THE_BEYONDER

On 1/12/2024 at 2:36 PM, Red Hook said:

Hopefully this is better ... 

On 1/11/2024 at 7:43 AM, wiparker824 said:

another photo from that shop’s IG that should make the heat gun theorists go wild… note the heat gun casually sitting next to all of these mega SA keys in the background.  

On 1/10/2024 at 3:57 PM, mrd160 said:

If this scam proves nothing else, it proves that no one gives a s@#% about DC…lol. I mean hey, I do, I’ve been collecting almost exclusively DC for the past 10 years  

If there were DC custom labels, I’m sure there would be some on the list.

I’m not expecting to see a new label design.    I’m expecting to see new reholder protocols.

On 1/9/2024 at 8:36 PM, shadroch said:

So, CGC owns half a million dollars' worth of books.  Books they graded themselves.  Now what?  Does the unbiased third-party grading company go into selling comics?  The 9.8 they paid the market price for but is closer to a 9.2 will sell better in a 9.4 slab.  They'd be much better off returning the 9.2 and giving the owner a nice check.

Not sure 9.8 collectors would want the 9.2 back.  Most would likely just want the money they paid for it.

On 1/9/2024 at 8:25 PM, bc said:

Motivated does not equal creativity.

Found an easy loophole and worked his way to high dollar books.

-bc

They have been doing it for years without detection.  I don’t think a submitter could just continue bashing slab corners to hide their handy work without raising suspicions.

On 1/9/2024 at 8:23 PM, bc said:

I don't think this party was that motivated. He found an easy exploit and milked it.

-bc

The scammer seems pretty motivated to me.  

On 1/9/2024 at 8:18 PM, bc said:

I'm 100% sure that this reholdering scam exposed in this thread is not the only one happening in the collectibles world right now. 

Having a blank slab is quite a bit different than swapping books and taking advantage of a compromised process.

-bc

But the blank slab is what would allow the swapping of books without detection 

On 1/9/2024 at 8:14 PM, bc said:

I agree 100%.

Just don't think the scamming party is doing a full-blown recreation of the slabbing process. Doesn't make sense to me. Too big of a footprint/investment when all thats needed is a heat gun and a nice screwdriver to swap in the donor book and then send them off to CGC.

-bc

Those videos haven’t convinced me that CGC wouldn’t catch the work

On 1/9/2024 at 8:10 PM, bc said:

I personally don't believe that is an option.

He/They manipulated a vulnerable process/system/product for financial gain. Why invest in all that when they could have CGC "validate" their work?

-bc

I’m suggesting that may be how the scammer continued to get the books past CGC. 

On 1/9/2024 at 8:06 PM, agamoto said:

Well, with a decent calibrated lab oven going for around $1K, the barrier to entry isn't too high. 

Have we ruled out the idea that the perp has acquired the equipment and supplies to manufacture their own slabs?

On 1/9/2024 at 7:54 PM, agamoto said:

 

Oh yes, quite serious. 

 

I hope our prep isn’t using that oven method 

On 1/9/2024 at 7:43 PM, agamoto said:

No, the sequel where he put the slab in a commercial lab oven and found the exact temperature required to pop a slab apart with your fingernails. 

On 1/9/2024 at 7:40 PM, bc said:

My point in reposting that was to bring up the historic precedence that the elective reholdering process has been compromised for years in one way or another with little change to processes or QC.

-bc

I blame this whole mess on the introduction of theses vanity custom labels.  Without them, we wouldn’t be where we are currently.

On 1/9/2024 at 7:28 PM, GDN said:

Edit:  I see GoCollect has responded on IG to Comicwiz and they state: "We agree these kinds of records should not be deleted.  They will be segregated and removed only from impacting the valuation of a particular item"

So all should be well.

On 1/9/2024 at 7:15 PM, brute_nm said:

assuming he had the cash flow to sink $10k on the green label

I don’t think cash flow is a problem for someone doing the switcheroo for many years.  They would need the 50k to buy an actual 9.8 blue as well.

On 1/9/2024 at 7:15 PM, brute_nm said:

Not yet. A green label 9.8 sold on Heritage in November, maybe it was our guy 

Green label: $9600

Blue label: $55-60k

Pretty serious ROI

Would take some balls to crack an actual 9.8 Hulk 181

What’s a blue label 9.6 go for?

On 1/9/2024 at 7:04 PM, Sigur Ros said:

This is CGC giving expensive books with missing insides blue, 9.8 labels.

Not exactly.  I haven’t seen a 9.8 Hulk 181 involved in the scam.

On 1/9/2024 at 1:57 PM, Heronext said:

Whenever I feel that way I buy an issue of Spider-Man, read it and shove it in my back pocket

Very liberating 

On 1/9/2024 at 1:50 PM, NewWorldOrder said:

 

I sell tamper-free CGC books since 2009! Come take a look.

SPAM

Mods notified 

On 1/9/2024 at 1:19 PM, sledgehammer said:

Photos are all 4-5 years old.

If I’m looking at the right Instagram page, this pic is interesting….

On 1/9/2024 at 1:07 PM, Mikey C said:

The New York shop’s Instagram has a couple of the scammers slabs, specifically the JIM 8.0. Just need to scroll down a bit.

Link?

On 1/9/2024 at 12:58 PM, pdags said:

I don't like being purely speculative, but If the scammer simply stops everything, lays low, and burns all the evidence, I feel he'll get away with it.  I hope I'm wrong, but CGC doesn't seem to have a grasp on the situation and we still don't know if the law enforcement is involved.

What makes you think CGC doesn’t know who the scammer is?

On 1/9/2024 at 12:15 PM, pdags said:

Ahhhhhhh.  Hopefully that guy didn't get scammed.

Have we seen an example of a SS book that has been tampered with? 

On 1/9/2024 at 11:52 AM, pdags said:

Has anyone contacted them to let them know comics they own are possibly on CGC's Verification list?

Have they posted books for sale that are on the list?