Disclaimer: Most of this is just conjecture for now but the evidence is pretty damning
Additional Disclaimer: Please don’t demonize Chinese collectors in general because of this. They are just as mad (if not more) at Xiao as everyone else. He is getting heat on various Chinese forums and the few private collectors I’ve chatted with don’t have great things to say about him.
Background:
Xiao (IG https://www.instagram.com/xiao_xiao666666/ ) is a wealthy Chinese art collector who recently started buying up a lot of high end Pokemon trophy cards. He’s recently been accused of creating fake PSA 10 slabs.
The alleged scam
Xiao buys a legit PSA 10 copy of a card
Xiao cracks the legit copy of the card and keeps the label
Xiao sends the cracked card back into PSA (presumably he gets a PSA 10 regrade but y’know…PSA)
Xiao uses the old label and another copy of the same card (a raw, psa 8, psa 9, etc) along with a fake plastic slab to create a new PSA 10.
He thereby has a system of upgrading any cards into PSA 10s with “legit” labels (from the old cracked card).
He can continue to make new PSA 10s by cracking and regrading the original legit copy
The evidence
Xiao sold a PSA 10 Kingdra Prime with cert # 70009645 to another buyer
Buyer noticed that the new Kingdra prime was in a different plastic holder and had diff holo patterns. The slots in the PSA slab holder should not be this clear.
(This IG post has more examples https://www.instagram.com/p/CnCutjwJa1W/ ).
Xiao has a reputation of delaying payments by sending bad bank info and such. This makes sense if he needs to wait for his fake slabs to sell before he can pay. He won’t ever sell the original “legit” PSA 10 because he needs to keep that card to make new PSA 10 labels.
While I can’t say conclusively what’s happening here, thing don’t look great.
TL;DR Don’t buy or trade with Xiao at this time. Happy 2023!
“State on the authenticity of PSA-graded cards
There is a lot of propaganda (?) floating around that my store sells fake cards. I hereby promise that if the cards are found to be fake, we will refund no questions asked. I won’t rip off any buyer and also will not sit by as people slander my name” (Translation might not be exact)"
I think threads like this should also be offered to the person in question so they can comment as well if they so choose.
Not to create drama with the person being accused, but because there are a lot of art and Chinese collectors that follow him and it is advantageous to allow someone to defend themselves rather than creating a retaliatory narrative with their own audience that E4 is full of gatekeepers, racists, or any other possible bad-faith claim. If something needs to be red flagged within the community it absolutely should be, but hopefully without dividing the community into fragmented “sides”.
I would love to see a respectful dialog about this without some sort of social media shit-show like whatever was going on between a gentleman named Nido and this collector.
I’ve tried to make the OP present just the things that I’ve seen so far. Thus “might” be faking slabs for now
While most of his actions are innocent in isolation (buying cards of any grade, targeting PSA 10 labels, etc), when they are seen in context of each other then things become a little suspicious. If he comments on the issue I’ll update the OP with them.
Although it doesn’t apply to many non-cosmos holofoil cards, It should be easier in 2023 to identify holos individually with proper photos or scans of the holo pattern. It seems that was the catalyst, or one of them at least, and hopefully incentivizes grading companies to keep a scan of all cards after grading regardless of service level.
Also
“I don’t want to cause drama, but here is some fuel for the fire…”
Imagine having the money to buy some of the best and rarest cards and deciding instead of just enjoying the hobby you want to actively go and allegedly scam people.
Just hoard your shiny pieces of cardboard like the rest of us.
I woke up to messages about this on ig. If everything is true this is wild. There are a lot of claims atm, including fake trophies and cases. PSA is aware of the situation. It’s not certain who all is involved. But the most definitive are the card switches with real labels.
Considering PSA deactivated the cert #’s I find it hard to believe there will be a convincing enough claim from the alleged scammer to explain why even PSA agrees the slabs are counterfeit.
I rarely check a cert number for the slabs I buy because they are mostly low cost but now I feel I need to be more careful, also its giving me this urge to go through my thousands of slabs to check to see if the cases are faked even though 99% of the cards I own aren’t worth the trouble to fake. A little part of me wished I didn’t read this ignorance is bliss sort of mentality but I’m glad that I’m aware now.
PSA is “initiating legal action in China”. Not sure exactly what that means and how they will pin down who all is involved.
Side note, the deactivation of certs is rough for the real owners. PSA needs a payout/reimbursement or some type of better system for these type of situations.
ignorance is bliss sort of mentality but I’m glad that I’m aware now.