BeatleBlueCat DEFRAUDING BUYERS with Massive SHILL BIDDING and Same old "Buy CGC graded 7.5, crack and sell as raw "NM" scam 10 10

[kav]

2 minutes ago, 1950's war comics said:

yep drive 1 1/2  hours to the Comic-Con . pay $10 to park .... pay $30 entrance fee... plus $100 for Stans signature ... wait in line for 3 hours 

and then have him sign a Master of Kung Fu #24 in VG/F condition  

Sounds legit.
And do it hundreds of times-

[Old_Man_Adam]

2 minutes ago, 1950's war comics said:

yep drive 1 1/2  hours to the Comic-Con . pay $10 to park .... pay $30 entrance fee... plus $100 for Stans signature ... wait in line for 3 hours 

and then have him sign a Master of Kung Fu #24 in VG/F condition  

Lol - right , authentication ? Nah - and please sign Ragman #2 please with 1/2 of the cover missing Stan ! You’re the best 

[kav]

3 minutes ago, Old_Man_Adam said:

Lol - right , authentication ? Nah - and please sign Ragman #2 please with 1/2 of the cover missing Stan ! You’re the best 

Ragman is the new Woodgod!  

[1950's war comics]

11 minutes ago, Old_Man_Adam said:

Ragman #2

i bought Ragman #1 off the rack back in the day , never bought #2 though as Ragman was drek.....

[James J Johnson]

4 hours ago, Old_Man_Adam said:

Whatever happens to that guy with the fugazi Stan Lee / Jack Kirby autographs ... tonfoulle or something .... 

He has his own thread and I haven't looked for awhile, and although these threads eventually page out of the top 5 pages, they leave a trace in google searches so the object is that even if they become static, when due diligence is done, they the forum threads pop right up high on the google search pages.

My guess is that like many Lee, Kirby, and Ditko forgers, he's added Carrie Fisher, David Prowse, and Chadwick Boseman to his repertoire of fraud.

[kav]

3 minutes ago, James J Johnson said:

He has his own thread and I haven't looked for awhile, and although these threads eventually page out of the top 5 pages, they leave a trace in google searches so the object is that even if they become static, when due diligence is done, they the forum threads pop right up high on the google search pages.

My guess is that like many Lee, Kirby, and Ditko forgers, he's added Carrie Fisher, David Prowse, and Chadwick Boseman to his repertoire of fraud.

So sort of a vulture.

[James J Johnson]

23 minutes ago, kav said:

So sort of a vulture.

Yeah, vulture is good. But ghoul is the word for it that strikes me as more appropriate.

[kav]

1 minute ago, James J Johnson said:

Yeah, vulture is good. But ghoul is the word for it that strikes me as more appropriate.

True-vulture is just a part of nature-ghoul more accurate.

[Lightning55]

On 12/18/2020 at 2:50 PM, Ride the Tiger said:

The seller told me the IM55 was pressed FWIW.

I think this book WAS pressed - probably by an amateur, likely the seller himself.  The outer corners of the front cover look much sharper compared to the original photos, and that would happen with a press. 

The spine appearance would lead you to believe that it wasn't pressed, as suggested earlier.  But the spine is hard for amateurs to press correctly, and it has that V type bend.  Even @joeypost has mentioned that those are the hardest to get rid of, and even when you do, can return at the very first handling.  Super persistent.  So he's just not a great presser - yet.

The seller was asked if it was pressed, said it was, might be the only honest thing about this whole debacle.  Well, except that it wasn't disclosed until asked, but he wouldn't be alone in that on eBay. 

I don't find him saying it was pressed to be the least bit suspicious.  It would be more consistent with his m.o. if he said it WASN'T pressed, but maybe thought that the buyer could tell and would return it.  Better to admit it, if asked. 

He buys good candidates for his style of "improvement", cracks them out, presses them, photo-shops them, plays with the lighting a bit and exaggerates the grade.  Then has someone shill the bid.  Quite a scam.

[James J Johnson]

2 hours ago, Lightning55 said:

I think this book WAS pressed - probably by an amateur, likely the seller himself.  The outer corners of the front cover look much sharper compared to the original photos, and that would happen with a press. 

