My First "fake" CGC slabbed book

[Marvel Zombie]

Slabs can be cracked and resealed undetectably

Labels can be created

There is a lot of scamming in the comics biz-more and more as time goes on

 

I'd say this is a perfect storm waiting to happen.

CGC should get ahead of it with more secure slabs and collectors should very carefully examine slabs they buy, labels, posts, etc.

Most probably though this situation will be ignored till it's too late and things implode-that's human nature.

Maybe if it's a high dollar book crack it just to make sure. Be sad if someone cracked a Superman #1 they had for 10 years only to discover inside the cover was a 70's Archie book or extensive CT with a sharpie.

 

The label doesnt have to be fake though-someone could harvest/resubmit legitimate books and use the labels to sell off the fakes....

 

The situation as it now exists is that a raw book that can be examined is more secure than a slabbed book bought off another party. {quote}

 

 

Very insightful.....

 

This is a bigger problem than people want to know and people want to deal with. It is hard to ask the CGC to go back in time to make the books tamper free, however going forward it is to me curious why the CGC does not take better steps in preventing this. There smart competitions can use this to their advantage against them...another e-bay scam.....another dollar lost...

 

 

 

Mitch I cant see how your sketched scenario could come about:

 

"Be sad if someone cracked a Superman #1 they had for 10 years only to discover inside the cover was a 70's Archie book" (quote).

 

CGC would never slab an archie book with a supes cover. So: Wouldnt such a scam require access to a previously untouched inner well. It is my understanding that all inner wells have to be cut open ...?

 

 

 

 

[mschmidt]

The OP also showed that he could do the same thing (that is, open the outer case without damaging it) with cases with the newer labels. (It's in another thread linked on the first page of this thread.) So, the age of the slab doesn't seem to matter.

 

You've mentioned this a couple of times so far - it's not correct.

 

Go back and re-read the other thread - the case might have looked fine from the front, but the corner posts were still visibly cracked.

[Muaythai607]

We just need to pinpoint the owner of that label then we got the person. anyone want to notify cgc of this situation. but I think the newer slabs are much harder to pull this scam with.

 

 

 

 

 

NEW INFORMATION:

 

A new twist to this, thanks to a question asked by Muaythai607. Muaythai asked for the label number. When I ran it - which I apologize for not already having done - I found that the certification number is in fact for a restored 9.0 with amateur color touch graded in March 2000.

 

What this means is that it wasn't a label swap with an unrestored Cap 100. The scammer cracked the slab, took out the restored label and then simply created/printed a blue Universal, unrestored label.

 

If you think about it, this is easier to pull off and calls out even more for sealing that label within the inner holder. Because with this scam, the crook doesn't even need to purchase another unrestored copy. Just purchase a restored book, remove the purple label and print up a blue. While your at it give the book a grade bump as well. Sell on eBay at a handsome profit. Then repeat.

 

Perhaps this scam is a bit easier to guard against though. Carry a laptop or smart phone and check the certification number before purchasing. I'll be doing THAT from now on!

 

The label number is 0010149004

 

 

Here is the CGC certification info:

 

Certification Information

Certification #: 0010149004

Title: Captain America

Issue: 100

Issue Date: 4/68

Issue Year: 1968

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Grade: 9.0

Page Quality: CREAM TO OFF-WHITE

Label Text: Restoration includes: moderate amount of color touch on edges of cover.

Grade Date: 03/06/2000

Category: Apparent SA

Art Comments: Stan Lee story

Jack Kirby and Syd Shores cover and art

Key Comments: 1st issue. Black Panther appearance.

Story and numbering continued

from Tales of Suspense #99

it's a funny thing... older slabs (and older labels) have a premium associated with them (or at least it seems this way) since they came from a very tight period of grading and buyers think old label equals a very likely increase in grade with a resub... but those same old slabs are more easily cracked for the nefarious purposes shown by the OP.

 

so buying newer slabs, which are harder to crack without there being evidence, are the way to go?

[jaeldubyoo]

We just need to pinpoint the owner of that label then we got the person. anyone want to notify cgc of this situation. but I think the newer slabs are much harder to pull this scam with.

 

Got what person? All you have is the person that originally submitted it. There's no telling how many times it may have been resold before it was switched. It would require more detective work than just finding the owner of the label.

