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Counterfeits, forgeries...is no hobby safe?
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15 posts in this topic

Just another example of greed and profiteering from others work. It's one thing to know it exists in the back of your mind but seeing it without knowing the scale of how much goes on is another reason to despise people and question legit owners. 

This came up in my feed a few days ago. I thought I'd share with you guys:

Screenshot_2018-02-16-08-24-15-1.png

Edited by B2D327
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Unfortunately this is extremely common in the hobby and has been for years.  It's a shame because artists and fans deserve better.  Signatures are much more difficult to trace but it happens. 

 

Line quality is the first thing to spot as Mr. Lee mentioned.

 

Its huge giveaway. Most professional artists such as Mr Lee like to keep several sets of graphite pencils  all with various degrees of sharpness and tone; medium, soft and hard.  Sketches can be more crude (one graphite pencil) but this one is clearly not Mr Lee. 

One can tell immediately the traced sketch does not convey a professional vibrant look or sharpness. Its almost as if the forgery used 1 pencil and never sharpened it again during the act!  This particular genuine sketch has various levels of softness which indicates Mr. lee may have used 2 different colored pencils. regardless the lines of the genuine sketch are crisp and clear.. 

If you are in the market for sketches don't get discouraged! just study real sketches and make smart buying decisions!

where is Kav when we need him? he knows all the lingo for this!

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Just now, James J Johnson said:

A convincing forgery? Or an obvious knock off?

A local gaming shop with some comics bought it from someone.  Luckily they wrote a check and canceled it asap.  I saw it, not that convincing to me - but to someone with little experience in comics it could be somewhat convincing.  The box with the issue number did not have the month in it but had a 12-cent price on it.  Pence copies of the book did not have the month in the issue number box, but US copies did.

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17 hours ago, Designer Toast said:

No amount of greed in this hobby surprises me anymore or the lengths people will go to make money.  In my area I've seen a forged X-Men 1 and two bunk copies of Hulk 181.

I saw at a local comic show a fellow vendor had a Hulk 181 offered for sale. Upon looking through the book it had the page that has the Marvel value stamp on it swapped with the page from a Hulk 179. Page numbers are the same, the story is now completely different. What is disgusting is after the vendor was told of the books fraud he continued to market it.

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23 hours ago, Designer Toast said:

No amount of greed in this hobby surprises me anymore or the lengths people will go to make money.  In my area I've seen a forged X-Men 1 and two bunk copies of Hulk 181.

In this hobby and everywhere else as well. The sheer amount of greed and corruption present in modern society is nothing short of mind blowing and its literally present everywhere including the government, the banks and financial institutions, the investment markets, the housing markets, and even in various food markets, hospitals, and insurance companies. Just watch Netflix's new documentary called "What the Health" is you want a general idea of the sheer level of corruption and greed that exists in regards to the food industry and the various administrations that are meant to look out for the consumer (The FDA, The American Diabetes Foundation, The American Heart Association, etc.). Or watch the documentary called "Beer Wars" if you want to see the lengths that companies like Anheuser-Busch go to in order to shut down small microbrew operations. They literally sue these various microbrew companies on pure bogus charges as they know that the amount of money required to fight such accusations, regardless of the fact that they are pure BS, is enough to either bankrupt those companies or put severe stress on thier overall profitability. Anheuser-Busch have a very large team of lawyers that work exclusively for Anheuser-Busch and whose sole purpose is to drain as much money away from the smaller companies as possible. So I don't see why people would expect the comic market to be different after all, there are some pretty easy ways to scam people in the comic market. 

All one can do is try and learn as much as one can on their own and use that information to make more informed decisions on just who your going to trust and support. 

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8 minutes ago, OrangeCrush said:

In this hobby and everywhere else as well. The sheer amount of greed and corruption present in modern society is nothing short of mind blowing and its literally present everywhere including the government, the banks and financial institutions, the investment markets, the housing markets, and even in various food markets, hospitals, and insurance companies. Just watch Netflix's new documentary called "What the Health" is you want a general idea of the sheer level of corruption and greed that exists in regards to the food industry and the various administrations that are meant to look out for the consumer (The FDA, The American Diabetes Foundation, The American Heart Association, etc.). Or watch the documentary called "Beer Wars" if you want to see the lengths that companies like Anheuser-Busch go to in order to shut down small microbrew operations. They literally sue these various microbrew companies on pure bogus charges as they know that the amount of money required to fight such accusations, regardless of the fact that they are pure BS, is enough to either bankrupt those companies or put severe stress on thier overall profitability. Anheuser-Busch have a very large team of lawyers that work exclusively for Anheuser-Busch and whose sole purpose is to drain as much money away from the smaller companies as possible. So I don't see why people would expect the comic market to be different after all, there are some pretty easy ways to scam people in the comic market. 

All one can do is try and learn as much as one can on their own and use that information to make more informed decisions on just who your going to trust and support. 

One scamming is everywhere and

Spoiler

ts1084_closeup_of_the_big_bang_theory_sh  lol :foryou:

 

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8 hours ago, Artboy99 said:

I saw at a local comic show a fellow vendor had a Hulk 181 offered for sale. Upon looking through the book it had the page that has the Marvel value stamp on it swapped with the page from a Hulk 179. Page numbers are the same, the story is now completely different. What is disgusting is after the vendor was told of the books fraud he continued to market it.

CGC graders know exactly which Marvel stamp is supposed to be in any particular issue. I've seen many married page 10 or wrap 6 with Hulk 181 with the correct stamp. I saw only once where it had a Hulk 180 or 182 stamp in it (can't remember). Many of the MVS issues are on page 10 (physical page 10, not side 10), a few are before the staple, maybe page 7 or 8 (not sure), and some are on the last page. That is the most common. Any book with a Marvel value stamp should be checked, especially that page. Just because you see it doesn't mean it hasn't come from another copy, so look for the page to be taped in, glued in, or the wrap to match the others surrounding it with color, printer tears, printer creases at the top spine area, or any other signs of tomfoolery. Most damage will match pages around it.

 

Edited by Philflound
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1 minute ago, Philflound said:

CGC graders know exactly which Marvel stamp is supposed to be in any particular issue. I've seen many married page 10 or wrap 6 with Hulk 181 with the correct stamp. I saw only once where it had a Hulk 180 or 182 stamp in it (can't remember). Many are on page 10 (physical page 10, not side 10), a few are before the staple, maybe page 7 or 8 (not sure), and some are on the last page. That is the most common. Any book with a Marvel value stamp should be checked, especially that page. Just because you see it doesn't mean it hasn't come from another copy, so look for the page to be taped in, glued in, or the wrap to match the others surrounding it with color, printer tears, printer creases at the top spine area, or any other signs of tomfoolery. 

 

Yeah.

Just FYI I consider myself the board's resident Marvel Value Stamp expert. Didn't help the guy that he was dealing with me.

Check out my thread.

https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/303896-the-marvel-value-stamp-club/

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