Because those clowns clearly trusted either Akabane or one of his associates who said “hey I/he signed all these”. They probably DO have video evidence of him signing a bunch of this shit, though probably not him signing a sheet prior to being cut? Who knows bro. Clearly this guy and his boys can’t be trusted, that’s why CGC is now taking an L forking out all this cashflow to people who purchased the slabs they authenticated. Point remains the same, CGC + insurance companies are forking out a ton of money for trusting the wrong people. They were scammed as well, so where’s the accountability? Akabane & friends just dialing up an incoming hot girl summer?
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I am just stating the facts and observations so far as we know them and not making any theories or jumping to conclusions. There are too many unknowns still.
CGC paying out does not make them innocent nor prove they were scammed. It’s just a business decision; not paying out would cause irreparable harm to their brand image, reputation, auction house relationships, and Guarantee product. The value of preserving those intangible assets far exceeds the $ amount of insurance claims on their bottom line. In fact, once this news came to light, CGC likely recognized that the claim payouts could increase consumer confidence in their brand, specifically the validity of their Guarantee… so there’s some value recouped by CGC there too to offset the $ claims.
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Cool, thanks for stating the facts. So was your original question just rhetorical or what was the point of asking “What about the part where CGC witnessed autos on uncut sheets? And then later encapsulating them as mounted prototypes with 1995-6 on the label? 
”
Like why ask this and then tell me you’re just stating the facts? We all already agree on CGC’s incompetence in all this.
It’s just a fact that they witnessed and then encapsulated autos that came from uncut sheets. They haven’t explained how that could happen. It certainly doesn’t look good, but I am still not making any claims about their role or intent in how that happened. At best it’s very, very harmful negligence. My point is that we still don’t know where the fraud / criminal activity took place, if any. It’s too early to draw conclusions as to guilty, innocent, scammed, scammers, etc.
Fair. Just my own personal opinion but I’m in the “Akabane is a lying, scheming shit bag” camp. I believe he sold shit he or one of his direct associates copied, and he signed some of that junk to help with the sales/authentication. My whole original point was that I’m shocked there has been no movement on criminal charges/investigation as of yet. So while I agree that we still “dont know”, my original comment stands.
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Someone I talked to once may have interacted with CGC authorized witness in an unrelated matter to this thread.
Based on what they told me this debacle isn’t very surprising.
Apparently authorized witnesses are keen on talking about how the sausage is made. They could have been lying though so take it with a grain of salt.
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The cgc witnessed autos that Benjamin. Be.13 had/has were signed on video. According to Ben he saw the video prior to purchasing them as it helped him feel comfortable to know the stuff was legit.
Not sure what the process was for the “ex takumi Akabane collection” signed copies but that atleast some of the playtest /proto signings did happen on video so id assume cgc would have saw that video as well that ben had.
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Honestly I wouldn’t trust the video alone as evidence. You can take a video all day long of him signing something, but how could you then prove that the cards in the Signature Series were the cards being signed in the video? They do claim chain of custody, but I would say reviewing that would be necessary as well.
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I wanted to share my timeline with CGC.
————————————
February 5th - Arrived at CGC
February 17th - CGC marked it as Received
February 19th - CGC asked for my receipt and I provided it.
March 17th - Told my card was fake and they are handing my info to their insurance
April 15th - CGC confirmed they still have no update…
————————————
I’m getting a little frustrated by CGC not paying out directly. Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like their insurance should be helping them recoup their losses (not ours). I don’t understand why I’m at the mercy of their insurance company for their mistake.
I’m sure I’m not the only one frustrated by how long it’s taking to be made whole by this company.
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Frustration is growing daily. While they do respond fairly quickly, the responses are non answers and talking around the problem. They do not want to share any details or provide an eta. I really thought when people started getting paid out we were at the finish line. It is becoming more and more clear that is not the case
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Based on this earlier account in the thread, it seems to be once the refund is approved, it can take up to 30 days to receive it
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That’s good to know. So not only am I still waiting to be told if their insurance company will approve my refund, but I’ll also have to wait at least 30 days for the money to hit my account.
I’m sure every time I complain here, CGC moves me to the back of the refund queue, but this is wild. Imagine if you wanted a refund from a company online or to make a warranty claim, but you weren’t reimbursed until that company passed you through their insurance company. That would be wild. In my opinion, CGC should be issuing the refunds and then their insurance company should be making them whole.
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Piggybacking off of this, I sent CGC the following:
‘I’m a bit confused and concerned about the refund process being dependent on your insurance company. From my perspective, it seems that your insurance should be used to help CGC recoup any losses - not as a prerequisite for making the customer whole. Since this issue stems from an error on CGC’s part, I feel the refund should not be contingent on a third-party process.’
They then emailed me back with the best update I’ve had so far, asking if this was the only card I had effected:
‘Please note that the future agreement that will need to be signed for payment will cover all Pokémon Playtest cards owned by you. Once that agreement is finalized, we will not be able to offer further compensation for any additional Japanese Pokémon Playtest cards submitted after this point. Therefore, it is important to confirm that you have no further cards you’d like to submit for review at this time’.
Looks like all cards need to be submitted at once, but it’s a positive update that seems to show that refunds will occur.
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Just received this email as well, but did not reach out to CGC beforehand (aside from providing them the necessary receipts to process my claim).
I assume they’ve sent this message to most people who have sent the playtest cards back to them.
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Glad to hear they’re updating everyone (and not just those of us who are impatient)
Got the same message.
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Im glad you posted. I had seen someone posting on reddit that part of the payout agreement would be that cgc will only payout an individual once, regardless if they have more prototype cards.
So for anyone who wanted to test the waters with one and maybe hold onto others to see what happened, I’d double check the fine details before agreeing to anything with cgc. You will be out of luck if you ever want to send more in at a later date.
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I sent my beta playtest voltorb out on 4/5 and didn’t hear back from CGC until 4/18 after sending an email on 4/17 about it. I did forget to pack the submission slip so it could be my fault for the delay.
The following email is their next steps:
I’ve replied with receipts from Alt so hoping it goes smooth. Will report back on any changes and the timeline. Hope everyone receives their refunds smoothly.
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