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Even though Beckett stepped in and took the credit for all the work I have done with this blog and for my watchdog pieces at Tuff Stuff, I think it bears coverage here. Voluntarheel passed this story along to me from those fucking asshats, and I am glad that Clay Luraschi decided enough was, well, kind of enough.
Per their release, Topps will now be foil numbering the Rookie Premiere autos, which should prevent SOME of the counterfeiters from doing their shit-tastic fakes. This is good. Sadly, its too little too late, as they should have just gone in an pulled down all the obvious ones already on eBay. Its not even that hard to tell which arent real, so im not sure why those shit eaters are allowed to continue to sell counterfeit pieces, especially when we now know Topps has knowledge of the situation. Typical bullshit.
I know that its very good that Topps has assured the future should be taken care of, but I think the fact that scammers are getting a free pass for their reprehensible businesses is just as pressing of an issue. Well, we will see how long it takes Topps to get in on that, if they ever do.
Now, since Beckett has the wonderful reputation of taking credit for the work of others, Im not surprised that this happened. I am kind of disappointed that Topps didnt even have the common courtesy to give me the heads up that they were changing this production practice, though the outcome is really all that matters. Thank you for doing this Topps, it makes me very happy, and gives me a LITTLE confidence that you have someone there who knows what they are doing. Of course, this does not give you a free pass on the ones that are up right now, posted on here as recent as fucking YESTERDAY. So get off your asses and do something before you dig yourself right into another hole.
The Beckett post was so odd in that it was written as if everyone in the industry already knew of the forgery problem. Well, how do you think most people knew? Beckett never did a single story on it until now. NOT ONE!! Yet they post this one as if this if the final piece of their expose'.
ReplyDeleteI also disagree that in their simplicity of an explanation on how the forgeries occur. Yeah, one or two player issued cards may have been used, but this is a much bigger problem. How would you suppose one seller receiving 8 or so of the same card?
It leads the reader with the impression that it is easy to spot a fake because it should say "player issued" on the card. Well please point me where is says that on the 2007 - 08 fakes right now on ebay. This is much bigger than a player issued card problem. There are people producing these in my opinion. Maybe they are using the player issued ones as a base and removing the label in the process. Either way, it's a much bigger deal than they lead on to.
And I hate to be the one to tell them, but there are sellers that have found ways to imprint foil numbering on cards. Wolverine is one of them. So if it profitable enough to commit fraud now, it will be again when then have to press on some numbers.
It's also funny that they readily admit that the hologram stickers are crap. Your fraud prevention team is actually cute at this point.
Last thing would be the quote that "We have been looking at this for quite some time now." Really? How long exactly. How many customers have you let get SCREWED OVER because you were just "looking at it". This is the most frustrating part. Do you honestly think that they would be doing anything if there wasn't increasing pressure coming from the blogs? The answer is no. Why would they? It's obvious that the collector is last on their list of concerns. #1 would be that to fix it is just a pain. And I am sure they have better things to do than to protect the integrity of their property.
That, Topps, is how you come off in this whole debacle. Like you just have better things to do, but since we are going to go all complainy on the blogs, you will do something. Sheesh, way to step up. So sad you have become.
considering i've seen some scum on ebay foil number cards (thus have access to a foil stamping machine), I doubt even foil numbering the cards will be effective in stopping fakes.
ReplyDeletewhat the answer is to complete security, I don't know, unless it's spray a micro tagged substance to the back of the card and photo it (so you can see the various micro tag elements with respect to part of the back of the card) and then make that available to the public via topps.com. If one sees on topps.com that there is a micro green and red tag signature and then notices on their card that next to the number is yellow and green, then they know things don't match up and the card didn't leave the factory that way.
Give me a break, Gellman.
ReplyDeleteThe problems with the RP autos have been discussed many times on every single message board out there. You did NOTHING, hayseed. There are dedicated threads that you have nothing to do with that point out all the fakes.
Deal with it, YOU DON'T MATTER IN THIS INDUSTRY!
And if this was a UD problem, your post would have been much different.
I guess I am missing it. Where in their article are they taking credit for exposing this?
ReplyDeleteAs heel said, it was presented like they were the ones to expose all of this.
ReplyDeleteEvery one needs to leave this comment on the Beckett Post:
ReplyDeleteA special thanks to Adam Gellman of Sports Cards Uncensored is truly deserved as he was the FIRST to bring this problem to light.
Go here now and DO IT! http://blogbeckett.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/topps-takes-strides-to-thwart-counterfeiters/#comment-9321
Rob, thanks, but that would be pretty pointless. They rarely publish any comments anymore, but that could also be the fact that very few people actually take the time to comment on their worthless reporting when they can easily have a better conversation on other blogs.
ReplyDeleteSorry Gellman, I don't see where Beckett is "claiming credit" for busting the card forgery ring. It's just an article high-lighting Topps's effort to correct the problem in the future.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Beckett sucks in general, but this is not a cause for outrage.
The outrage is definitely more about the fact that they didnt pull down the existing fakes, rather than just changing the way things are done.
ReplyDeleteIm disappointed that Topps decided it wasnt worth their time to let me know, but overall, Im not surprised. Contrary to what people think, I have zero dillusions of grandeur. Yet, I know that Topps reads this blog pretty frequently per my site statistic counters, so they MUST have seen the 10+ posts I did on the subject.
I also know they read the Tuff Stuff site, another place I posted this.
Beckett didn't claim credit for anything. They just got word from Topps and did what any media outlet would do, report it.
ReplyDeleteSo if you're going to be mad any anyone, be mad at Topps for not giving you the exlcusive, not Beckett.
I could be mistaken, but they seemed to provide more information about the player's issue cards than you ever have. Like I said, I could be wrong.
Welcome to the real world of media Gellman. Not everyone gets an exclusive and the bigger fish do. And no matter what you, Mario or any of the other bloggers do, Beckett is still that big fish until they do out of business.
Beckett didn't claim credit for anything. They just got word from Topps and did what any media outlet would do, report it.
ReplyDeleteActually, I had emailed Topps a number of times asking for them to help. I had not received a response. Beckett used this opportunity to approach them for their comment, and then presented the story as if they had been following it forever. Listen, Im glad that the end result was what it was, but it sucks that after all my work through this blog and tuff stuff, they wouldnt even respond.
Secondly, I have covered the player issue cards before, but they are so rare that even the fakers dont try to replicate them very often. They dont go for much more than the regulars, so scammers find more profit in the reds.