I remember in the beginning of all this golden, rare candy, z&g and beam all said theyd be refunding people. Does anyone know if anyone had actually gotten any money back from any of these places?
Yup, Rare Candy refunded mine. All very quick.
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You are underestimating the collectorsā desire towards notable counterfeit / fraud / criminal related items.
You are correct about raw versions of these cards. They likely are close to worthless because at this point it would be too easy to create more.
But the CGC slabbed ones are different story. Now they hold loads of historic value despite the cards inside being worthless.
As I mentioned, with most of the cases the refund from CGC is likely higher than what collectors would pay for one. However, I can see some collectors being willing to pay at least something like $100-1000 for one at the moment. Iām not familiar with the price history of these cards, but if someone managed to buy one for under $1000 at some point, the refund from CGC might be lower than what a collector would pay. Or if someone bought their graded copy from a private person in a way that they donāt have a receipt or anything to prove the sales value, they may not be able to get proper refund from CGC - I donāt know.
Why someone would pay that much for a graded fake, you may still wonder. You can for example look up the market of notable counterfeit bank notes / coins. The history behind them is what can make them worth even more than the face value on the fake note.
Here as an example some sales of Operation Bernhard counterfeit bank notes.
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Iām in a similar boat, I only have 1 prototype, and unsure about sending it back for the refund. For people who are fixated on the monetary value, like anything else, it boils down to if you truly need that money. If this were 2005 smpratte, it would be sent back for a refund.
However, these inherently are a piece of pokemon history, especially the cgc graded copies. There has never been any grading company who has brazenly graded so many fake cards. On a more intimate level, it was discovered by a close friend, who dug deep into the idea from a conversation we had in person. Also, this saga has not and may never end. There are people who wonāt get refunds. There are potential lawsuits, and many unanswered questions in relation to Akabane, and even how CGC grades & graded non-secondary source items.
Basically the graded cards physically embody all of this history. Personally Iām not sure what I will do, as the money isnāt the primary reason, its the loss of joy when I look at the card. Which might be another chapter in this saga, as there legitimate emotional damages imo for people who bought a lot of these cards.
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+1 to all this, especially the last point. I have not been able to look at Pokemon or Pokemon cards the same way anymore. I havenāt purchased a Pokemon item since @pfm dropped this article, and Iām not sure if/when I will ever have an organic desire to go back again like I did many years ago. The last prototype card I have could very well represent the end of a long and important life chapter for me, which is one reason why I am hesitant to send it back.
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The rookie fauxtotype
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Donāt worry yāall, theyāre printing more!
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I am contemplating keeping my card. I think items like these auction guides may be cool to preserve as well.
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Has anyone received money back from CGC directly or only the auction houses?
I agree with this. They will always have some value but I really doubt they will exceed their inital sale prices. If someone is trying to speculate on them, they are better off sending them in.
For some reason I highly doubt that will happen
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Itās so strange to me that people were grabbing pitchforks left and right, threatening to take CGC to court if they didnāt hand out refunds and now thereās a movement to keep the fake prototypes?
Need I remind everyone that this was a global counterfeit operation on the order of magnitude of several million dollars, where many longtime E4 members were personally compromised, and now that refunds are being issued we have community members talking about historical preservation or even re-selling these for more than the amount CGC would refund?
As someone who was personally impacted by this whole scandal, I find some of the recent opinions here puzzling. People are free to do whatever they want with their money and collections but I find the sentiment of wanting to keep the prototypes disingenuous. To me, it feels like an attempt to add historical value to a fake product that should never have existed in the first place and undermines people here who have been financially compromised.
This whole scandal is a huge stain on an otherwise lovely community here and I just want to be done with this nightmare and never look back on it.
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Im sure you can frame the cease and desist theyll send you that prevents you from damaging their reputation further.
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Keeping a copy is something I thought about a while ago, and even talked to @smpratte about. But I think this has been in the back of peopleās minds; the discussion is happening now because this is the time where you actually have to make the decision.
Youād have to be naive or optimistic to think that you could make more money keeping them. I donāt think thatās where the sentiment is coming from. Itās more similar to the way that pieces of the world trade center were intentionally preserved. Something bad happened, and the desire to want to completely move past it or the desire to hold onto a piece of it as a memento of the experience are both reasonable feelings.
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Personally I would love to move on from this debacle and never speak of it again. The amount of mental distress experienced through this process, even before they were determined to be fake, is something Iād like to never experience again in this hobby. I think this particular event will dissuade people to invest in historically significant artifacts that come to light in the future and it is just a shame. Lot of anger and resentment to those involved here and curiosity as to how it got to the level and scope it did. We will probably never know. Props to CGC though, they made this easier than they could have.
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I bought from Goldin & ALT; havenāt received any emails. Is anyone else in the same boat?
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Fair point. In your case I can understand why youād want to hold on to one as you were both directly impacted and involved in bringing this scam to light.
I think itās still a bit too soon for me to be able to emotionally distance myself from the aftermath as refunds were just confirmed yesterday and I only just made the decision to send my prototypes back. Iām different in the sense that if I was personally impacted by a bad historical event, a memento would be the last thing Iād want.
Regarding the point about keeping the fake prototypes in an attempt to profit off them still, I was referencing this sentiment.
You are conflating points. CGC grading these cards is entirely their problem and separate from whatever the consumer decides. The consumer can correctly demand that CGC makes this right, while keeping one or however many of the items they bought, these arenāt mutually exclusive.
There is nothing disingenuous about someone keeping an item. The history isnāt some hype play, its inherent. Its entirely the collector gene recognizing the history, albeit complicated. Like I and I think everyone who has participated has said, no one is sure what they will do. Whatever decision they make, that is entirely the right of the consumer who was wronged. If a company wrongs you somehow, you can chose to sue, not sue, shop there again, never shop there again, do nothing, etc. Its entirely the consumers choice, and whatever they decide isnāt some character flaw, the only flaw here is CGC.
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Post after post the value of the fake slabs is growing 
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Itās less about being mutually exclusive and more I find it hypocritical someone would want CGC to issue refunds for grading fake cards, then once refunds are confirmed turn around and state they are keeping CGCās mistake. I agree itās the consumerās choice and they have every right to do whatever they want with the card. But if CGCās false assessment of these fradulent cards is the issue, then why stand by it after being so vocal for months?
As Iām sure you know, a āmoney moveā and the ācollector geneā are not mutually exclusive either. Iām not suggesting anyone here is looking to profit off of these at the moment
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