GL 1 cgc 9.0 on the bay

[The-Collector]

Is this legitimate?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Green-Lantern-1-CGC-9-0-1941-D-C-Comics-RARE-0055970005-/122083703220

 

Seems odd to me.

[Johnny545]

Already a thread - almost certainly a scam.

[The_Investor]

1- What makes you good folks think it's a scam? Give your reasoning. Other big ticket items have sold on ebay before.

 

2- Let's say it's a scam...which happens ....doesn't ebay or PayPal freeze the cash until the buyer receives the package with the content? Wouldn't they reimburse the cost of purchase?

[Doohickamabob]

1- What makes you good folks think it's a scam? Give your reasoning. Other big ticket items have sold on ebay before.

"Other big ticket items have sold on ebay before" is irrelevant. Nobody is saying it's a scam just because it's a big-ticket item.

 

Here is one very big reason to believe this is a scam: The image is stolen and manipulated.

 

Look at the image carefully. That is a high-resolution photo of the slab that has been carefully cropped and manipulated to appear as though it is physically next to a piece of paper with the seller's information on it.

 

-- The image has been identified as having been stolen from this listing on the Lewis Wayne Gallery website. Same serial number. Same reflections of light (such as across the bottom border). Same hologram color reflection.

 

-- In terms of Photoshop skill, the seller does know how to crop in a straight line, but otherwise he sucks at it. The edge is clipped and separated from its background, like a bad green-screen artifact in a science-fiction movie. The corners do not have natural curvature of a CGC slab, because the scamming loser didn't have the patience to do careful cropping over a curve.

 

-- The slab does not demonstrate the image bleed-through you'd expect when clear plastic is placed over a textured background. The translucent portions of the slab are what you'd see over a plain white background, not a concrete-textured surface.

 

-- The shadowing to the right of the slab is a Photoshop manipulation. A slab edge has a rolling curve that would create a shadow on at least 2 visible sides from that angle, but this fool has applied a Gaussian blur at a direct right angle to the image. The slab's fake shadow is a couple shades darker than the shadow from the slip of paper.

 

-- The image of the CGC slab has been transformed so that it's unnaturally wide and squat. The scammer probably thought it would make the slab's angle match the angle of the slip of paper. But instead it looks like the slab was put into a shrinky-dink oven and contorted due to a wrinkle in the fabric of space and time.

 

-- The comparative sizing doesn't make sense unless the seller is in the habit of writing simple notations on large scraps of paper (or the CGC case and comic are pocket-sized).

 

-- The CGC slab image is significantly sharper and higher-contrast than the background/note image. More amateur Photoshopping.

 

-- Lastly but importantly, you have to ask yourself, "What kind of person takes a photo of a slab next to a little piece of paper that identifies himself?" Most legitimate sellers have no need of such a thing, or if they're going to really identify themselves, they can do so by taking a half-dozen photos from different angles that include the backgrounds of their personal environments. Instead, this guy gives us one fishy photo, then two other images of a disembodied CGC label and a close-up of the slab's back cover (because he was too lazy to work his half-assed Photoshop magic twice in a row).

 

There's also the matter of the eBay account and the auction details:

 

-- The bidding history is set to "private bidders." This is a red flag that the seller is hiding shill bids placed by his imaginary friends.

 

-- The eBay account's feedback shows only 54 transactions, which somebody could rack up in a few weeks selling tube socks.

 

-- The account's past sales do not include any comics or collectibles. They're all.....well, it's in German so it's difficult to tell, but it looks like some cell phone accessories and the like.

 

-- It's rare to see anybody from Germany collecting or selling high-value English-language comics. However, there is a longtime notorious German scammer named Wilhelm Uthe who has fleeced many people with out-and-out fraud schemes, and made many spins through the revolving door of Germany's criminal-justice system. This could be him or one of his fellow dumbkopfs.

 

2- Let's say it's a scam...which happens ....doesn't ebay or PayPal freeze the cash until the buyer receives the package with the content? Wouldn't they reimburse the cost of purchase?

What is your point? That people should roll the dice on an obvious scam? Why so nonchalant? It's a pain in the butt to get scammed.