[herc2000]

is there any records on GPA for the history of it

[Muaythai607]

We just need to pinpoint the owner of that label then we got the person. anyone want to notify cgc of this situation. but I think the newer slabs are much harder to pull this scam with.

 

Got what person? All you have is the person that originally submitted it. There's no telling how many times it may have been resold before it was switched. It would require more detective work than just finding the owner of the label.

 

find the owner of that label [book] is a start

its probably at leat 3-4 owners max.. I don't think you will be going through like 50 suspects or anything that major.

[kav]

If say 3 fake books were all slabbed by one owner for instance that wouldn't mean anything because perhaps the scammer bought a lot of books from one guy. The only way it would matter is if the slabber was also the person that sold the book to the guy who discovered the fake.

[MetalPSI]

It's like Kojack and Colombo having a love child in here.

 

Keep crackin peeps, I wanna see a culprit

[Tony S]

We just need to pinpoint the owner of that label then we got the person. anyone want to notify cgc of this situation. but I think the newer slabs are much harder to pull this scam with.

 

Got what person? All you have is the person that originally submitted it. There's no telling how many times it may have been resold before it was switched. It would require more detective work than just finding the owner of the label.

 

find the owner of that label [book] is a start

its probably at leat 3-4 owners max.. I don't think you will be going through like 50 suspects or anything that major.

 

I like your enthusiasm but the book was graded over 14 years ago. My collections is full of books - heck my collection is mostly books - that I have no idea when I bought them and from whom. And I sure as heck have no idea who I've sold what too unless it happened just recently. I do mostly mail order so I could go back into my paper records. But when I sell books at shows it's not like I ask for ID.

 

GPA has no record of this serial number selling - I looked at both 9.2 and 9.0 sales. Of course lots of books sell person to person or at shows. Are sold to and by comic book stores. And with GPA once you get past sales from 2005 serial numbers are rare. 2005/2006 it starts being a 50/50 thing.

 

I mostly just wanted to alert boardies that the theoretical discussions about faked/bogus slabs are sometimes true. This one is off to be graded and will soon be back in the properly noted as a restored copy with some amateur CT.

 

.

[kav]

They make pens that dont bleed I dont understand why people use sharpies

[flikhype]

this is absolutely sad to see someone actually go to that extent to spoil such a good and fun hobby. your kids will probably be born with no anus and have to flip the pages of comic books with their nosehair u...u....bloody scammers!

[DEATHLOK9147]

Wow, that's wild.. There was a similar issue my brother had with the Dark Knight #1 first print. It seems the guy cracked the slab and took the original first print out of the case, and replaced it with the second print Dark Knight #1..

[Carl Elvis]

Thanks for sharing Tony, the more collectors know about fakes the better the hobby will be overall. Glad it worked out.

[joe_collector]

This happens ALL the time, and back in the day I used to post labels like this, including a couple of high-grade CGC Hulk 181 that were very obvious label-fakes.

 

I don't even want to imagine how many of these fake label books are floating around out there.

[joe_collector]

Here is one of the fake labels I managed to save, along with the official one. I believe this was a very high-grade Hulk 181 that sold for serious cash, probably a 9.6.

[calcnerd]

I wonder how difficult it would be for CGC to put some type of watermark on their labels before they're put in the slab.

[joe_collector]

I wonder how difficult it would be for CGC to put some type of watermark on their labels before they're put in the slab.

 

They really should have put a tamper-proof holographic image on the first-generation labels (people even suggested it on here and were told "our slabs are tamper-proof" ), but that didn't happen until much later.

[vane]

I wonder how difficult it would be for CGC to put some type of watermark on their labels before they're put in the slab.

 

They really should have put a tamper-proof holographic image on the first-generation labels (people even suggested it on here and were told "our slabs are tamper-proof" ), but that didn't happen until much later.

 

 

I was about to post this idea.

 

I'm surprise they haven't done already.

 

 

[cousin itt]

That won't prevent label swapping though.

[joe_collector]

I wonder how difficult it would be for CGC to put some type of watermark on their labels before they're put in the slab.

 

They really should have put a tamper-proof holographic image on the first-generation labels (people even suggested it on here and were told "our slabs are tamper-proof" ), but that didn't happen until much later.

 

I was about to post this idea.

 

I'm surprise they haven't done already.

 

I think the new CGC labels include a holograph logo, don't they?