Interesting email arrived today . . .
Ron B.
When It Was A Game, Inc. (“ WIWAG”) has pled guilty to a
federal mail fraud charge involving inserting inferior sports cards
into PSA-sealed holders (“slabs”) for higher rated cards. Your
purchase of a card or cards from WIWAG either directly, or indirectly
through innocent parties, may or may not involve one of these replaced
cards.
WIWAG has agreed that PSA will determine the true grade of
your card or cards if you so desire. If your card or cards are
determined to be fraudulently inserted cards, WIWAG will replace your
card with a card that has been properly graded by PSA in exchange for
the card you actually purchased. If no replacement card graded by PSA
is available, WIWAG will either refund your purchase price (in
exchange for the card), or, if you elect to retain the card, will pay
you the difference in market value between your actual card and the
rating represented on the slab at the time of purchase.
If you would like to have your cards assessed, please
contact San Diego FBI Victim/ Witness Coordinator Liz Bollig at
858-499-7952, or write her at 9797 Aero Drive , San Diego , California
, 92123 . In order to avail yourself of this opportunity, please make
contact with the Victim/ Witness Coordinator within 45 days of the
receipt of this communication.
Johndaigle1
hes the one with the lil moving spotlight on his auctions ..right?
Ron B.
>wow that guy sold alot of high$$ stuff...
>hes the one with the lil moving spotlight on his auctions ..right?
The name sounds very familiar, but I can't remember what their auction
pages looked like. They haven't sold anything on eBay for quite
awhile . . . their last feedback is from October.
I had to run a search through my old emails to find what I bought from
them. It turns out it was a PSA 9 1986 Topps Traded Barry Bonds,
about 10 months ago.
Ron
BlackJet76
When It Was A Game, Inc. (“ WIWAG”) has pled guilty to a
federal mail fraud charge involving inserting inferior sports cards
into PSA-sealed holders (“slabs”) for higher rated cards. >>
Now any ideas how they did that? I know you can break the slabs and get the
cards out if you really wanted to, but how do you do it so the case is still in
good condition, and then reseal it so no one knows it was ever opened?
Ron B.
Great - First the card depreciates in value to half of what it was ten
months ago; and now I find out it might be a fake PSA 9 to boot.
It looks like the company's web site has been shut down. I'm starting
to suspect that the main reason the name sounds so familiar is because
of the movie with the same name. I probably didn't visit many of
their auctions. Lucky for me . . .
Ron
Ron B.
That's a very good question.
Ron
Ron B.
I suppose another concern is how widespread this is. I just checked
and I don't see any signs of tampering on the holder. If it turns out
this card is a replacement, they did a great job of disguising it.
Rattlehead
Take the card out, put in another lesser grade card in the high grade
slab...
Send the card in again to get graded...
and on.. and on...
I am interested how they got the card out un-harmed, and a new one in there
without being able to tell there was foul play.
L8r,
Rattlehead
Ryan Cracknell
> Great - First the card depreciates in value to half of what it was ten
> months ago; and now I find out it might be a fake PSA 9 to boot.
>
But the letter states that if no replacement is available they have to PAY
YOU YOUR ORIGINAL purchase price, so wouldn't that be a good thing if it has
gone down in value?
Ryan
Ron B.
That would be ideal. But since it would cost less, they'd probably
buy another at today's prices and send it to me.
SolomonDCramer
crunchie
you look closely at the corners of PSA holders you can occasionally
(more often than not) find a weak corner. all the corners have a groove
in them and you can usually find the weakest corner with your
fingernail. you can guide a razor or other flat strong item along the
edges and it kinda comes apart. the only place you really need to watch
out is at the middle edge of the long side where the plastic seems to
have a cut/melt joint.
as far as harming the card...that's REALLY hard to do..its easier to
harm the case.
in case you're wondering what the hell my motivation is for breaking up
PSA holders in that manner, chalk it up to boredom and a small stack of
psa6's i broke outta their holders to re-sell. it wasnt a 100% thing so
my technique probally isnt as good as those crooks, but i was kinda
suprised how clean the two parts broke apart.
-crunch
Wy Akak
writes:
>as far as harming the card...that's REALLY hard to do..its easier to
>harm the case.
>
>in case you're wondering what the hell my motivation is for breaking up
>PSA holders in that manner, chalk it up to boredom and a small stack of
>psa6's i broke outta their holders to re-sell. it wasnt a 100% thing so
>my technique probally isnt as good as those crooks, but i was kinda
>suprised how clean the two parts broke apart.
