That signed issue I bought from my LCS turned out to be a fake

I picked up a CGC graded Amazing Spider-Man 300 at my local shop, Cosmic Comics, last Saturday for $400. It had signatures from McFarlane and Larsen on it, looked legit. Got home and checked the serial number online, turns out it was a slab swap with a fake label. I went back the next day and demanded a refund, guy gave me my money back but said he didn't know it was fake. Has anyone else run into fake graded books at their shop?

3 comments

3 Comments

lopez.jana18d ago

Dude I had the exact same thing happen with a Batman Adventures 12 last year. Took it to a local show, guy there runs a grading service and he spotted the label font was off. Serial checked out online but the slab was a reholdered fake. I got lucky he noticed. My advice: buy a cheap UV light. Real CGC labels have a watermark that glows. Check every slab at the shop before you pay. And always cross reference the serial with the actual book photos on the CGC census if you can.

logan23618d ago

The thing people keep missing with these slab swaps is how easy it is to fake the inner well seal. I bought a UV light after my first scare and noticed something weird on a Hulk 181 at a con last month. The label looked perfect under UV but the inner well had this tiny gap near the top right corner, like someone pried it open with a thin blade and resealed it with a heat gun (which leaves a subtle cloudiness on the plastic). Real CGC slabs have a near invisible bond that doesn't distort the plastic. You can check this by gently pressing the corners of the slab with your thumb - a fake reseal will feel slightly tacky or soft, while a factory seal is rock hard. The store owner probably didn't know it was fake, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't be checking his stock more carefully, you know?

faith_carter17d ago

Exactly this @logan236 - that thumb press test is something I've started doing on every slab over $200 and it's shocking how many reholders you can catch that way. The heat gun cloudiness is subtle but once you know what to look for it stands out like a sore thumb (especially on older CGC cases from 2015 or earlier where the plastic was thinner). Store owners really should be running a systematic check on every slab before it hits the floor, because even good dealers can get fooled if they're just trusting the label scan.