 

Are you aware of the schemes and manipulations scammers use to bypass eBay's buyer protections? The seller might insist on a wire transfer after the fact (which some people still fall for), or might have set up a false-identity bank account he can cash out on before the sheisse hits the fan.

 

Even if you got your money back, you'd still be implicitly aiding and abetting a criminal -- and who wants to risk doing that? Instead, everybody here should report this P.O.S.'s listing as fraudulent.

[The_Investor]

Then you should report the scam to ebay...you would do the collecting community a great favor .

 

Thanks for the detailed analysis.

 

Hope you report it ASAP to ebay.

 

 

[Doohickamabob]

Then you should report the scam to ebay...you would do the collecting community a great favor .

 

Thanks for the detailed analysis.

 

Hope you report it ASAP to ebay.

I already did.

[sacentaur]

[The_Investor]

Excellent! What did they say?

[Doohickamabob]

Excellent! What did they say?

That's not how it works. I suggest you file a report against this scumsack so you can see what the process is like. (Everybody else here, please do the same.)

 

First, go to the listing.

 

Then scroll down to the link (at right side of page) that says "Report item."

 

For the listing reasons, you have multiple options. Here are some of them:

 

Report Category: Listing practices

 

Reason for Report: (multiple possibilities including -- )

 

-- Fraudulent listing activities

-- Inappropriate item description

-- Other listing practices

 

Detailed Reason: (for example if you picked "Fraudulent listing activities")

 

-- Seller is using other accounts to inflate item price

-- You suspect that a listing is fraudulent

 

----

 

Try it and be sure to let me know how it goes for you.

[BarristerBaker]

Then you should report the scam to ebay...you would do the collecting community a great favor .

 

Thanks for the detailed analysis.

 

Hope you report it ASAP to ebay.

I already did.

 

There is a special place in heaven for you, good sir.

[Et-Es-Go]

I like the Shrinky Dink reference. That takes one back a few decades. I had G I Joes then too. Some of the later ones with fuzzy hair and Kunf Foo grip. Lots of time spent with the orange Matchbox race track and small battery powered cars called Sizzlers.

[Paul © ® ⚽️💙™]

1- What makes you good folks think it's a scam? Give your reasoning. Other big ticket items have sold on ebay before.

"Other big ticket items have sold on ebay before" is irrelevant. Nobody is saying it's a scam just because it's a big-ticket item.

 

Here is one very big reason to believe this is a scam: The image is stolen and manipulated.

 

Look at the image carefully. That is a high-resolution photo of the slab that has been carefully cropped and manipulated to appear as though it is physically next to a piece of paper with the seller's information on it.

 

-- The image has been identified as having been stolen from this listing on the Lewis Wayne Gallery website. Same serial number. Same reflections of light (such as across the bottom border). Same hologram color reflection.

 

-- In terms of Photoshop skill, the seller does know how to crop in a straight line, but otherwise he sucks at it. The edge is clipped and separated from its background, like a bad green-screen artifact in a science-fiction movie. The corners do not have natural curvature of a CGC slab, because the scamming loser didn't have the patience to do careful cropping over a curve.

 

-- The slab does not demonstrate the image bleed-through you'd expect when clear plastic is placed over a textured background. The translucent portions of the slab are what you'd see over a plain white background, not a concrete-textured surface.

 

-- The shadowing to the right of the slab is a Photoshop manipulation. A slab edge has a rolling curve that would create a shadow on at least 2 visible sides from that angle, but this fool has applied a Gaussian blur at a direct right angle to the image. The slab's fake shadow is a couple shades darker than the shadow from the slip of paper.

 

-- The image of the CGC slab has been transformed so that it's unnaturally wide and squat. The scammer probably thought it would make the slab's angle match the angle of the slip of paper. But instead it looks like the slab was put into a shrinky-dink oven and contorted due to a wrinkle in the fabric of space and time.

 

-- The comparative sizing doesn't make sense unless the seller is in the habit of writing simple notations on large scraps of paper (or the CGC case and comic are pocket-sized).

 

-- The CGC slab image is significantly sharper and higher-contrast than the background/note image. More amateur Photoshopping.

