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polished_gem_comics aka diamond_comics_llc aka silver_valley_comics CGC slab cracking and overgrading for profit
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595 posts in this topic

24 minutes ago, James J Johnson said:

And my guess is that he's going to keep on truckin' on, cracking CGC graded X and listing raw as X + 2 to 4 grades, not realizing that most of his buyers, if not all, will be submitting these grade hyper-inflated raw books. And when those NM/Unread books come marching home at their true grades, the claims will follow and the whole house of cards will start to crumble.

As stated, he's not smart. I'd give him an F in fraud101. It'll finally dawn on him eventually that this account is basically finished for this type of flim flam, and he's going to have to abandon it and start over with a new one.

Of course, he'll still have fall out from what's already been sold, but the game is basically toast. I've captured almost all his buying and selling activity for this account, and when his buyers start to show up here after google searching his user name(s), I can show them the CGC graded before pictures of their NM/unread gems if they wish.

I ran across this guy's auctions a couple of months ago. Alarm bells immediately went off and I moved on. All of the books were listed as OO bought by his mother's father's uncle's brother or some nonsense, unrestored, off the newsstand blah blah. But then the books didn't have the uniformity you would expect from an OO collection as some were tanning and some weren't and he actually listed some as color touched. So the mother's father's uncle's brother color touched some of the books? Right. Glad my spidey sense is still working. Nice job catching the thief, which is what he is. Unfortunately, as long as he refunds people, he will likely be able to pull this off for a while. It's the same basic MO as Dupcack and all_things_comics. Just too many people on ebay with more money (or credit) than sense.

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24 minutes ago, kav said:

I thought these guys were protected by the time it takes to get books slabbed being greater than ebay return policy/paypal/credit card tho.

Feedback is protected by the time lag in some cases. My belief is that buyers paying this aggressively means express submission for a quick resale. IMO, someone paying $2550 for a NM/unresd FF 67 , raw to boot, isn't going to be rat-holing it. It's going straight to CGC, whose operations are still timely, even in this shutdown, and when their $2550 purchase returns a $900 book, a claim will be filed.

Also, let's keep in mind that on ebay, with paypal, a buyer has 6 months to file a claim!  CGC turnaround time will not pose an impediment for buyers seeking remedy.

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7 minutes ago, LordRahl said:

I ran across this guy's auctions a couple of months ago. Alarm bells immediately went off and I moved on. All of the books were listed as OO bought by his mother's father's uncle's brother or some nonsense, unrestored, off the newsstand blah blah. But then the books didn't have the uniformity you would expect from an OO collection as some were tanning and some weren't and he actually listed some as color touched. So the mother's father's uncle's brother color touched some of the books? Right. Glad my spidey sense is still working. Nice job catching the thief, which is what he is. Unfortunately, as long as he refunds people, he will likely be able to pull this off for a while. It's the same basic MO as Dupcack and all_things_comics. Just too many people on ebay with more money (or credit) than sense.

Plus, a huge majority of books that were once slabbed, or pressed/slabbed, bear the tells of that; this seller's books as well as any others that have been cracked out. I don't want to go into it and create a flim flam tutorial; but I can reliably identify raw crackouts with a very high rate of certainty.

Edited by James J Johnson
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31 minutes ago, James J Johnson said:

Feedback is protected by the time lag in some cases. My belief is that buyers paying this aggressively means express submission for a quick resale. IMO, someone paying $2550 for a NM/unresd FF 67 , raw to boot, isn't going to be rat-holing it. It's going straight to CGC, whose operations are still timely, even in this shutdown, and when their $2550 purchase returns a $900 book, a claim will be filed.

Also, let's keep in mind that on ebay, with paypal, a buyer has 6 months to file a claim!  CGC turnaround time will not pose an impediment for buyers seeking remedy.