I've never actually considered doing that but I can't help but to wonder if BGS
and SGC's holders are just as easy.
"Government is not your friend." - Kurt Vonnegutt
.
SolomonDCramer
>BGS
>and SGC's holders are just as easy.
>"Government is not your friend." - Kurt Vonnegutt
SGC's holders are cake to open. BGS - you'll never crack one w/o seriously
damaging the holder...
Ron B.
It looks like everything will work out for the best. Some nice
gentlemen from the Democratic Republic Of Congo will be assisting me
financially.
Ron
Ron B.
wrote:
>I doubt they resealed a Bonds PSA 9, more likely if you had a 10...
What's your reasoning behind this? Simply the higher return?
Ron B.
wrote:
How well does BCCG compare to BGS, in terms of being tamper proof?
SolomonDCramer
>How well does BCCG compare to BGS, in terms of being tamper proof?
I don't know - I've never considered any profit to tampering with a BCCG
holder! But seriously, it would certainly be a lot easier than a BGS to tamper
with, though I don't know how easily it would be done. You can certainly crack
cards out w/o destroying the holder, like you must do with BGS.
To answer the other question - I can't see much profit in replacing a Bonds PSA
9 with a PSA 8 - it's a $20 increase, compared to a $200+ increase for a PSA 9
to 10...
MikeCouil
times in the past 2 weeks from 10 different email addresses
Mike
BlackJet76
holder! >>
That's what I was talking about in the other post. Your just the type that
would crack a slab and replace it with another card.
LARGE EYES
(Johndaigle1) writes:
>Subject: Re: Interesting email arrived today . . .
>From: johnd...@aol.com (Johndaigle1)
>Date: 07 Feb 2003 00:39:15 GMT
>
>wow that guy sold alot of high$$ stuff...
>hes the one with the lil moving spotlight on his auctions ..right?
>
So the guy broke PSA cases, but lower grade stuff in them, and resealed?
SolomonDCramer
>would crack a slab and replace it with another card.
You are a young ignoramous, and judgement proof (go ask mommy what that means),
but when you grow up and make a comment like that, you can be held liable for
serious damages. I could own your entire sorry possesions.
Ron B.
That's sure what it sounds like to me.
LARGE EYES
>
>as far as harming the card...that's REALLY hard to do..its easier to
>harm the case.
>
>in case you're wondering what the hell my motivation is for breaking up
>PSA holders in that manner, chalk it up to boredom and a small stack of
>psa6's i broke outta their holders to re-sell. it wasnt a 100% thing so
>my technique probally isnt as good as those crooks, but i was kinda
>suprised how clean the two parts broke apart.
>
>-crunch
We all knwo it's easy to break them out....but how do you reseal?
number 300 mike garcia
PRO Grading (after trimming it of course ) but you need brain surgeon
tools to do it. Fortunately I'm a brain surgeon. PSA slabs are fragile
; I can't believe the results of a card switch would pass even a
casual examination. Any information on who first broke this story? PSA
has too much to lose if this type of thing turns out to be anything
other than a unique situation.
crunchie
clear, that's no biggie.
-crunch
Ron B.
wrote:
>; I can't believe the results of a card switch would pass even a
>casual examination. Any information on who first broke this story? PSA
>has too much to lose if this type of thing turns out to be anything
>other than a unique situation.
All I know for a fact, is that the email in the original post was sent
to me recently. The return email address was WIWAG, and I did buy a
graded card from them on eBay last April. Now they haven't sold
anything on eBay since October, and their web site looks like this:
The rest is open to interpretation and conjecture.
I've cracked cards out of slabs before, and the slabs were in pretty
sorry shape afterwards. Maybe with the right tools it can be done
more cleanly. Maybe even clean enough to fool someone. I don't know.
Or maybe the WIWAG scam involved something else. I suppose it could
have involved somehow obtaining empty PSA slabs, putting low grade
cards inside, then putting high grades on them. That would ALMOST
jive with what the email is describing. But not very well.
Or maybe there's another explanation. But unless the email is
purposely misleading, or a scam itself, I don't see many other
possibilities.
SolomonDCramer
Check out the collector's universe message boards - www.psacard.com - if you're
really interested in learning about it. There are a number of very long but
very informational threads on the subject there, discussing the potential
problems and including PSA's response on some of the issues.
You can also look at the press release PSA put on on (or about) Jan 15th 2003.