Posted By:
JoannI'm surprised there isn't more of the slab-tinkering going on. Breaking apart a slab is easy.
With a sonic welder these could be reassembled in no time flat. A fixture for a grading slab is about the easiest fixture I can imagine building - a flat rectangle - duh. Sonic welders aren't that expensive and don't need any special wiring or ventilation to run.
In fact, if I really want to go out on a limb, a tool for molding slab halves wouldn't be all that expensive either. You wouldn't even need to fix the broken apart slabs - just mold new ones. All that's left is printing flips.
Buy raw, slab at home with PSA-style slabs and you're all hooked up. A person wouldn't even need to bump grades a whole lot, if at all - just slab raw cards a grade or half grade above.
Until the serial numbers got you caught, it would be easy. And to substitute like cards of slightly lower grade into existing slabs w/flips - just a sonic welder.
Now this is scary. I don't buy high end, so I'm not all that worried about it. But if I did, I'd be very concerned about slab manipulation.
And Barry - very disheartening, that's for sure. I just try to find a corner of the hobby with nice people and decent cards and rotting shacks and trustworthy dealers. Keeps it enjoyable. So far, that corner has proven big enough to let all the other hoo-hoo go over and beyond me.
Joann