It seems the Low quality ones with the 2024 dot pattern are confirmed 2024 prints. The high quality ones with no dots on the front but presence of a currently untranslated ‘alpha playtest dot pattern’ on the back are in a state of limbo.
People also were paid to do this interview. Which I find a little weird.
Nice images! I have been trying to take a photo with my digitial microscope but the quality is really poor. These ones provide good detail of things like the texture. Now if we could get some images of the white card stock of the 2024 dot pattern Betas (and if possible the early CGC blue label starters) we could compare. (though ofc it is still possible the copiers had access to original cardstock)
Nobody talking about this funny enough…I would say this endorsement led a good amount of folks to lose thousands of dollars. Lesson - Be careful what you endorse. Also, don’t endorse things as you are dumping them. I still don’t get the these are super legit so I’m selling them for less than what I paid reasoning
afaik this dude hasnt responded to anything
I’ve taken a number of months to really make sure that number one, these are authentic…
More aged like milk content from Zach.
Not sure if you’re insinuating anything here, but reposting my thoughts from the other day.
I’m not an OG collector like some of the folks here (to include Zach) so I can’t speak to a ton of personal anecdotes, but I feel compelled to believe he has done nothing but act in good faith. It’s evident he genuinely loves Pokemon and has for years, and I think he is likely just as upset as anyone that this is turning into the mess that it is. From the few times I have met him in person he came across as very genuine and just happy to be around people that like Pokemon as much as he does. As Will mentioned, I would be pretty confident if I had seemingly authenticated cards from a grading company and Akabane himself presented to me as real. I don’t think he put his reputation out there on a whim, or for nefarious purposes.
I get people want to find a scapegoat to all of this, I’m just not sure that this is productive at this present juncture. And I know he doesn’t need me (essentially a nobody to the hobby) to defend him, but I couldn’t pass on this comment.
What a mess for everyone involved. Hoping this can get resolved in a way that makes everyone as whole as possible.
I’m not gonna cast aspersions on Zach (GemMint) because, while I don’t know him personally, I don’t believe he had any kind of ill intent insofar as his role in this process. He’s an OG in the hahbee™ and has had an active, positive role for many years - far longer than myself and most on e4. He’s on the Fourum and can speak for himself, but I don’t imagine in his case this was anything beyond lowering personal standards of evidence for the sake of an appeal from authority, and of course - would it not seem reasonable to place trust in one of the actual creators of the TCG?
Hiveminded that one!
Zack staked his reputation, and a massive amount of his money. Really he threw his whole life into this the past few years. He has always been a massive positive for the hobby, and for efour in general. He is, in my opinion intelligently, not discussing yet most likely because he is waiting for CGCs response and potionally a lawyers.
As the article is picking up more attention, I have updated the op to give more context about everything. I already had to bump up ram and cpu to handle the traffic spike
seems like cgc has killed the cert numbers entirely they are not even registered in the db anymore and they still haven’t made any public statement… lol what a bunch of jokers
nevermind seems to be working again dunno what was up with that just now
Hypothetically could Zach sue for “damages to his image and reputation” regarding being made the face of Alt for these fraudulent items?
he will be sued. No public statement so far indicates he has lawyered up.
Yum, baseless speculation
Friendly reminder to everyone reading through this thread that the best practice is to only draw conclusions based on facts and evidence. In this day and age, information spreads far too rapidly online, which means misinformation, interpretations, and biases oftentimes get all lumped together to the unsuspecting viewer.
Too many people (many who are also collectors themselves) have asked me if my trophy cards are real because they saw headlines of trophy cards being forged even though these articles are specifically referring to the the non holo trophy card images that got printed on cardboard. I empathize with and appreciate their concern, but all of this noise is a result of the clutter and misinformation.
Brief overview of Facts currently happening:
- Most playtests were inaccurately authenticated by CGC given the MIC data presented in this thread - all of these graded prototypes originated from the same source
- Entities such as Z&GEmporium, Beam, and Rare Candy have already stated they are making amends for buyers of these questionable prototypes.
- CGC has already started making modifications to their servers and website.
Reasonable conclusion based on the above:
- Because all originated from the same source, there are questions and concerns for the prototypes that have not currently been proven authentic or inauthentic.
- The entities involved appear to be taking steps to make the people negatively impacted whole.
- We may be impatient with the timeline, but CGC is supposedly working with their risk management team between multiple entities to bring a resolution to the matter.
To make bold claims and assumptions that specific people were “in on it” is currently not productive *at this time because there is not enough information to support the conversation. Even though Akabane’s involvement seems almost clear-cut, there is still a 0.1% chance that a series of unfortunate circumstances placed him in between a rock and a hard place.
Hope this helps,
cpbog1
the fact is no one has offered to refund these or has even made a public statement about the matter except zandg not fanatics, goldin, alt etc and definitely not cgc
Could you share Rare Candy’s statement, please? I may have missed it in the thread. I’ve seen Beams and ZandGs. Thanks.