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SCD INVESTIGATION UNCOVERS COUNTERFEIT CARDS
A counterfeit card problem centering on 1980s Star Co. basketball, Kenner Starting Lineups, Sportscasters and minor league baseball has been the subject of an investigation by card dealer Steve Taft and Sports Collectors Digest.
Most of the counterfeits SCD or Taft have purchased have been graded by Gem or its “premier” Gem Elite service. Taft first noticed the problem on eBay about a year ago. Taft began making sample buys, and they proved the counterfeit status.
Gem Grading is owned and operated by Timothy Lorber, who also runs www.startcollecting.com. Lorber told SCD he was disappointed Gem Grading holders contained counterfeits and that he does not run the company with any intent but to maintain high-quality standards. “When we sell cards, we give a 100-percent, money-back, 30-day guarantee, from any of the sales that we do,” Lorber said, including www.startcollecting.com or his sportscardzz eBay ID.
SCD asked Lorber if the counterfeits seemed to originate from one person or place. He said there were submissions, and his suspicion is that these came from Gibraltar (Mich.). He clarified that he meant the area, not specifically the show. “I do not know for sure,” he added. “We do not want counterfeits in Gem holders,” Lorber said. “I would buy those back. It’s not Gem’s policy to do that; we have turned away people who have offered us money to put cards in the holders that were not real.”
SCD has purchased about 20 cards in Gem grading holders, and only four or five were counterfeits.
There have been sellers of Gem-graded cards on Yahoo!’s auction site as well, and those sellers offer a connection to the October, 2003, investigation by SCD. In that investigation, SCD discovered that counterfeits of 1963 Bazooka cards, 1921 W551 strip cards, 1931 W517 strip cards, 1947 Homogenized Bond Bread and 1952 Wheaties were being sold online by, among others, “Randy Howard” in Halifax, Pa. In this newer case, the Yahoo! Auctions seller IDs of “isellforu52296” and “consignmentsplus1” are both backed by the name “Randy Howard,” this time from Mechanicsburg, Pa. Both of those Yahoo! IDs have been inactive for the past several months, but when they were active earlier this year, those IDs offered not only the counterfeits described in this article, but also the Bond Bread and other similar cards that were targeted in that SCD investigation three years ago. Capitol Grading and FGA (Foremost Grading Authority) holders often contain fakes, too.
Taft said he believes these cards could be part of the largest counterfeit card operation ever. “A year ago, when it was rampant, there were multiple auctions going with counterfeit cards from multiple eBay sellers,” he said. “You could be talking maybe over $1 million in sales. That’s money that probably would have been spent with honest dealers.
“One of the cards that I saw fairly early in this was the 1989 Pittsburgh Greats Dan Marino. That’s about an $8 card. When you look at the fact that these guys have taken a card that will sell for $8-$10 and counterfeited it, that in itself is a huge message.”
A counterfeit card problem centering on 1980s Star Co. basketball, Kenner Starting Lineups, Sportscasters and minor league baseball has been the subject of an investigation by card dealer Steve Taft and Sports Collectors Digest.
Most of the counterfeits SCD or Taft have purchased have been graded by Gem or its “premier” Gem Elite service. Taft first noticed the problem on eBay about a year ago. Taft began making sample buys, and they proved the counterfeit status.
Gem Grading is owned and operated by Timothy Lorber, who also runs www.startcollecting.com. Lorber told SCD he was disappointed Gem Grading holders contained counterfeits and that he does not run the company with any intent but to maintain high-quality standards. “When we sell cards, we give a 100-percent, money-back, 30-day guarantee, from any of the sales that we do,” Lorber said, including www.startcollecting.com or his sportscardzz eBay ID.
SCD asked Lorber if the counterfeits seemed to originate from one person or place. He said there were submissions, and his suspicion is that these came from Gibraltar (Mich.). He clarified that he meant the area, not specifically the show. “I do not know for sure,” he added. “We do not want counterfeits in Gem holders,” Lorber said. “I would buy those back. It’s not Gem’s policy to do that; we have turned away people who have offered us money to put cards in the holders that were not real.”
SCD has purchased about 20 cards in Gem grading holders, and only four or five were counterfeits.
There have been sellers of Gem-graded cards on Yahoo!’s auction site as well, and those sellers offer a connection to the October, 2003, investigation by SCD. In that investigation, SCD discovered that counterfeits of 1963 Bazooka cards, 1921 W551 strip cards, 1931 W517 strip cards, 1947 Homogenized Bond Bread and 1952 Wheaties were being sold online by, among others, “Randy Howard” in Halifax, Pa. In this newer case, the Yahoo! Auctions seller IDs of “isellforu52296” and “consignmentsplus1” are both backed by the name “Randy Howard,” this time from Mechanicsburg, Pa. Both of those Yahoo! IDs have been inactive for the past several months, but when they were active earlier this year, those IDs offered not only the counterfeits described in this article, but also the Bond Bread and other similar cards that were targeted in that SCD investigation three years ago. Capitol Grading and FGA (Foremost Grading Authority) holders often contain fakes, too.
Taft said he believes these cards could be part of the largest counterfeit card operation ever. “A year ago, when it was rampant, there were multiple auctions going with counterfeit cards from multiple eBay sellers,” he said. “You could be talking maybe over $1 million in sales. That’s money that probably would have been spent with honest dealers.
“One of the cards that I saw fairly early in this was the 1989 Pittsburgh Greats Dan Marino. That’s about an $8 card. When you look at the fact that these guys have taken a card that will sell for $8-$10 and counterfeited it, that in itself is a huge message.”
