If these fake stamps hadn’t been rubbed off, what would have happened if they had been untouched for a few more years? Would the ink have eventually settled into the point in which it wouldn’t rub off? And do you guys think PSA would be likely to notice the difference?
@pottsinator did you try to rub the stamp off because it looked off or was it a mistake?
At first I thought they were legit. I removed them from the case to send to PSA but as I touched the card the ink rubbed off and smeared on the card. After that I rubbed the other one gently to show the smear and help with the case against the seller to show that the stamp was fake.
Well this is pretty broad statement Gary. So because I have waited to grade my 1st ed zard I am now going to have troubles selling it because you have just warded against buying pre 25mil? For anyone interested my 25530947 is a real copy I purchased 8 years ago and graded this year…
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Damn they must have been pretty good to have fooled you like that. Other than that the cards are real?
Tiny stamp adds $500-600, yep people will find a way. I actually thought about PSA sealed 1st ed base packs the other day. I wonder how many were opened, cards replaced with unlimited and resealed, then sent to PSA to grade and sell. They assume no one will open the pack because they were probably weighed, so much less chance to get caught. (I don’t know much about pack grading, but I assume there isn’t much to it)
Oh and hope all gets fixed for you, very rough situation.
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I’m fairly sure that resealed packs look fairly obvious and that sealing them back up exactly how they started without damaging the tops is quite difficult to achieve.
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I have sold loose packs before to have them returned and looked quite convincing at first glance. Upon opening I found random cards put back in their place. With the right equipment and the proper practice scumbags can fake just about anything. Normally it is the fact that it isn’t worth their time money-wise to do so. But when the money becomes so great, it is going to start happening no doubt about it. Especially since all we are talking about is a simple stamp. First thing is I can’t believe they did it this way to begin with, it would have been nice if every set had a “Shadowless” and shadowed variety all the way through or something of the sort along with the stamps so it couldn’t easily be faked. Secondly I am very glad English cards stopped with the whole stamping garbage. It is a joke that Japanese sets still do it given that every set doesn’t even have an unlimited release and given that the first edition run isn’t quantified.
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Welcome to the real world. I have seen families torn apart, marriages ended, and best friends stabbed in the back over money. It will never end.
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This is just disgusting… I really feel bad for the seller as well if he wasn’t the one making the stamps and had no clue about it. This has to be one of the most repulsive things that can happen as a collector…
Really wish you the best of luck with this @pottsinator , Hope you get the money back 
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I think the seller is the one who has produced these tbh. Jeremy said they came in screw downs, who honestly here has bought a card and not actually handled it out of the sleeve? I know it’s valuable but come on… not even once and yet jeremy managed to wipe the stamp off accidentally by simply handling the cards… no way did the seller not know about it in my opinion.
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No, the ink would not have settled to any point that you couldn’t tell that it was fake. I won’t go into details on how you can tell because if scammers knew they would find ways to correct the issue.
I agree.
Only thing that makes me possibly think that the seller didn’t know anything was how much they were pushing it to be a PSA 9/10.
If the seller actually did produce the fake stamp, I don’t think they would want anyone to take it out… And by saying it could grade high is practically asking a buyer to take it out and send it in.
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From some brief research online, there are forensic chemists who have very sophisticated techniques to tell apart even the slightest of differences in ink.
No matter how good the fakers get, I doubt that they could ever get anything by such experts.
But I have no idea how sophisticated professional card grading services are in their analysis.
Gary did mention that PSA sent some 1st edition cards back. Are they just rubbing the stamps, or do they have any other techniques? Hopefully the professional card graders are very aware of the fake stamping issue and are making it a priority to give the stamps very close inspection.
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I reckon among other things, they possibly keep hold of their own template cards to compare with. The fakes can look good in a photo or at a distance but I’d assume that with a real life close-up comparison it isn’t too tricky to spot after some inspection.
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I agree. ANY card I receive (that is not in a PSA case) will always be checked instantly. I think that goes for almost anyone, especially if you spent $500+ on a card, you want to make sure you get what you paid for. While not impossible, its improbable that this guy bought 2 cards and just left them in screwdowns to resell (unless maybe he got them for a steal to flip them quickly).
I also may be biased because recently I had 3 purchases that were problems attempted to be passed onto me.
Yes, a general statement for sure. Provenance, seller rep, and eye appeal plays a big part in it too.
To be sure, anytime anything like this is exposed I pass it along.
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Plus the screw down was “heat stamped” closed proving further an effort to deceive.
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I think wrong ink because it removed the underling ink.
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