It's deja vu all over again in the collectibles field.
As some predicted, it appears as if the graded comic book market is going the same way the graded coin market did a decade earlier. That is, it is going the way of cracking slabs, performing stealth micro-restoration to squeeze out a slightly better grade and reslabbing. Further, some in the hobby are coming to believe that CGC is offering preferential treatment to certain big shot dealers.
What brought this all to a head is that prominent dealer Jason Ewert was caught selling trimmed books in unrestored slabs. Thanks to before and after scans, it has become evident that the books were trimmed while in Ewert's possession. CGC has investigated internally, and subsequently banned Ewert from submitting. Moreso, CGC President Steve Borock has reported that he told Ewert to "leave the hobby or risk lawsuit from CGC." No one knows how many trimmed books Ewert slipped past CGC before he was caught... it could be hundreds.
Certainly there are many juicy details that us non-connected peons will only hear whispered in rumor.
If you have a few hours to spare, you can read how it all unfolded on the CGC Message Boards (where the trimmed books were first exposed.)
Trimmed FF 3 and FF 10 first exposed
Steve Borock's (CGC's) Response
A Summary Thread of the Whole Scandal
1 comment:
Wow.
I don't really have any interest in the collector's market but I found those series of threads to be pretty damn enthralling. I always thought the CGC market left itself open for shady dealings and the detective work by the people on the board was pretty impressive. That’s some good scandal, right there.
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