about seeing/deleting negative comments.  

I'm pretty sure he did it himself, as he answered another more innocuous comment I made only minutes earlier.

On 12/23/2023 at 1:36 AM, comicwiz said:

100%. I really didn't give a mess about the likes, it's the same pattern on all soc med. What bothered me even more is that he was using the analysis from these forums and taking credit for it. Even yesterday, when I posted those screenshots, I asked for someone to post a clearer image than what I was able to pull out from WP. It took several members here to both provide images, and better juxtapoisitioning for comparison. There were still people chiming-in saying they weren't the same book, and because of all of us doing our part, it was clear as day they were the same. At that point, it's ours. 

However, when I see him using perspectives shared on here of how this is possibly happening, that's the last straw. And him responding that he didn't delete my comments is pure bs when I keep showing he's doing it with screenshots of my replies that keep getting removed. The latest speaks on why it ultimately should be called out for what it is:

I mentioned this discussion in his YouTube comments yesterday and it was immediately deleted. I had no idea why at the time, but I know why now.

On 12/22/2023 at 9:54 PM, agamoto said:

Trust CGC will do everything they can to isolate this to one person, but since it's a scam that's worked remarkably well on some very high dollar books, over and over again, we may never know how many tried and succeeded doing the same thing. It could be one person doing it, it could be 20, it could be 200 people. We only even know about this because someone was sharp enough to spot the obvious problems on a swapped-out book when one of the miscreants got too greedy. 

If nothing else comes of this, at least now I have a pretty arguable reason why I've seen so many 9.8's that sure as hell looked like 9.2s 

Yeah, and plenty of 3.0s that look like 0.5s.

On 12/22/2023 at 9:48 PM, agamoto said:

If it were me, and I bought them in a slab, I'd forever have a difficult time getting the sliver of "Maybe some of these are missing their pin-up or ad pages" out of the back of my mind. 

Yes, I will always have that nagging doubt

So.... hologram stickers on every edge of the case. Problem somewhat mitigated.

On 12/22/2023 at 6:27 PM, LDarkseid1 said:

 

Good questions, everyone definitely waiting with bated breath to discover haha.

I have a nice little pile of CGC'd Silver Age Marvel.... fingers crossed they're all unhacked

On 12/22/2023 at 5:59 PM, LDarkseid1 said:

By your standard, every grading company should be out of business. If this can happen to CGC, it could have happened to the other grading companies and there isn’t anything to say it hasn’t. To want this to be the end of CGC or any grading company because one person or however many defrauded them is the bummer imop. A lot of people have their livelihoods in CGC. So to want CGC to fail is to want them to fail, friends you may have in this community who have potentially tens or hundreds of thousands in comics or more, now possibly worth a fraction of those amounts if that were to happen. People commit fraud all the time, doesn’t mean a company should close or anyone “should” want them to as you implied. How often do we hear visa or a credit card company experienced a data breach releasing hundreds of thousands of people’s personal info. Isn’t it their job, if not one of the tenants of their company to securely protect our private information? Do we call for visa or all credit card companies to go under because of scammers hacking the company? No. So CGC clearly has some due diligence to do and clean house if need be. There obviously needs to be repercussions for this, and the onus of that should be on the person or persons who perpetrated the scheme, not CGC. The end result for CGC should be a come to Jesus moment where they drastically improve their product and brand. It would also obviously be ideal if the people who purchased books from this huckster were made whole, however possible. I think that should come in the form of a lawsuit against the fraudster. He’s obviously done well for himself.

The question is, how many people are doing this? And how long has it been going on? If it's possible to scam a system, it will be scammed.

On 12/22/2023 at 4:50 PM, Nick Furious said:

Sometimes what looks like trimming is just a mis-cut.  I've had a convention dealer tell me that a book was trimmed, the dealer next to him argued it was a mis-cut.  The CGC grading confirmed that it was a mis-cut and not trimming.  

True, mis-cuts are always a possibility. They need to be checked by measuring the width vs height ratio.

Just putting out there that I've noticed CGC books that have been noticeably trimmed, while this is not indicated on the grade or label notes. I guess that's a different matter, as it's there in plain sight.

On 12/19/2023 at 4:22 PM, Dr. Haydn said:

There was also The Legend of P*ss Pot Pete. Rather bawdy, but apparently it circulated in multiple versions beginning in 1927, according to Wikisource. Jack was 10 years old then, living in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a historically rough neighborhood. It would not surprise me if he had encountered the poem at some point in his early youth.

That looks to be right on the money. P*ss pot (meaning drunkard) is still a common expression here in Australia.

On 12/19/2023 at 12:00 AM, KirbyJack said:

I'll bet Paste Pot Pete was an inside joke. Harvey Kurtzman did a character called Pot Shot Pete for Atlas some months before Strange Tales 104. He (and his costume's giant bow) was probably never intended to re-appear. 

