BA773 Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 How could you be scammed with a fake slabe? On the cgc register you can find every graded book with the listing of the defect so how can you be scammed? The scammer can replace the book into the slab but cannot hide the defect who arent the same from a comics to an other, you will be able to see the difference between the book on the cgc website and the book you bought if it was replaced... MAR1979 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comicginger1789 Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 The scammer was replacing high grade books with copies that were slightly worse. Majority of collectors have a hard time seeing the true differences between 8.0 and 9.4 or from 9.0 to 9.6. And most people when they buy a slab are not always checking the notes. Should they be? Yes but a lot of people just see the CGC graded book, see that it is a 9.4 and assume all is fine. When they get the book they don't bother to check to see is it REALLY a 9.4? Maybe it is a 9.0. Even that slight difference is a difference of thousands of dollars and this is what the scammer took advantage of. Obviously when he started swapping 9.8 books with lower graded books, people started to think "man CGC is getting super lenient" and the scam was discovered. It also would not be hard to swap a complete book with an incomplete book (that still looks great and similar in grade on the outside). Hence why I am betting a lot of those Hulk 181s that were part of the scam are probably restored or qualified copies because they are missing the Marvel Value Stamp. jimbo_7071, AJD, BA773 and 1 other 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlextherobot Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 On 2/16/2024 at 11:13 AM, comicginger1789 said: The scammer was replacing high grade books with copies that were slightly worse. Majority of collectors have a hard time seeing the true differences between 8.0 and 9.4 or from 9.0 to 9.6. And most people when they buy a slab are not always checking the notes. Should they be? Yes but a lot of people just see the CGC graded book, see that it is a 9.4 and assume all is fine. When they get the book they don't bother to check to see is it REALLY a 9.4? Maybe it is a 9.0. Even that slight difference is a difference of thousands of dollars and this is what the scammer took advantage of. This is symptomatic of people buying the grade and not the comic. As I have said many times, I have never heard of anyone resubbing a comic because they thought the grade was too high, which basically means that the accuracy of the grade (what the whole point of third party grading is supposed to be) is secondary to the number assigned. It's a mindset that undermines the actual value of grading as a service and leaves it ripe for exploitation like we saw in this case. lizards2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightning55 Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 Photos of the comic have only been available on the CGC registration lookup page for less than a year. If you are buying at a convention, you may not have internet access to check, and viewing on a phone is less than ideal. And the grader notes are practically useless, very vague, if there at all. MAR1979 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaylam Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 Isn't that how the scam was discovered, people started noticing the book didn't match the grader notes for said certification number? BA773 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightning55 Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 On 2/16/2024 at 6:02 PM, Jaylam said: Isn't that how the scam was discovered, people started noticing the book didn't match the grader notes for said certification number? I think it was mostly that 9.8's exclusively were being sold by the scammer, and many sure didn't look like 9.8's. And they were unusual 9.8's, like 9.8 Mark Jewelers Newsstands, unicorns. But not really too rare if it's a 9.2 in that 9.8 case. And not really caught by the notes, because 9.8's typically don't have notes. Some of his did, which was in itself suspicious. BA773 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaylam Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 On 2/16/2024 at 6:34 PM, Lightning55 said: I think it was mostly that 9.8's exclusively were being sold by the scammer, and many sure didn't look like 9.8's. And they were unusual 9.8's, like 9.8 Mark Jewelers Newsstands, unicorns. But not really too rare if it's a 9.2 in that 9.8 case. And not really caught by the notes, because 9.8's typically don't have notes. Some of his did, which was in itself suspicious. Well, exactly, if you see 4 spine ticks and a roughed up corner in the image but the book is 9.8 with no grader notes, you have to know something is amiss. Caveat Emptor! BA773 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigur Ros Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 On 2/16/2024 at 2:06 PM, BA773 said: How could you be scammed with a fake slabe? On the cgc register you can find every graded book with the listing of the defect so how can you be scammed? The scammer can replace the book into the slab but cannot hide the defect who arent the same from a comics to an other, you will be able to see the difference between the book on the cgc website and the book you bought if it was replaced... Get back with us when you can see missing pages in a slab. BA773 and lizards2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unca Ben Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 On 2/17/2024 at 5:43 AM, Sigur Ros said: Get back with us when you can see missing pages in a slab. No two covers are exactly alike. You may not be able to detect missing pages (good point) but you should be able to discern that it's a different book. BA773 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
