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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

7 minutes ago, Lightning55 said:

...The amazing thing is that people are lining up to pay disproportionately high dollars for his comics "of dubious grade".

Which means that either; A. His business model is a success, or; B. The buyers take his word for the comic grades and are personally uneducated on grading.

He's basically an As Seen on TV seller. Rarely do the products work (or are in the condition) as-advertised. People love those things, though.

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On 4/25/2020 at 1:11 PM, James J Johnson said:

Sold on ebay April 5th for $2550 as a 9.4/9.6:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fantastic-Four-67-9-4-9-6-Unread-1st-amp-Origin-Him-Scarce-White-Pages-CGC-/143567614932?epid=85423118&hash=item216d4bf3d4%3Ag%3AY-YAAOSwo~1egQDx&nma=true&si=U62yaoeFqpZI%2BK5ZqeqA4tEijiU%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557  

Bought as a CGC 9.0, March 23rd on ebay for $1499:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/FANTASTIC-FOUR-67-CGC-9-0-WP-1st-App-HIM-Adam-Warlock-GOTG3-KEANU-SCARCE-/293014780998?hash=item44390abc46%3Ag%3AOtQAAOSwASRcy0Hh&nma=true&si=U62yaoeFqpZI%2BK5ZqeqA4tEijiU%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 

Many of the seller's books are cracked out of CGC holders and then listed raw with the grades juiced by 2-4 ticks. There are tells on the books of having once been slabbed, so I started to trace them. The FF 67 is just one of them. It's the seller's modus operandi.

 

FF67b.jpg

FF67a.jpg

This is poor practise in the hobby @theCapraAegagrus

wouldn't you agree?

Edited by Hollywood1892
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9 minutes ago, Hollywood1892 said:

This is poor practise in the hobby @theCapraAegagrus

wouldn't you agree?

Do I like it? No.

We can only stop it by not falling for it, though.

I support the seller's ability to grade his/her own comics and sell them as s/he sees fit.

Edited by theCapraAegagrus
Gender assumtptions.
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2 minutes ago, Lightning55 said:

The seller is trying to deceive the buyers by manipulating photos, lighting, backgrounds, etc., not honestly portraying his item for sale, hiding defects, dodging them, obscuring them.  Then adds lies about the provenance of the item (original owner, bought off the rack, yada yada yada).  It's the type of thing that generated all the consumer laws we have today, vendors misrepresenting their products.  It's the type of thing that is a cancer in the industry, and should not be tolerated.  And eBay is the getaway driver.  @theCapraAegagrus, you are backing the wrong horse in this race.

Not really. eBay and PayPal protect buyers 1,000,000% more than sellers.

The seller isn't forcing anyone to buy his comics. People need to be educated, and avoid sellers like this. Darwinism of the hobby. We often say to "buy the book". When people ask about certain listings, we suggest that they request additional photos. People need to do their diligence.

As I said, I don't like this seller.

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If this is not an example of “caveat emptor” I don’t know what is? I’m sure if buyers had this info behind a raw book that it was just a month ago sold as a graded CGC 9.0, and is now magically up as a 9.4-9.6 raw; I think 100% of buyers would move on and write this seller off. So thank you all for your informative detective work and exposing this fraud. 

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33 minutes ago, Lightning55 said:

The seller is trying to deceive the buyers by manipulating photos, lighting, backgrounds, etc., not honestly portraying his item for sale, hiding defects, dodging them, obscuring them.  Then adds lies about the provenance of the item (original owner, bought off the rack, yada yada yada).  It's the type of thing that generated all the consumer laws we have today, vendors misrepresenting their products.  It's the type of thing that is a cancer in the industry, and should not be tolerated.  And eBay is the getaway driver.  @theCapraAegagrus, you are backing the wrong horse in this race.