 

-- Lastly but importantly, you have to ask yourself, "What kind of person takes a photo of a slab next to a little piece of paper that identifies himself?" Most legitimate sellers have no need of such a thing, or if they're going to really identify themselves, they can do so by taking a half-dozen photos from different angles that include the backgrounds of their personal environments. Instead, this guy gives us one fishy photo, then two other images of a disembodied CGC label and a close-up of the slab's back cover (because he was too lazy to work his half-assed Photoshop magic twice in a row).

 

There's also the matter of the eBay account and the auction details:

 

-- The bidding history is set to "private bidders." This is a red flag that the seller is hiding shill bids placed by his imaginary friends.

 

-- The eBay account's feedback shows only 54 transactions, which somebody could rack up in a few weeks selling tube socks.

 

-- The account's past sales do not include any comics or collectibles. They're all.....well, it's in German so it's difficult to tell, but it looks like some cell phone accessories and the like.

 

-- It's rare to see anybody from Germany collecting or selling high-value English-language comics. However, there is a longtime notorious German scammer named Wilhelm Uthe who has fleeced many people with out-and-out fraud schemes, and made many spins through the revolving door of Germany's criminal-justice system. This could be him or one of his fellow dumbkopfs.

 

2- Let's say it's a scam...which happens ....doesn't ebay or PayPal freeze the cash until the buyer receives the package with the content? Wouldn't they reimburse the cost of purchase?

What is your point? That people should roll the dice on an obvious scam? Why so nonchalant? It's a pain in the butt to get scammed.

 

Are you aware of the schemes and manipulations scammers use to bypass eBay's buyer protections? The seller might insist on a wire transfer after the fact (which some people still fall for), or might have set up a false-identity bank account he can cash out on before the sheisse hits the fan.

 

Even if you got your money back, you'd still be implicitly aiding and abetting a criminal -- and who wants to risk doing that? Instead, everybody here should report this P.O.S.'s listing as fraudulent.

 

 

Fantastic post

[Doohickamabob]

1- What makes you good folks think it's a scam? Give your reasoning. Other big ticket items have sold on ebay before.

"Other big ticket items have sold on ebay before" is irrelevant. Nobody is saying it's a scam just because it's a big-ticket item.

 

Here is one very big reason to believe this is a scam: The image is stolen and manipulated.

 

Look at the image carefully. That is a high-resolution photo of the slab that has been carefully cropped and manipulated to appear as though it is physically next to a piece of paper with the seller's information on it.

 

-- The image has been identified as having been stolen from this listing on the Lewis Wayne Gallery website. Same serial number. Same reflections of light (such as across the bottom border). Same hologram color reflection.

 

-- In terms of Photoshop skill, the seller does know how to crop in a straight line, but otherwise he sucks at it. The edge is clipped and separated from its background, like a bad green-screen artifact in a science-fiction movie. The corners do not have natural curvature of a CGC slab, because the scamming loser didn't have the patience to do careful cropping over a curve.

 

-- The slab does not demonstrate the image bleed-through you'd expect when clear plastic is placed over a textured background. The translucent portions of the slab are what you'd see over a plain white background, not a concrete-textured surface.

 

-- The shadowing to the right of the slab is a Photoshop manipulation. A slab edge has a rolling curve that would create a shadow on at least 2 visible sides from that angle, but this fool has applied a Gaussian blur at a direct right angle to the image. The slab's fake shadow is a couple shades darker than the shadow from the slip of paper.

 

-- The image of the CGC slab has been transformed so that it's unnaturally wide and squat. The scammer probably thought it would make the slab's angle match the angle of the slip of paper. But instead it looks like the slab was put into a shrinky-dink oven and contorted due to a wrinkle in the fabric of space and time.

 

-- The comparative sizing doesn't make sense unless the seller is in the habit of writing simple notations on large scraps of paper (or the CGC case and comic are pocket-sized).

 

-- The CGC slab image is significantly sharper and higher-contrast than the background/note image. More amateur Photoshopping.

 

-- Lastly but importantly, you have to ask yourself, "What kind of person takes a photo of a slab next to a little piece of paper that identifies himself?" Most legitimate sellers have no need of such a thing, or if they're going to really identify themselves, they can do so by taking a half-dozen photos from different angles that include the backgrounds of their personal environments. Instead, this guy gives us one fishy photo, then two other images of a disembodied CGC label and a close-up of the slab's back cover (because he was too lazy to work his half-assed Photoshop magic twice in a row).

