Fake Star Wars 35 Cent Price Variants in PGX holders bring big bucks in January ComicLink Auction

In the recent January ComicLink Auction, two altered Star Wars comic books brought big bucks.  In my opinion, it is obvious that a scammer has altered the price block on a Star Wars 1 and a Star Wars 2 regular issue book to make the books look like the much more costly 35 cent price variants.  How these two books ended up in a PGX holder makes for interesting speculation.  Perhaps the scammer submitted the books to PGX and PGX simply missed the alteration through negligence or incompetence.  Maybe the scammer is an employee of PGX who altered the books and encapsulated the books themselves.  Maybe the books were altered and sold to an innocent buyer who sent the books to PGX.   Regardless of how it happened, the end result is that two mid-range Star Wars books which should normally sell for a few bucks were altered, encapsulated in PGX holders, and sold at auction for hundreds of dollars.

I have bought many books on ComicLink and I have sold books on ComicLink.  ComicLink does a great job and I recommend them to others.  I do not think that they played any part in the scam and trust them to do right by their customers.  I do think that they should reconsider whether they want to allow PGX graded books in their auctions.   I also hope that ComicLink will cancel the auction and send the books back to the seller.

I am not sure that PGX offers a guarantee for missing alterations in their grading.  I am certain that I will not use or recommend their services.

Here is a screen capture of the listing for the altered Star Wars 1 35 cent price variant.

Here is the scan of the altered Star Wars 1 and a close-up of the label.

 

So how do we know that a scammer has turned a common mid-grade book into $705 bucks?  The dead give-away is the price block.  Here is a close-up of the altered title block which you can compare to a close-up of the title block of an authentic copy below it.  As you can see, the "3", "5" and "c" and "Ccc" are not even close.

 

 

Here is a full-comic scan of an outstanding and authentic Star Wars 1 price variant that sold for $4367 in the same auction.

 

 

In the same auction, this altered Star Wars 2 sold for $390.  It has the same problem as its PGX brother above.

 

 



 

 

Here is a close-up of the altered price block and below it a close-up of an authentic Star Wars 2 35 cent variant price block. 

 



Another curious auction for a 35 cent variant key - Iron Fist 14

CGC boardie, Keldog, pointed me to a couple of recent curious auctions for a PGX 8.0 copy of an Iron Fist 14 35-cent price variant.  First on April 14, snugglebug2009 ( Feedback Score Of 47)  sold this copy on ebay for $1324 to a zero feedback buyer, who outbid two other bidders by $25 to $100 or so.  Zero feedback bidders always draw scrutiny, particularly when their only bid is on the auction in question.  Perhaps it is a new ebay bidder who signed up just to bid on the Iron Fist 14 variant that he had always wanted.  Or maybe it is just another ebay shill.  Who knows?

But then the same book is relisted five days later by bestdeals360 ( Feedback Score Of 513) and sells two days later for a best offer Buy it Now for $1625.

Strange things happen all the time on ebay.  I wonder if and when we will see this book again?