Exactly why we take the proffessional opinion of CGC...when it comes to CGC slabs, you are getting a book for 80% the grade and 20% the appearance, but it is still 100% CGC stamp of approval on the product 100% backed by CGC...there are different appearances (staple placement, binary defect, centering ect) for the same book at the same grade for a CGC slabbed book and ultimately it is the buyers choice how the book appeals to them in the slab...

As you have put so eloquently tactics of this seller are a cancer to this industry 

Edited by Hollywood1892
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I also messaged these scum and they're aware of this thread.. it's only a matter of time. He's selling a "NM unread" raw (actually CGC 9.2) Bats 189.. you can compare the pics of both not hard to find them on ebay.

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4 hours ago, MatterEaterLad said:

The buyer is Rebecca McCoy, and her husband has also contacted me, but I don't know his name.

You probably haven't communicated with anyone named "Rebecca". Like most cons, from Nigerian romance scams to Microsoft tech scams to this, you're communicating with the same person using "Rebecca's" (the wife's) account. Rebecca probably hasn't a clue, present in name only. So whether you're communicating with the husband, the wife, the father-in-law, the son, or the Holy Ghost, they're all the same person in all probability. .

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3 hours ago, littledoom said:

I also messaged these scum and they're aware of this thread.. it's only a matter of time. He's selling a "NM unread" raw (actually CGC 9.2) Bats 189.. you can compare the pics of both not hard to find them on ebay.

Of course he's aware. He's been scanning this forum every day and searching his username on google regularly since he started this strategy, wondering if us dumb :censored: s were ever going to catch on, and what could we do it about anyway if us dumb :censored: s ever did.

And the thing of it is, that "we" don't have anything to do in reality. His buyers will do it all as soon as their submissions come back, they stumble upon this thread, and take exception to his strategy. 180 days. All those NM/unread swallows have 180 days to fly back to Capistrano before the sales are final!  All the info is here for them to help them find their way home.

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He's made so much money at this point that I think the authorities can get involved like when the FBI went after Tom Brady's stolen Super Bowl jersey cause it was being sold for so much

Edited by littledoom
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16 minutes ago, littledoom said:

He's made so much money at this point that I think the authorities can get involved like when the FBI went after Tom Brady's stolen Super Bowl jersey cause it was being sold for so much

And it's all hanging by a thread. Literally. This thread.

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1 hour ago, James J Johnson said:

You probably haven't communicated with anyone named "Rebecca". Like most cons, from Nigerian romance scams to Microsoft tech scams to this, you're communicating with the same person using "Rebecca's" (the wife's) account. Rebecca probably hasn't a clue, present in name only. So whether you're communicating with the husband, the wife, the father-in-law, the son, or the Holy Ghost, they're all the same person in all probability. .

I suspected that.

The first message was about buying the comic, I can't remember his name but he said something about having to check with his wife. A few weeks later the offer came from "Rebecca."  

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23 minutes ago, MatterEaterLad said:

I suspected that.

The first message was about buying the comic, I can't remember his name but he said something about having to check with his wife. A few weeks later the offer came from "Rebecca."  

So he had to check with his wife about buying a comic off of eBay that her father bought off the rack and never read and stored all these years....

hm

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22 minutes ago, kav said:

builder-sitting-on-toilet-hand-pulls-through-wall-13905888040.gif

Reminds me of "The Violent Men", 1955 Edward G. Robinson western. I think that's the first movie instance when someone punched their way through a wall and grabbed somebody in the next room. It was Brian Keith, who although a creampuff in his 70s TV roles was a real badass back in many 1950s and 1960s westerns.

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1 minute ago, James J Johnson said:

Reminds me of "The Violent Men", 1955 Edward G. Robinson western. I think that's the first movie instance when someone punched their way through a wall and grabbed somebody in the next room. It was Brian Keith, who although a creampuff in his 70s TV roles was a real badass back in many 1950s and 1960s westerns.

Reminds me of angry ripped off ebay buyer.

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