The CGC Reholder Scam has recently come to light, raising concerns among comic book enthusiasts and investors. This scam involves replacing high-grade comics in CGC slabs with lower-grade ones, having them reholdered by CGC, and then selling these comics as high-grade due to the CGC certification.
The parent company Certified Collectibles Group LLC and comic book collectibles grading company Certified Guaranty Co. filed lawsuits against two former employees, claiming they pilfered comic books from CGC’s facilities and resold them online with fake CGC labels, inflating their value.
The complaint claims that Brandon Terrazas and his wife, Ayana Terrazas, “engaged in a fraudulent scheme to strip CGC” of its goodwill by stealing comic books submitted by customers, “generating duplicates of legitimate, authenticated CGC grade labels belonging to highly valuable comic books,” and selling the labels to the general public for “less valuable, lower grade comic books.”
This exploits a loophole where CGC’s re-holstering process doesn’t reassess the grade of the comic. The scam has led to the sale of numerous fraudulent comics, misleading buyers who rely on CGC’s grading for authenticity and value.
In response to the scandal that broke out last week on social media, CGC confirmed that they estimate “a few hundred” comics are affected and pledged to work 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.
The controversy began 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. However, 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 significant factor in driving up the price.
After some digging, 9.9 Newsstand suggested that someone had likely replaced the 9.8 newsstand with a lower-graded Mark Jewelers newsstand, resubmitted it to CGC to artificially create a 9.8 Mark Jewelers, and then sold the book for a higher price.
Soon after, YouTuber Automatic Comics found a CGC-graded copy of The Incredible Hulk #181 that appeared to have been re-holdered. The specific copies of Hulk involved in the scam were tracked down, leading 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 requires a significant initial investment, as it necessitates having two high-graded copies of a sought-after book to succeed. However, Manu from The 9.9 Newsstand believes the scam could quickly snowball if not caught early. He told ComicBook.com, “It depends on how quickly you turn around each scam book. 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 adds up quite quickly if you move fast.”
CGC’s response to the situation is noteworthy, as their statement promises to make people whole “for losses arising from any failures in our services.” This could potentially limit compensation to those whose comics were sent in for re-holstering, excluding victims whose books didn’t pass through CGC’s hands after any possible tampering.
In light of this scam, the credibility of CGC and the integrity of the comic book grading process have come into question. As the comic book community seeks answers and assurances, CGC continues to investigate and address the concerns raised by this incident.
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Collectors have a very specific type of autism that’s very easy to abuse. lol