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John H.My "favorite" eBay scam is by a seller who has had umpteen sets of the 27 paper insert 1954 Topps cards from the first issue of Sports Illustrated slabbed. He cut the insert sheet into individual cards and sent them in to GAI, I believe it was. They came back with very high grades and he put the sets up for bid. This went on for many months and may still be going on. I used to see the listings when I was searching for Topps Ted Williams cards.
This is all well and good except I'm pretty sure that these "cards" are from the reprint of the first SI issue that was available at retail book stores a few years ago, in a package with an SI coffee table book. I think the package cost about 30 bucks and this guy was sometimes getting $250-$300 for the card sets. An ignorant buyer wouldn't even know they were made of paper since there is no way to tell when they have been graded and sealed. I have the reprint magazine and other than possibly the paper quality there is nothing to distinguish it from the original.
John