There was a panel in FF #10 I believe where Jack comes up with a new character called False Face. Stanley vetoes it as being too corny. Lots of goofier characters got a free pass, however, as a perusal of early features such as Giant-Man, Human Torch and Daredevil reveal.

On 12/18/2023 at 1:12 AM, Dr. Haydn said:

A decent character with a stupid name--in the Paste Pot Pete tradition?

I wonder when "Deep Purple" became Killgrave, officially?

And Paste Pot Pete eventually became the Trapster, as I recall. Same 'powers' though.

On 12/15/2023 at 1:54 AM, Dr. Haydn said:

DD 3: a suicide in a Code-approved book!

I assume the blood in the final panel was added for the Marvel Masterworks recoloring. It would be interesting to compare this page to the original, if anyone has a copy. 

Here ya go...

On 12/17/2023 at 3:38 PM, Dr. Haydn said:

You forgot about arguably the best of the bunch: the Purple Man!

Nope! The Purple Man (as played by David Tennant) worked very well on the Netflix series!

On 12/16/2023 at 2:22 AM, Dr. Haydn said:

The whole story reminds me of an early 60s Silver Age DC story: wordy and bland, but competently done. Perhaps that's Joe Orlando's DC-inspired story pacing at work?

Those early Daredevils really are a chore to read. Worst rogues gallery too... the Matador, the Owl, Stilt-Man...oooof!

On 12/9/2023 at 10:49 AM, The humble Watcher lurking said:

Good observation. Yeah, looking like it's Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko that did create and do most of the work. Disclaimer I am more a artist than writer.  So maybe bias. I will give Stan Lee credit for a few things. He knew how to talk and promote. Now a days we in Hollywood would call him a show runner.  Plus his birthday his coming up . I know I know.  It's hard to get over Stan Lee. I still have a soft spot for him. Just for his marketing and promoting comics. I noticed the Marvel movies have tanked after his death. Yep, Kirby and Ditko were the creators, but Stan was the show runner. Ditko estate just got a big payment today. So all is fair in love and war. 

Yeah, I used to like Stan a lot more than I do now after learning the extent of his credit-stealing antics. In recent interviews, Steve Ditko's brother describe Stan as 'a leech' who knew Steve was his meal ticket. That's amazing news about the Ditko estate getting a big payment today. It's obviously too late to benefit Steve himself.

I agree that Stan was an excellent huckster, I just wish he'd been honest about who really came up with the characters and stories.

Stanley was tired of writing nothing but giant monster comics for several years on end. He thought it was a silly and immature subject for a sophisticated grown man to be endlessly writing about.

So in 1961 he 'came up with' a new idea called the Fantastic Four.

The first issue featured... dozens of giant monsters.

In the second issue, Reed Richards averted an alien invasion by showing them panels of... giant monsters.

Issue #3 featured the menace of a ... giant monster.

The 4th issue showcased the return of Sub-Mariner, accompanied by a .... giant monster.

I suspect that whatever the impetus for the Fantastic Four was, it was not as a reprieve from... giant monsters.

On 12/5/2023 at 3:08 AM, Dr. Haydn said:

One of the best pages of early Marvel, I believe. Jack stages a serious scene, and Stan's dialogue enhances it.  

That first panel might seem a little odd if taken out of context.

On 12/4/2023 at 6:04 PM, Prince Namor said:

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1964

Avengers #7 -

Part TWO:

I can just picture Stanley painstakingly plotting every panel of action as he prepares to dictate the entire story to Jack...

On 12/4/2023 at 3:18 PM, Dr. Haydn said:

A classic Kirby-Ayers story! 

I just realised the character should also be construed as Marvel's first black superhero... although sadly he dies within just a few panels!!

Slightly off topic, but I was just reading a monster story in Tales of Suspense #18 (June 1961). The character is a Hulk prototype, deriving his monstrous appearance and powers from a nuclear blast with Soviets behind it. But somewhat more realistically, he starts developing radiation burns soon after this happens!

On 12/2/2023 at 4:02 AM, Dr. Haydn said:

The lettering is top notch!

 

Artie Simek was a font of wisdom!

On 12/1/2023 at 7:44 PM, Prince Namor said:

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1964

Strange Tales #124 - Lee, Ayers, Reinman, Simek

Lee forces Ayers and Paste Pot Pete on us and then forces an inker on Ditko. Some Editor he is!

That's some mediocre comic-bookin'!

On 11/28/2023 at 3:57 PM, Mmehdy said:

what a deal for 25 cents.....

There's also this rather nice edition, although I'm not sure if it reprints the entire annual... I have a copy but it's blocked off right now in our Christmas furniture shuffle : )