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The Notorious Counterfeit Cerebus 1
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123 posts in this topic

His sold inventory and current inventory look like the real deal, but he's made some strange choices of what to send in to CGC.

It seems to either straddle or pass most of the checkmarks. :foryou: (But I am certainly no expert without the book in hand.)

Edited by divad
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On ‎2‎/‎15‎/‎2010 at 9:00 PM, bronze johnny said:

I'm curious about two things here:

 

- What was the motivation behind counterfeiting Cerebus 1? Money?

 

I wonder if Sim ever followed up on his suspicion and confront the suspect(s)?

I have thought about myself and I really cannot see money being the primary motivation. I believe that these were sold in comic shops around the time of the publication of the original. If that's the case then I would presume the knockoffs would have priced close to cover price value ($1). You pay and get the stock and ink, make the plates and other prepress, print, staple and cut. If you printed a 1,000 copies, then you would be looking at a $1000 minus the comic shop's overhead. All that time and effort and expensive for $500/1,000 copies?

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17 hours ago, Stingrayiii said:

Plus looking at bidding history so far, looks like he is shill bidding. Untitled.thumb.jpg.b8535eacbd67c4e231c2735285d57080.jpg

I don't think you can assume that for a book like this. This is one that does not come up very often. And, in the condition it looks, you could easily have people who want this "grail" and rarely buy on eBay.

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On 2/14/2019 at 1:15 PM, CDNComix said:

I have thought about myself and I really cannot see money being the primary motivation. I believe that these were sold in comic shops around the time of the publication of the original. If that's the case then I would presume the knockoffs would have priced close to cover price value ($1). You pay and get the stock and ink, make the plates and other prepress, print, staple and cut. If you printed a 1,000 copies, then you would be looking at a $1000 minus the comic shop's overhead. All that time and effort and expensive for $500/1,000 copies?

The counterfeit actually came out in 1982, five years after Cerebus #1 came out and it was already selling at collector prices. Here's an interesting story I just found out about one of the comic shops that purchased the counterfeits: https://www.rogerogreen.com/2007/05/17/cerebus-1-the-counterfeit/

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On 2/14/2019 at 7:13 PM, Stingrayiii said:

I disagree. If you look, this bidder is just bidding on this seller only. No other sellers, and bidding on 11 of the sellers books. Looks like a shill bids to me.

Yes, but as I said. There is a good chance they do not bid on a lot of items on eBay. There have been board members that have agreed that this is how their results may look as well because they are not active on eBay unless something special comes up.

Edit: Ah, I see you said they are bidding on multiples auctions of the one seller. I would agree as well then, thanks.

Edited by ygogolak
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15 hours ago, Brother J said:

The counterfeit actually came out in 1982, five years after Cerebus #1 came out and it was already selling at collector prices. Here's an interesting story I just found out about one of the comic shops that purchased the counterfeits: https://www.rogerogreen.com/2007/05/17/cerebus-1-the-counterfeit/ 

Thanks BrotherJ!

But I cannot access the page and its info. Is it current?

Site.PNG

Edited by CDNComix
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1 hour ago, CDNComix said:

Thanks BrotherJ!

But I cannot access the page and its info. Is it current?

Site.PNG

It appears to be live and not an archived site, plus there is a 2019 copyright at the bottom of the page. The store in question bought 54 VF/NM copies of the counterfeit and paid $770 for them. So about $14.25 a copy.

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About a year ago, a comic collector (that I purchased many items from before and chatted with many times) contacted me because he knew that  I was Canadian and an underground collector. He wanted to know if I was interested in the real and fake versions of Cerebus #1 that he recently bought from someone else. At the time I did not have the funds to purchase the legitimate copy, but managed to strike a deal (under $100) for the counterfeit. This is what I had received from the seller:

cerebus.PNG

I contacted the seller to let me know that I thought that they had made a mistake and had mixed-up the real copy with the counterfeit, but they stated that I was wrong and were 100% certain I received the correct item. There was a slight suggestion that I was trying to scam them. The bag in which I received my item was tagged with "Cerebus Counterfeit" and I only could assume the seller or the original owner inadvertently switched the comics and the bags.

Edited by CDNComix
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On 2/9/2019 at 5:21 PM, boomtown said:

Any opinions on this copy that is up for sale on ebay?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cerebus-the-Aardvark-1-NM-9-2-Autographed-Dave-Sim-Original-1st-Print/392234262990?hash=item5b52fbe1ce:g:1HYAAOSw~TdcXhcn

It seems to pass most of the check points and is signed by Sim in his actual name (assuming that wasn't forged).

I've always made the assumption that Dave Sim could tell the difference between the fake copies from the real ones and that he would not be willing to knowingly autograph a fake copy of Cerebus #1.  hm

Not sure if this is actually true or not though?  (shrug)

Edited by lou_fine
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11 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

I've always made the assumption that Dave Sim could tell the difference between the fake copies from the real ones and that he would not be willing to knowingly autograph a fake copy of Cerebus #1.  hm

Not sure if this is actually true or not though?  (shrug)

Around 1984 he signed one for a friend. He even inscribed it. It said something to the effect of- here is a fake autograph for a fake book, Thanks , John Byrne. Back in those days, he was fun. So was his wife.

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51 minutes ago, shadroch said:
1 hour ago, lou_fine said:

I've always made the assumption that Dave Sim could tell the difference between the fake copies from the real ones and that he would not be willing to knowingly autograph a fake copy of Cerebus #1.  hm

Not sure if this is actually true or not though?  (shrug)

Around 1984 he signed one for a friend. He even inscribed it. It said something to the effect of- here is a fake autograph for a fake book, Thanks , John Byrne. Back in those days, he was fun. So was his wife.

Well, looks like he came up with a clever way to ensure that everybody would know that the book in question was actually a counterfeit copy.  (thumbsu

Unfortunately, I heard he became rather bitter in the end, especially after the not so harmonious split with his wife.  :frown:

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