 

There's also the matter of the eBay account and the auction details:

 

-- The bidding history is set to "private bidders." This is a red flag that the seller is hiding shill bids placed by his imaginary friends.

 

-- The eBay account's feedback shows only 54 transactions, which somebody could rack up in a few weeks selling tube socks.

 

-- The account's past sales do not include any comics or collectibles. They're all.....well, it's in German so it's difficult to tell, but it looks like some cell phone accessories and the like.

 

-- It's rare to see anybody from Germany collecting or selling high-value English-language comics. However, there is a longtime notorious German scammer named Wilhelm Uthe who has fleeced many people with out-and-out fraud schemes, and made many spins through the revolving door of Germany's criminal-justice system. This could be him or one of his fellow dumbkopfs.

 

2- Let's say it's a scam...which happens ....doesn't ebay or PayPal freeze the cash until the buyer receives the package with the content? Wouldn't they reimburse the cost of purchase?

What is your point? That people should roll the dice on an obvious scam? Why so nonchalant? It's a pain in the butt to get scammed.

 

Are you aware of the schemes and manipulations scammers use to bypass eBay's buyer protections? The seller might insist on a wire transfer after the fact (which some people still fall for), or might have set up a false-identity bank account he can cash out on before the sheisse hits the fan.

 

Even if you got your money back, you'd still be implicitly aiding and abetting a criminal -- and who wants to risk doing that? Instead, everybody here should report this P.O.S.'s listing as fraudulent.

Fantastic post

Thank you, and I am feeling a little jerky because I didn't give boardie cousin itt (posting in Comics General) credit as the person who found the original image on the Lewis Wayne Gallery site.

 

Also, if you have time, please report this as a fraud to eBay. They still haven't taken it down. Maybe if they get enough reports from enough different people, they'll do something. Hopefully nobody will fall for the scam.

[Paul © ® ⚽️💙™]

Will do.

[Doohickamabob]

I like the Shrinky Dink reference. That takes one back a few decades. I had G I Joes then too. Some of the later ones with fuzzy hair and Kunf Foo grip. Lots of time spent with the orange Matchbox race track and small battery powered cars called Sizzlers.

We did Shrinky Dinks in summer school. I did a bunch of Superman-themed drawings, including his diamond-shaped "S" insignia. I remember it getting kind of warped. But it was cool. I might even still have it somewhere.

 

I had those G.I. Joes too. Their hair was really fuzzy. I must have really destroyed those guys because none of them survived my youth. I had Six Million Dollar Man stuff too. I forget if it was G.I. Joes or Six Million Dollar Man that had the helicopter with the tall, elongated front area for the guy to sit in, but that was one of my favorite toys for several months, until I probably destroyed it too.

 

And yeah on the chrome-colored Sizzlers! I wish I still had those. The track we had was black, I think, or at least the wide curved sections were. But we also got a bunch of the orange tracks for the regular cars, and always seemed to run out of those tongue parts that link them together. We would hitch the track way high up, and then put a series of chairs, pillows etc. at intervals so that the cars could go across the length of the living room or farther on the force of gravity.

 

I want to get a time machine and be a kid again.

[Doohickamabob]

About the lack of texture see-through on the seller's doctored image, I was looking through some of my own images and the see-through aspect is really apparent. An actual photo of a CGC slab, placed flat on top of a surface, will include visibility of whatever's behind the slab.

 

So, for my issue of Action Comics, you can see the comic magazine and the carpet that it's lying on.

 

Meanwhile, the Green Lantern shows no sign of anything behind it. The image is faked.

 

It's pretty much a slam-dunk case that this is a scam, but for some reason eBay isn't doing jack about it so far.

[The_Investor]

I reported it to ebay yesterday

[The_SandMan]

I just reported it as well. I sure hope it doesn't go to completion

[atomised]

Also did my duty and reported it. Don't know why the book hasn't been taken down. As a GL collector my heart goes out to collectors that could get ripped off bidding on this.

[sartre]

Looks like he posted a back cover.... does anyone know where the image was swiped from? If it was from the Lewis Wayne Gallery its not listed on the site...