July « 2009 « Webjon.com — Now with more blog!

July 27, 2009

Counterfeit Autograph Cards: We’ve Made the Big Leagues.

Filed under: counterfeit and questionable cards,General,news — webjon @ 8:09 pm

Back in June an astute collector on NonSportCardForum.com posted asking some probing questions about counterfeit non-sport card collecting. He had just received a card that didn’t look quite right.

Not wanting to be an alarmist he set out simply asking questions and slowly revealing more information about the card he purchased. Once I figured out which card he purchased (a James Franco Spider-Man 3 autograph) I took to eBay to see if I could figure out the seller. As (bad) luck would have it — I recently bought an Elizabeth Banks autograph card from the same seller, and after examining the card I was in total agreement — it was a fake.

I contacted eBay, who immediately refunded my money on the auction no questions asked (It had only been a couple of weeks since I won), and I was also in touch with Rittenhouse who had already been in touch with the other collector so they could immediately confirm the cards were ‘bogus’ and requested I return the card to them so they could investigate.

Before sending the card off I took a good scan of it along with a Spider-Man 3 autograph I know to be legitimate:

While it is a little difficult to see in the scan if you look at the buildings along the bottom and right of the card you will notice the shading is much different on the Banks card than the Briscoe card — also the Spider-Man 3 logo at the left of the card has letters that are a bit different in thickness, which is especially noticeable in the small enclosed areas like the ‘A’ and the ‘S’. These are two differences among a host of others.

The seller of these cards told Steve (the other collector) they purchased these autographs at the Philly Non-Sport Show. Perhaps they did and the seller could be as innocent a victim as anyone. My card came from eBay seller: loveandnewyork, and the invoice came from
Philip Chi, Fresh Meadows, NY 11365 United States. It looks as though the loveandnewyork ID is no longer selling cards on eBay — listings abruptly stopped when Steve and I posted negative feedback.

During their relatively short selling days loveandnewyork sold some of the biggest and best names in non-sport autographs — and while we know at least some of these Spider-Man 3 autographs are counterfeit many other questionable cards from many manufacturer were also sold.

I went through eBay feedback as far back as I could (through late April). Here is a VERY partial list of cards sold by loveandnewyork since April:

ADAIR TISHLER/ MOLLY WALKER TOPPS HEROES VOLUME 2 AUTO (#280340545071)
ALYSON HANNIGAN 1999 INKWORKS BUFFY VAMPIRE SLAYER AUTO (#280335295761)
ALYSSA MILANO PHOEBE HALLIWELL CHARMED AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280342400357)
ASHLEY CROW/ SANDRA BENNET 2008 TOPPS HEROES AUTOGRAPH (#280340545138)
AVI ARAD 2007 SPIDER-MAN SPIDERMAN 3 AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280338928144)
BEN AFFLECK 2002 TOPPS DAREDEVIL MOVIE AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280338928782)
BRUCE CAMPBELL 2007 SPIDER-MAN SPIDERMAN AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280343165606)
CAREY LOWELL 007 LICENCE TO KILL AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280342400380)
CHARISMA CARPENTER 2001 ANGEL SEASON 1 AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280342400406)
CHARISMA CARPENTER VERIONICA MARS A-19 AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280342400431)
CRISTINE ROSE/ANGELA PETRELLI HEROES VOLUME 2 AUTO (#280340545165)
DAVID ANDERS/ADAM MONROE TOPPS HEROES VOLUME 2 AUTO (#280340545221)
DAVID BOREANAZ 2001 ANGEL SEASON 1 ONE AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280342400463)
DAVID BOREANAZ 2001 ANGEL SEASON 1 ONE AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280343165652)
DENISE RICHARDS THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH 007 AUTOGRAPH (#280343165721)
ELIZABETH BANKS SPIDER-MAN SPIDERMAN 3 AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280338928207)
ELIZABETH BANKS SPIDER-MAN SPIDERMAN 3 AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280343165760)
ERICA DURANCE/LOIS LANE SMALLVILLE AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280335295769)
GILLIAN ANDERSON/DANA SCULLY 2005 INKWORKS X-FILES AUTO (#280335295791)
GILLIAN ANDERSON/DANA SCULLY 2005 INKWORKS X-FILES AUTO (#280343165799)
HOLLY MARIE COMBS 2000 CHARMED AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280342400495)
JAMES FRANCO 2007 SPIDER-MAN SPIDERMAN 3 AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280343165829)
JAMES KYSON LEE/ANDO TOPPS VOLUME 2 HEROES AUTOGRAPH (#280340545241)
JANE SEYMOUR SERINA BATTLESTAR GALACTICA AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280342400521)
JENNIFER GARNER BRISTOW 2002 ALIAS A1 AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280343165916)
JIMMY JEAN-LOUIS/THE HAITIAN HEROES TOPPS VOLUME 2 AUTO (#280340545262)
JOSH HOLLOWAY 2006 LOST SEANSON 3 AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280343165971)
JULIE BENZ 2005 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280342400550)
LEE MAJORS/LINDSAY WAGNER SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN AUTO (#280335295807)
LILI TAYLOR 2004 HBO SIX FEET UNDER AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280335295820)
LILI TAYLOR 2004 HBO SIX FEET UNDER AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280343165987)
LUCY LAWLESS 2007 SPIDER-MAN SPIDERMAN AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280338928381)
MERCEDES MCNAB 2005 BUFFY VAMPIRE SLAYER AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280342400609)
REBECCA DE MORNAY THE OUTER LIMITS A12 AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280335295833)
REBECCA DE MORNAY THE OUTER LIMITS A12 AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280343166062)
ROSE MCGOWAN PAIGE MATTHEWS CHARMED AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280343166094)
STAN LEE 2007 SPIDER-MAN SPIDERMAN 3 AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280338928418)
TOBEY MAGUIRE 2007 SPIDER-MAN SPIDERMAN AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280338928463)
TRICIA HELFER JAMES CALLIS BATTLESTAR GALACTICA AUTO (#280343166142)
WILLEM DAFOE 2007 SPIDER-MAN SPIDERMAN 3 AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280338928500)
WILLEM DAFOE 2007 SPIDER-MAN SPIDERMAN 3 AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280343166178)
YUNJIN KIM SHU-HWA KWON 2006 LOST A-1 AUTO/AUTOGRAPH (#280342400724)

The ‘enlarged’ scans of all of the cards taken from those eBay auctions can be found at
http://webjon.com/blog/?page_id=151. If you are aware of other cards sold by this seller please let me know so I can post it here!

If you think you have a counterfeit card you have several potential options for recourse. I would recommend contacting: the seller, eBay, Paypal and your credit card if you happened to pay with one. Your best recourse may be your credit card, however if you do a ‘chargeback’ on something you purchased with PayPal you probably will lose your PayPal account. If the card was shipped to you via the US Post Office you can file a mail fraud complaint, which may not directly be a benefit to you, but mail fraud is a federal crime. You may also be able to file a complaint with the seller’s local police department, and of course there are other legal actions you could take as well.

Keep your eyes out for these cards — even though you may not have directly bought from this seller other collectors may be selling or trading cards they bought from him on eBay and have no idea there may be an issue!

If you happen to have known legitimate copies of the cards listed above please take a minute to compare your card to the scan and email me, or post a comment with what you think.

Good luck to everyone, including Rittenhouse who is still looking into this.

Jon

Comments (5)

July 23, 2009

We’ve lost Comic-Con.

Filed under: news,shows — webjon @ 7:22 pm

People no longer snicker when I tell them I am going to spend a pile of money to go to Comic-Con. They nod their heads acknowledging that while the even might not be for them it is a very cool thing.

2007 Con Floor Unfortunately they are wrong. Comic-Con is for them. Year after year the convention becomes more about Hollywood — premiers, guests, panels, advertisements, announcements, rolling bill boards, free samples, signings, bright lights and loud noises — which is cool for what it is, but the remnants of ‘Comic’ in Comic-Con are getting harder to find. The days of getting grassroots support from hardcore fans who generate word of mouth among the public turned into announcing everything at the biggest pop-culture event in the world — San Diego Comic-Con.

