Does COMC make sure cards are authentic?

[upstateNYmilb]

Something I've wondered about for a while: does COMC make sure cards are legitimate before putting for sale? If I want to buy a Goudey or T206 or 1887 A&G from them, are they legitimate cards? Ebay is littered with "reprints" that are actually fakes. And its not just pre-war. Any notable common, for example a '57 Topps Hank Aaron, has fake cards come up when searched on eBay. Is it possible some of these go to COMC to be sold as original cards?

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[swarmee]

Good question. COMC does its best to make sure every item sold is real and unaltered, but some slip through the cracks. I have reported hundreds of fake or trimmed items to them and they've removed them from sale (or reversed the sales) in those cases. They have a very liberal return policy for an counterfeit or altered cards that they've sold, and that includes ones in graded holders that got past PSA, BGS, or SGC.
They now charge the original submitter $10 for every counterfeit or altered item that was submitted to them and remove it from sale from their site. If you ever have a question on a card that is listed for sale, you can mouse over the picture, select "Report Error" in the bottom right corner, then click the "Questionable Authenticity" circle and explain why you think it's a fake. Or you can email them at staff@comc.com if you're thinking about buying it.

COMC only charges a few quarters to scan and list each card, so they're not thoroughly checking every card coming through the submissions. And their basic intake staff doesn't have the knowledge or accuracy to get everything right. But they're trying.

Right now there are a bunch of 1991 Topps Desert Shields on site. There are a lot of those being faked right now that are making it through PSA and BGS graders, and I'm sure some of the ones on COMC are counterfeit stamped as well. I've personally found a bunch of the 1947-66 Exhibits that were counterfeit, marked them as such, and they were removed from sale and/or the buyers were reimbursed.

They got hit by a couple of the professional scammers a couple of years ago who were passing altered cards in PSA/BGS/SGC holders through COMC to sell. Those sellers were mostly kicked off of COMC and COMC fulfilled all return requests, AFAIK. Again, going way past what other consignment services have done, and way past what many grading services have done. There are a couple of people on Net54 that work for COMC and may be able to give you more information. I'm just a guy that buys/sells on there and loves what they're trying to accomplish. I also make lots of recommendations each year on how they can do their jobs better, so they listen to me.

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by swarmee

Good question. COMC does its best to make sure every item sold is real and unaltered, but some slip through the cracks. I have reported hundreds of fake or trimmed items to them and they've removed them from sale (or reversed the sales) in those cases. They have a very liberal return policy for an counterfeit or altered cards that they've sold, and that includes ones in graded holders that got past PSA, BGS, or SGC.
They now charge the original submitter $10 for every counterfeit or altered item that was submitted to them and remove it from sale from their site. If you ever have a question on a card that is listed for sale, you can mouse over the picture, select "Report Error" in the bottom right corner, then click the "Questionable Authenticity" circle and explain why you think it's a fake. Or you can email them at staff@comc.com if you're thinking about buying it.

COMC only charges a few quarters to scan and list each card, so they're not thoroughly checking every card coming through the submissions. And their basic intake staff doesn't have the knowledge or accuracy to get everything right. But they're trying.

Right now there are a bunch of 1991 Topps Desert Shields on site. There are a lot of those being faked right now that are making it through PSA and BGS graders, and I'm sure some of the ones on COMC are counterfeit stamped as well. I've personally found a bunch of the 1947-66 Exhibits that were counterfeit, marked them as such, and they were removed from sale and/or the buyers were reimbursed.

They got hit by a couple of the professional scammers a couple of years ago who were passing altered cards in PSA/BGS/SGC holders through COMC to sell. Those sellers were mostly kicked off of COMC and COMC fulfilled all return requests, AFAIK. Again, going way past what other consignment services have done, and way past what many grading services have done. There are a couple of people on Net54 that work for COMC and may be able to give you more information. I'm just a guy that buys/sells on there and loves what they're trying to accomplish. I also make lots of recommendations each year on how they can do their jobs better, so they listen to me.

I'm going to expound slightly on this as per what John said:

In simplest terms, if there are any cards you are unsure of their authenticity, please find the card and put a correction request in for us at COMC to look at the card a second time. I work remotely 2000 miles away so I can't personally look at any of the cards

That action enables us to put a hold on any card which may be questionable until they are further checked out.

[upstateNYmilb]

Thanks guys for the information, much appreciated. Glad to hear they are doing all they can

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