The spine appearance would lead you to believe that it wasn't pressed, as suggested earlier.  But the spine is hard for amateurs to press correctly, and it has that V type bend.  Even @joeypost has mentioned that those are the hardest to get rid of, and even when you do, can return at the very first handling.  Super persistent.  So he's just not a great presser - yet.

The seller was asked if it was pressed, said it was, might be the only honest thing about this whole debacle.  Well, except that it wasn't disclosed until asked, but he wouldn't be alone in that on eBay. 

I don't find him saying it was pressed to be the least bit suspicious.  It would be more consistent with his m.o. if he said it WASN'T pressed, but maybe thought that the buyer could tell and would return it.  Better to admit it, if asked. 

He buys good candidates for his style of "improvement", cracks them out, presses them, photo-shops them, plays with the lighting a bit and exaggerates the grade.  Then has someone shill the bid.  Quite a scam.

Photoshop. I can locate and remove his obvious photoshopped fills and what's left behind, with that removed, is exactly the way the book looked in the before image at the time he bought it. As stated, if he's pressing anything, the press isn't plugged in. Even with as much photoshopping practice as he's gotten over the years, he's still not that good with it. 

Edited December 20, 2020 by James J Johnson

[D2]

14 hours ago, Bighaley21 said:

He never mentioned the color touch in the listing. I ended up getting the book graded and came back a purple label. I had to jump through hoops for him to get me a refund on it.

I’m glad you did. A fight worth fighting for. 

[James J Johnson]

This is pretty much the general MO for everything he sells. 

Buy at 2.0, photoshop/list as FIne to NM

Buy at 4.0,photoshop/list as VF to NM

Buy at 6.0, photoshop/list as VF+ to NM

Buy at 7.0, photoshop/list as VF/NM to NM+

Buy at 8.0, photoshop/list as Unread/NM+

 

He bought this Batman lot earlier in the month for $80:

DC BATMAN COMICS LOT OF 5 ISSUES 259, 261, 262, 263, 264 | eBay 

Seller represented them as Goods, with spine splits, book-length creases, detached centerfolds, etc. 

And now here they are, that seller's 2.0s, being resold on ebay the same month as VFs to NMs. No press Just loads of photoshop.

 

BATMAN # 259 - (NM-) -GIANT-SIZE - JOKER,PENGUIN,CATWOMAN,BATGIRL,THE SHADOW | eBay 

BATMAN # 261 - (VF+) -GIANT-SIZE - JOKER,PENGUIN,CATWOMAN,BATGIRL,ROBIN,RIDDLER | eBay 

BATMAN # 262 - (NM) - HIGH GRADE-GIANT-SIZE -THE SCARECROW - ROBIN DEATH THREATS | eBay 

BATMAN # 263 - (VF+) - RIDDLER ON THE MOVE - THE RIDDLER IS BACK | eBay 

BATMAN # 264 - (VF-) - DEATH OF A DAREDEVIL - DEVIL DAYRE | eBay 

 

This is what makes it so damn easy to find before images of his listings, old or new. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

The amount that he overgrades is so drastically over the top that I know exactly what the grades are of the books I'm looking at for matches.  If he graded a book NM+, I know I'm looking for a raw or CGC 6.0 to 8.0. If he grades it VF+, I'm searching VG to FN images, although there are many instances where 2.0s and 3.0s, books with splits, missing or detached centerfolds, missing pages, etc.are being sold as NM-, very much like these Batmans, which are the rule, not the exception, to his sales as far as I've seen so far, and Ive already saved hundreds of before/after images (The image from the seller he bought it from and his listing image). 

Edited December 20, 2020 by James J Johnson

[James J Johnson]

26 minutes ago, D2 said:

I’m glad you did. A fight worth fighting for. 

This also is the reason why he's sold so many Hulk 181s, and others of similarly high price ranges. "This seller sure gets a lot of Hulk 181s". And yes. he has listed may Hulk 181s over the years. Many times the same ones that keep coming back home to roost once CGC grades his NM+ a 6.5, or once color touch is discovered because it was a purple label crack out. So in many instances, it's the same book, listed and resold many times over the long haul until it finally sticks, usually because he worked out a fractional refund with his buyer. 

[Ride the Tiger]

5 hours ago, Lightning55 said:

I think this book WAS pressed - probably by an amateur, likely the seller himself.  The outer corners of the front cover look much sharper compared to the original photos, and that would happen with a press. 