I’ve only managed to go to the show twice, in 2003 and again in 2007, and just in the span of those few years the show changed drastically. I imagine by 2003 the show had already started turning into the monster it has become, but then there was still something organic about the show. There were crowds, but you could move around, there were a lot of dealers selling a lot of stuff, an amazing artists alley — and quite a bit of the Hollywood stuff. . . at its heart though, it was still a comic convention. A massive, glorious comic convention.

By 2007 the disease had started to take over. Comic Con was being talked about on E-TV — my non-geek, non-collector girlfriend was giving me scoops on what was happening at the Con as they popped up on the websites and TV shows she watched. This was pretty cool, honestly – she had a bit of interest in the convention and was able to relate more to the excitement of the event. Attending the show was a blast — and how could it not be with the dozens of ridiculously expensive ‘booths,’ the carnival like atmosphere, celebrities EVERYWHERE, and panels that made the things of fan-boy dreams.

2007 Con Jennifer Love Hewitt I spent the better part of two days caught up in the carnival like hoopla, grabbing freebies, and scoping out the enormous panel guide. After OD’ing on the ‘Hollywood’ aspect of the show I sought out the comic-show part of the show — and it was there — in some version. Dealer booths peppered between massive booths for the Sci-Fi channel and a Pirates of the Caribbean display, an artists alley stuck off on the back edge/corner of the show. . . there were comics at the show, but the show was no longer a comic show. Right around that time they had the first single-day sell out of the show, there were unbelievable lines for panels, walking between booths on Saturday was nearly impossible as the most locomotion you could muster were a few tiny steps until inevitably you were stuck standing behind someone who just stopped either to look at the convention guide or gawk at a display – and it was a blast. . . it just wasn’t a comic convention.

This year my future father-in-law told me that Comic-Con has been sold out for two months as he handed me clippings from the newspaper with articles about the show, and at that point I knew — as collectors, geeks and fan-boys — we’ve lost Comic-Con. Perhaps that’s a good thing. The general public is fueling a resurgence in many comic-related things which is great for the industry, but as a collector my desire to make it to the big show dies a little bit with each passing year.

Perhaps Wizard will throw down the comic-con gauntlet at this years’ resurrected (at least in name) Chicago Comic-Con — we can rest only hope. As for San Diego Comic-Con — the collector in me says: May she rest in peace.

Enjoy the show everyone!

Jon

Comments (1)

July 11, 2009

hux777 strikes again!

Filed under: bad eBay experiences — webjon @ 8:58 am

It looks like hux777 aka Richard, the guy who blocked me from bidding on his auctions because I refused to pay more for shipping than he advertised (see June 12 post), is behind the overpriced site ‘inkworksarchive.com.’ So I’ll be avoiding them as well. . .

For the record I recently tried bidding on another hux777 auction and was still blocked. . . I sent them the following email through eBay in an attempt to point out how ridiculous they are being in blocking me and get to the point where we can have a working relationship. The email wound up a little more terse than I would have liked due to the character limit in the email, but here it is (Sent July 1):

FYI I just attempted to place a $125 bid on this item, but see I’m still blocked.

I am shocked you are willing to lose a buyer (who happens to be a writer for a popular non-sport blog as well as non-sport magazine) over $4 — $4 that was caused by your own error as verified by eBay.

Perhaps this item will sell for over the $125 I bid, if not that’s just more money out of your pocket. Check my eBay history, I’ve been buying non-sport cards on eBay for over a decade. You don’t sell a unique product so this is clearly costing you far more than it is costing me.

Why am I writing then? Because I really would like to have a working relationship with you and Factory Entertainment for magazine articles as well as eBay purchases. If you choose not to pursue that at this point that’s your doing, but I have reached out.

Besides, after all the hoops I jumped through to get you to follow the rules in your own listing I didn’t even leave negative feedback. So what exactly is the issue?

At the time I sent that email the case topper in question was on eBay for around $30, it ended for $71 — more than $50 less than I was trying to bid, and hux777 never even bothered to respond.

Clearly they have no interest in trying to move forward to work with me for either eBay or NSU, which is unfortunate. . . I was very interested in the Factory Entertainment stuff they had going on.

And personally. . . I just don’t get it. . . they had to follow their own listing, and banned me from bidding for it???

Thankfully everyone else is selling the same cards they are — and for less money!

Happy collecting!

Jon

Comments (7)