The Certified Guaranty Company (CGC), the largest grading company for comic books, has released a statement in response to a scandal that broke last week on social media. After a number of content creators on Instagram and YouTube discovered apparent fraudulent sales of graded comics, CGC launched an internal investigation. They came back today with an announcement on Instagram, saying that they estimate “a few hundred” comics are affected, and they will be working with collectors to make sure anyone who was affected is made whole. They have yet to release a complete list of the books they say are affected.
A number of comics appear to have been reholdered and sold for inflated prices in recent months, including many on the same eBay store (Comic Selects, which has since been closed). CGC promised to deliver a full list of affected books soon, and pledged to work with those affected. Nevertheless, this is likely the biggest challenge to CGC’s credibility that the company has ever faced. While they are investigating the reholdering scam perpetrated by this one high roller, fans have started to question how many other people are out there pulling the same stunt, on a scale small enough that it doesn’t provoke suspicion.
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Here’s what CGC had to say in a statement today on their website:
The Certified Collectibles Group is aware of an incident involving an individual tampering with CGC Comics holders.
The Certified Collectibles Group® (CCG®), which includes Certified Guaranty Company® (CGC®), is aware of an incident involving an individual tampering with CGC Comics holders. Based on our initial review, we believe that the incident affects a few hundred comic books.
CCG exists to protect the collecting community, and in the last 36 years we have certified more than 85 million collectibles, each one backed by a comprehensive guarantee. The trust that we have built with our community sometimes makes us a target of bad actors and, despite our vigilance, this individual tampered with some of our holders.
If you purchased one of the books that this individual tampered with, we will ensure that you are appropriately compensated for losses arising from any failures in our services. We expect to share a list of books that we believe are impacted as soon as possible.
We have also retained a leading private investigative service and outside counsel to conduct a comprehensive review of this incident and our processes, and to help ensure that this individual is held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. We have already made significant improvements to our processes as a result of this incident, and we will continue to take appropriate steps to help ensure that this type of incident does not happen again.
We expect to share more information when we have it. In the meantime, if you have any questions or would like to share any information with CCG, please reach out to us at ReportFraud@CollectiblesGroup.com.
The controversy started earlier this month, when Instagram comics influencer The 9.9 Newsstand discovered an apparent discrepancy involving a high-grade copy of The Amazing Spider-Man #252. The issue sold for over $15,000, marked as a 9.8-graded Mark Jewelers newsstand variant of the issue. What 9.9 Newsstand noticed was that the book’s certificate number was tied to a 9.8 — but not a Mark Jewelers variant, just a regular newsstand. The rarity of the Mark Jewelers was a big part of what drove the price up so high.
After some digging, 9.9 Newsstand suggested that it was likely somebody had found a way to replace the 9.8 newsstand with a lower-graded Mark Jewelers newsstand, and then resubmit it to CGC in order to artificially create a 9.8 Mark Jewelers. At the end of the day, the seller could sell the book for a lot more money, and still have a 9.8 sitting at home that they could resubmit, and have re-graded under a new number.
Shortly thereafter, YouTuber Automatic Comics found a CGC-graded copy of The Incredible Hulk #181 that appeared to have been reholdered. Whereas the Spider-Man book just looked suspicious, Automatic Comics was able to actually track down the specific copies of Hulk that he believes were involved. This led to a flood of new findings by various comic book collectors, speculators, and YouTubers. The eBay account responsible for the Hulk sale was quickly shut down after being flooded with bad feedback and refund requests.
The scam that has been detected is especially notable in that it requires a lot of up-front capital: you have to have two high-graded copies of a sought-after book in order to make it work. Still, Manu from The 9.9 Newsstand says it’s something that could snowball quickly if not caught.
“It depends on how quick you turn around each scam book,” he told ComicBook.com. “Because you can invest five grand, turn it into 20, and be freed up to do it times four on the next go-round. The capital increase actually adds up quite quickly if you move fast.”
The specific verbage of the response is interesting, as well; CGC promises to make people whole “for losses arising from any failures in our services.” That could limit the number of recipients to those whose comics were sent in for reholdering, while leaving out any victims whose books didn’t pass through CGC hands after any potential tampering took place.
ComicBook.com will keep you updated on this story as it develops.
