Posted By:
PCLeon -- true. But as Eric has already pointed out, I don't like the probabilities here.
We're so focused on the holders being counterfeit ... we haven't asked the next obvious question: are the cards in the fake holders even real? If they are not, they are very good fakes. Overgraded real cards in fake holders, or fake cards in fake holders. Not much of a choice there.
I'm not saying I'm an expert at spotting fakes, but I've been collecting for a long time and all those cards and holders looked good to me. And, honestly, they all STILL look legitimate to me. I find it extremely disturbing that we only know there's a problem because we can see the cards and flips with the same serial numbers are different from each other. We still don't know which holders (and/or cards) are the the fakes -- we only know one of the holders (and maybe one of the cards) must be.
Moreover, it's only because the most experienced collectors are seeing higher grade rare cards pop up, and then going back and comparing recent auctions (because they recall seeing the same card recently, or to check the closing prices), that we're catching any of this. And then it takes several sets of experienced eyes to draw a conclusion.
This should be setting off more alarm bells that it appears to be. For this collector, I don't see why anyone takes the chance going forward, particularly when the cost of being wrong on those high grade cards is so high.