CGC Employee's Astroturfing E4

[admiral]

I hate astroturfing and shilling with a passion. While I sit here in my X Rocker GP gaming chair looking at my Asus ROG XG43VQ monitor at disgust I just can’t believe they would do this.

I first read this post while I was in the McDonalds drivethru but didnt get time to comment until now because I was mesmerized by their new menu items and great service.

[pokecollectoramy]

@buckna

@gottaketchumall

Keep context too.

Alleged misdeeds scorecard

CGC: Employees bad mouthing PSA and BGS while pumping up CGC without disclosing their relationship to CGC.

BGS: Supposed pay-to-upgrade your subs with a Dzjin or whatever it is photo showing quite the glow up over time. Alleged black label favoritism (with the faulty logic and math to back it!)

PSA: Trimmed and doctored card lawsuits. Autograph COA lawsuits. PSA financial incentive to inflate grades.

Our options remind me of a South park election so just keep up on everything that goes on and make your own choices. The market is ever changing and BGS has a lot more market share and acceptance than they used to. Amazing opportunity exists with all 3 companies IMO and IMO they all kinda suck in their own special ways.

Don’t use logic. It’s too much to handle.

Imagine if everytime psa does something terrible we made a thread about it, shit would he unsustainable. Psa 10 kang anyone?

Lets flip the switch and imagine people didn’t have millions in PSA cards, would we be more likely to use them with the information we have about the lawsuits, millions worth of damaged cards, pay to upgrade submissions, lying about turnaround times, submissions going missing, mint 9/ gem 10 cards getting damaged during encapsulation and still sent to the customer… The list goes on. if the only thing comporable is that a cgc employee who made an account 12 months ago and actively collects pokemon cards before the division was made says

" cgc 9 = psa 10 and psa 1-6 grades are inconsistent"

Yeah… i dunno if this warrants any backlash

Agreed that this is a little bit of craziness if people think they arent going to grade with CGC because a rogue employee posted 20 times in a thread but are okay with literally everything the competition does lol

That being said, I think what Scott and Reina have done here is incredibly professional and well done and much appreciated.

[rainbow]

People and companies often make mistakes.

CGC has had an uphill battle from the start within the Pokémon community.

Many people’s aversions have boiled down to:

1. Disliking that potentially another company may do a better job than the others (because their collection is almost entirely graded through PSA or BGS and if they becomes seen as an inferior grading company their cards may not command the premium enjoyed today)
2. Disliking the label.
3. Disliking that cards individuals may be after might have to be obtained in a different slab to the rest of their collection.

There have been so many people whom have been very vocal about slandering CGC from the start, stating wildly speculative things like they wouldn’t ever grade with them for anything they want to hold value over time as PSA will always command the premium.

And now the actions in this thread are largely pointing to a lack of ethics.
But let’s not forget the other companies aren’t without their own faults too.
For example, is it ethical for PSA and BGS to authenticate cards they have no information on? Because that’s what they have done and continue to do.
PSA have admitted to having no information on certain sets they sell authentication and grading services for, and have asked me for further information on many of them, requesting " sources such as checklists or catalogs that can confirm" particular cards and attributes. One such example being the Carddass Anime Collection, which is littered with counterfeits.

I think you will agree that claiming authenticity without discernible knowledge is highly negligent and unethical.

…and before anyone continues to state that faults with other companies are not what should be focussed on here and that we should focus on this instance of indiscretion, I disagree.

My point is that all of the grading companies have failed us at some point and will continue to do so because they aren’t perfect.
All we can do as consumers is bring the issues to their attention and hope they rectify them. If not, we use someone else or simply don’t grade at all.
In an industry where trust is paramount, you would think they would try harder to build it.

[garzog]

@admiral

I hate astroturfing and shilling with a passion. While I sit here in my X Rocker GP gaming chair looking at my Asus ROG XG43VQ monitor at disgust I just can’t believe they would do this.

I first read this post while I was in the McDonalds drivethru but didnt get time to comment until now because I was mesmerized by their new menu items and great service.

Jesus Christ

[KingPokemon]

@richi2rich

I’m more amazed at the fact that this was caught! how was it even noticed by the moderators? what was the catalyst? amazing detective work!

On a tangent though, i believe each grading service should have an official rep here answering questions etc etc. Flyertalk is great with this where reps from different hotels programs represent their companies. Pokemon has gotten mainstream enough that I think would warrant that type of a social media consultant. It’s easy to repost people’s IG stories but for the bigger and serious collectors, a direct conduit would be very helpful.

I knew this from the beginning but I didn’t know it was against the rules lol. I even said they were shilling on a thread here and when they didn’t defend themselves I knew it was a fact.
Does anyone know how to find that post I made?

[atlas]

@smpratte

This is one of the most difficult posts I’ve had to make in the 10 years of this site. This circumstance is disappointing to say the least, and something I never thought E4 would encounter.