The spine appearance would lead you to believe that it wasn't pressed, as suggested earlier.  But the spine is hard for amateurs to press correctly, and it has that V type bend.  Even @joeypost has mentioned that those are the hardest to get rid of, and even when you do, can return at the very first handling.  Super persistent.  So he's just not a great presser - yet.

The seller was asked if it was pressed, said it was, might be the only honest thing about this whole debacle.  Well, except that it wasn't disclosed until asked, but he wouldn't be alone in that on eBay. 

I don't find him saying it was pressed to be the least bit suspicious.  It would be more consistent with his m.o. if he said it WASN'T pressed, but maybe thought that the buyer could tell and would return it.  Better to admit it, if asked. 

He buys good candidates for his style of "improvement", cracks them out, presses them, photo-shops them, plays with the lighting a bit and exaggerates the grade.  Then has someone shill the bid.  Quite a scam.

Once you get a reputation for dishonesty as this seller did people question everything you say. Was it really pressed? I wouldn't believe him if he said good morning.

[Nic8612]

12 hours ago, kav said:

Ps comic shops used to use this method in the old days when they were the only game in town.  You go in to sell a book they shake their head and say it's a G-, I'll give ya $20.  Next day you walk in-it's up on the wall-a NM, price: $300.

Unfortunately a lot *still* do this and act like people don't have the internet in their pocket. A few years ago, like 2 months before Venom came out, I watched a dude that knew nothing about comics walk into my old local haunt with an ASM 300 that looked NM. Shop owner offered him $50 for it. It pissed me off so bad that I intervened, told the guy what it was worth, and never went back to that shop.

 

Now my new spot apparently just doesn't understand market rates because they have a Secret Wars 8 9.8 on the wall for $1300 

[CatskillMike]

4 hours ago, James J Johnson said:

Photoshop. I can locate and remove his obvious photoshopped fills and what's left behind, with that removed, is exactly the way the book looked in the before image at the time he bought it. As stated, if he's pressing anything, the press isn't plugged in. Even with as much photoshopping practice as he's gotten over the years, he's still not that good with it. 

He said he pressed it, he never said he plugged the press in!  Maybe he "pressed" it under a stack of books like I tried 25 years ago?

[sledgehammer]

18 hours ago, James J Johnson said:

All different info. Paypal, email, member name and address, etc. Ebay doesn't have a clue because nothing matches.

I wasn't talking about Ebay figuring it out. I learned many, many years ago to check out who else is bidding on comics, and what % of their bid activity is with the seller that I'm interested in. I can't believe that none of these people has reported him to Ebay.

Look at his bidding war with the winner of the ASM 129 on 11/19. NO ONE ELSE bid more than $2,100.

He appears to be stealing thousands and thousands of dollars from people, and a certain % of that, is certainly their own fault.

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by sledgehammer

[James J Johnson]

5 hours ago, CatskillMike said:

He said he pressed it, he never said he plugged the press in!  Maybe he "pressed" it under a stack of books like I tried 25 years ago?

Maybe he "pressed" it as in an interrogation? Maybe he asked of the book demanding answers under penalty of perjury? Maybe that's the pressing he's referring to, because based on the before + photoshop then after images of these 2.0s pressed into 9.2s, that's the only kind of pressing he performed. 

[James J Johnson]

4 hours ago, sledgehammer said:

I wasn't talking about Ebay figuring it out. I learned many, many years ago to check out who else is bidding on comics, and what % of their bid activity is with the seller that I'm interested in. I can't believe that none of these people has reported him to Ebay.

Look at his bidding war with the winner of the ASM 129 on 11/19. NO ONE ELSE bid more than $2,100.

He appears to be stealing thousands and thousands of dollars from people, and a certain % of that, is certainly their own fault.

 

Shilling is also an integral component of his milieu. That also accounting for so many resales of the very same book. 

[sledgehammer]

I couldn't find any evidence of feedback for the most recent $5K sale of an IH 181.

No surprise there.

It didn't look like he shilled that one until the end, but his ability to retract bids on his own auctions is pathetic.

Multiple people need to search his "sold" items, and report them as fraudulent listings when that "50 feedback" shill was used.