The only problem I see with this strategy is whether he stated in his auction description that the book would come back with a CGC certified grade of 9.4 or 9.6?  hm

After all, if it didn't you are basically just buying a book which the seller has graded to be in the 9.4 to 9.6 grade range based upon his opinion.  Does he even mention CGC in his listing, and even if he does, I assume you must be aware that when CGC assigns a grade to a book, it is only their opinion at that point in time, and clearly states thart they themselves do not provide a guarantee on the grade.  :gossip:

That is why I never could understand why they have the "G" (i.e. Guaranty) as part of their company name?  O.o

Edited by lou_fine
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10 minutes ago, Lightning55 said:

This seller can do exactly what he is doing WITHOUT committing fraud by just eliminating the hype.  The boasts (lies) about the history of the comic is what is misrepresented, fraudulent.  If he buys nice looking 9.0's, cracks them, posts them with an opinion that they are 9.6, and leaves it at that, he technically has done nothing wrong.  If someone agrees with his opinion, ponies up the money, that's their prerogative. The UNTRUE EMBELLISHMENT is what makes it fraud.

It's just like when we see $50 collectibles priced at $200.  We laugh that the seller thinks he can get $200 for it.  But that's the seller's OPINION of value, the asking price.  And then we are astonished that it sells for $200, to someone naive, maybe.  That happens ALL THE TIME.  And who are we to say it is wrong?  Someone asked a price, and someone stepped up and said, "I'll take it!":takeit: 

I saw it happen yesterday.  I sold a book to someone for $50 last year.  It's still a $50 book today, if you go by recent sales.  My buyer put it on eBay for $100, same book.  I kind of chuckled that he thought he could get that.  It sold for $100.hm

 

+1 to all. The fraud here and its criminal aspect is that the books are being misrepresented as originally owned by his father-in-law, picked from the stand and then rat-holed until now, the misrepresentation of that creating the incentive for bidders to buy "original owner books". That's no longer the generic huffing and puffing; the huckstering that typically proliferates ebay listings.

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22 minutes ago, James J Johnson said:

+1 to all. The fraud here and its criminal aspect is that the books are being misrepresented as originally owned by his father-in-law, picked from the stand and then rat-holed until now, the misrepresentation of that creating the incentive for bidders to buy "original owner books". That's no longer the generic huffing and puffing; the huckstering that typically proliferates ebay listings.

+1

Yes, this is exactly the part of the description where I see the fraud being perpetrated.  (thumbsu

All of the thing about the representation of the grade is simply nothing more than a subjective opinion which is definitely not something which you can hold the seller to.  especially when he might be alluding to the fact that it could be improved to a 9.4 or a 9.6 grade.  After all, how many times have we seen a CGC 9.0 graded book come back as a CGC 9.4, then a CGC 9.6, and then finally into a CGC 9.8 grade or whatever?  :mad:  :censored:

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24 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

+1

Yes, this is exactly the part of the description where I see the fraud being perpetrated.  (thumbsu

All of the thing about the representation of the grade is simply nothing more than a subjective opinion which is definitely not something which you can hold the seller to.  especially when he might be alluding to the fact that it could be improved to a 9.4 or a 9.6 grade.  After all, how many times have we seen a CGC 9.0 graded book come back as a CGC 9.4, then a CGC 9.6, and then finally into a CGC 9.8 grade or whatever?  :mad:  :censored:

And his misrepresentation extends beyond specifically the CGC crackouts. He's also representing low grade dreck that he bought on ebay as comic lots to also be "from his father-in-law's hand picked collection"  (tsk)  

Using just what little info ebay allows you to see as far as transparency goes as a starting point, and then applying a little technical knowhow to augment that, I was able to identify the sources for almost all of his listings quite easily, none of which have anything to do with his father-in-law buying these from a newsstand 50 years ago, and I don't even have the financial trail, his buying and selling paypal records. If and when push comes to shove, even a halfway competent auditor/investigator can deconstruct the entire scheme to defraud.

Edited by James J Johnson
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17 minutes ago, Myowncollector said:

You may be giving his buyers too much credit. They seem to literally only use 10 percent of their brain. Or only have 10 percent of our brains. 

Now I know that ebay scrambles the member IDs of buyers in feedback, but the feedback total of each buyer is intact. Going by the possible premise that anyone buying raw books aggressively at this time is looking to supplant lost income due to Covid closures, intends to submit their NM/unread purchases to CGC for slabbing and quick re-sale, I started to compare the feedback numbers and the limited amount of characters present in the scrambled member IDs against ebay sellers of note with a regular presence on ebay who regularly sell CGC graded books and have quite a few potential hits!! This reinforces my belief that many, if not almost all of his $500 and up Unread raw books are on or will be on their way to CGC for assessment and once they get their results, remedy will follow.