CGC employee’s were on multiple accounts shilling the company. Otherwise known as Astroturfing.

These accounts all shared the same IP address. Multiple with CGC and NGC emails. Also the official CGC account confirmed in writing these accounts were used by CGC employees.

If there is any confusion, comments like this, and this, and this, and this, and this are shilling and in violation of our rules. Furthermore, this is why youtube, Instagram and other platforms require content creatures to declare their sponsor. Its also why the FTC has laws against this exact situation. The accounts were not disclosed. They were only “declared” after getting caught, which is too little too late. The damage is already done. Some of these accounts go back a year.

Posting an opinion as a free standing individual is completely fine. Working for a company and joining a site as a “random” member to promote your company, while simultaneously shitting on your competition is not only deplorable, its unprecedented. In the now over a decade of this site, no other company or person has shilled to this extent. That includes multiple billion dollar companies who have requested access, all were denied, all respected the rules. We created a New Rule to make it abundantly clear.

Due to the inherent nefarious nature of this situation, all CGC accounts are permanently banned from E4. To make it crystal clear, CGC has lost access to E4.

Thanks for bringing this up @smpratte I hope moving forward CGC employees don’t make the same mistake.

I see the astroturfing, but what about the Shilling?
Unless i missed the link to this.

Cheers

Atlas/CheCortez

[smpratte]

@atlas, The hyperlinked text in the op you quoted includes multiple examples.

[KingPokemon]

@KingPokemon

@richi2rich

I’m more amazed at the fact that this was caught! how was it even noticed by the moderators? what was the catalyst? amazing detective work!

On a tangent though, i believe each grading service should have an official rep here answering questions etc etc. Flyertalk is great with this where reps from different hotels programs represent their companies. Pokemon has gotten mainstream enough that I think would warrant that type of a social media consultant. It’s easy to repost people’s IG stories but for the bigger and serious collectors, a direct conduit would be very helpful.

I knew this from the beginning but I didn’t know it was against the rules lol. I even said they were shilling on a thread here and when they didn’t defend themselves I knew it was a fact.
Does anyone know how to find that post I made?

Here it is from a month ago:

[mossdeep]

@reinasierpe, Travis Scott, J Balvin, smpratte … wow

[kingboo64]

@anon92205803

@admiral

I hate astroturfing and shilling with a passion. While I sit here in my X Rocker GP gaming chair looking at my Asus ROG XG43VQ monitor at disgust I just can’t believe they would do this.

I first read this post while I was in the McDonalds drivethru but didnt get time to comment until now because I was mesmerized by their new menu items and great service.

The real reason why we had to step in is because we recently sold all promotional rights to McDonald’s.

Hope everyone is looking forward to the T17 nuggets and What Should I Buy burger!

Will cgc be grading the wrappers?

[mcorey777]

So the username Two was so he could remember it was his second account?!?

Can’t believe this just happened… I hope they weren’t paid to talk for the company but who knows. Definitely not planning on making a post on any grading related thread anymore!

Trying to learn the grading process, price, and turn around times is very confusing. I was simply learning about the topic this past year. I still havnt submitted even a single card to any company. I still enjoy my binder collections as you guys know.

I almost want to go back and delete every comment I ever made mentioning that company. I’m still undecided who ill end up submitting with but God this is such a bad look for a brand new company. Wether it was their employees being over passionate or blatently trying to deceive people.

[mcorey777]

@admiral

I hate astroturfing and shilling with a passion. While I sit here in my X Rocker GP gaming chair looking at my Asus ROG XG43VQ monitor at disgust I just can’t believe they would do this.

I first read this post while I was in the McDonalds drivethru but didnt get time to comment until now because I was mesmerized by their new menu items and great service.

And if you don’t eat Mcdoubles then F you

That was great. Now that’s how you promote a brand lol

[fourthstartcg]

This thread has clearly run its course and is now getting into our usual arguments about CGC. The correct place to put any of your thoughts on CGC is the CGC Grading megathread.

I think a short recap of what transpired would be helpful.

The staff team here discovered a small number of accounts, utilized by CGC employees, who were posting favorable views of CGC and unfavorable views of CGC’s competitors. The employees who utilized these accounts did not disclose their financial and employment relationship to CGC. This is called astroturfing, it is illegal, and it is unacceptable on the forum. While there was an “official” cgccards account which was clearly disclosed, the staff team felt that because one employee ran both an undisclosed account and a disclosed account, it would not be acceptable for CGC to have any further presence on the forum. All CGC accounts were banned.

CGC then released a statement confirming what the staff team found: personal accounts of employees posted on E4 without disclosing their relationship to CGC. CGC says these accounts were not authorized to post on behalf of CGC, do not speak for CGC, and their presence violated company policy. We have no reason to doubt CGC’s assertions here. You can find this full statement on page 5 of the thread.