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4 hours ago, LordRahl said:

I ran across this guy's auctions a couple of months ago. Alarm bells immediately went off and I moved on. All of the books were listed as OO bought by his mother's father's uncle's brother or some nonsense, unrestored, off the newsstand blah blah.

 

3 hours ago, James J Johnson said:
3 hours ago, Lightning55 said:

This seller can do exactly what he is doing WITHOUT committing fraud by just eliminating the hype.  The boasts (lies) about the history of the comic is what is misrepresented, fraudulent.  If he buys nice looking 9.0's, cracks them, posts them with an opinion that they are 9.6, and leaves it at that, he technically has done nothing wrong.  If someone agrees with his opinion, ponies up the money, that's their prerogative. The UNTRUE EMBELLISHMENT is what makes it fraud.

 

+1 to all. The fraud here and its criminal aspect is that the books are being misrepresented as originally owned by his father-in-law, picked from the stand and then rat-holed until now, the misrepresentation of that creating the incentive for bidders to buy "original owner books". That's no longer the generic huffing and puffing; the huckstering that typically proliferates ebay listings.

 

Not sure what all of you guys are getting your panties in a knot about with this auction here?  Especially when this is such small potatoes as compared to some of the ones that have gone through Ebay in the past before.  How can anyone forget about this c(r)ock and bull story here from these 2 guys if you want to talk about true huckstering and embellishment to the tune of $3.2M dollars:

If your spidey senses weren't tingling when they started to mention the cedar chest and a collector holding onto it for 30 years, then I've got a copy of Spawn 1 which I can sell to you for only a mere million dollars.  O.o  :takeit:

 

Edited by lou_fine
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polished_gem_comics GSX #1 ending tomorrow:

Comic For Sale: Giants Size X-men #1 1st. App. The New X-men Storm, Nightcrawler, Thunderbird, Colossus! 2nd. App. Wolverine! Extreme High Grade! Unread! Needs To Be Graded Immediately! Original Owner! Unrestored! WOW Nicest Raw Copy On EBay Guarantee! Nicest Giant Size X-men #1 I’ve Ever Seen! Book Was Found In A Climate Controlled Safe! This Is Our 2nd Copy Grab It!

6 months later...

"uh..your honor, when I said safe I meant the slabs..you know, they keep the comics safe and uh in a controlled sorta climate and uh..."

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25 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

 

 

Not sure what all of you guys are getting your panties in a knot about with this auction here?  Especially when this is such small potatoes as compared to some of the ones that have gone through Ebay in the past before.  How can anyone forget about this c(r)ock and bull story here from these 2 guys if you want to talk about true huckstering and embellishment to the tune of $3.2M dollars:

If your spidey senses weren't tingling when they started to mention the cedar chest and a collector holding onto it for 30 years, then I've got a copy of Spawn 1 which I can sell to you for only a mere million dollars.  O.o  :takeit:

 

dude look like Kneel Atoms tho.

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Crazy stuff. I’ve considered bidding on some of his comics, but something seemed off. But, I couldn’t figure it out. Nice catch by the original poster. Makes absolute sense now. 
 

My biggest gripe with the guy is that he doesn’t know the difference between threw and through. 🤷‍♂️

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11 hours ago, lou_fine said:

 

Not sure what all of you guys are getting your panties in a knot about with this auction here?  Especially when this is such small potatoes as compared to some of the ones that have gone through Ebay in the past before.  How can anyone forget about this c(r)ock and bull story here from these 2 guys if you want to talk about true huckstering and embellishment to the tune of $3.2M dollars:

I just threw up in my mouth. :sick:

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Screenshot_20200427-081117_eBay.thumb.jpg.d0e33692d011d348f77d35323d2d2890.jpg

He claims this book is a 9.6. Look at that damage. What a joke. 

I also like this gem of a quote

He bought these high grade books fresh off the news stands threw out his childhood threw adulthood

Edited by jason4
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3 minutes ago, jason4 said:

Screenshot_20200427-081117_eBay.thumb.jpg.d0e33692d011d348f77d35323d2d2890.jpg

He claims this book is a 9.6. Look at that damage. What a joke. 

I also like this gem of a quote

He bought these high grade books fresh off the news stands threw out his childhood threw adulthood

Isn't that a printer crease.  I have seen 9.6's with these.

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