SGC Slabs and Tampering

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Posted By: Matt

Today in the mail, I received 3 different SGC slabbed cards, from 2 different sellers. I was looking at the slabs a little closer then I usually do and noticed that the 2 slabs from one seller have 1/2" marks at the top and bottom of their cases where it looks like something was wedged in between teh two layers of plastic. Then I checked the 3rd card and found it also has a similar mark on the bottom of the case. Which leads me to:
How would one know if their SGC case has been tampered with?
What are those marks all around the edge of the case?

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Posted By: Matt E.

Just received 9 today and all of my SGC slabs have that same small mark on the ends of the holder. To me this is an indication where the plastic slabs were broken apart after being molded. No signs of anything else between the two layers.
Can you post an image?

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Posted By: Dave F

PSA has them too...not sure about GAI or others

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Posted By: Matt

That's what mine look like as well, so I guess it's nothing. Would the case look like if someone tried to pry it open?

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Posted By: Peter Thomas

leaves a rough edge on about half of all SGC holders- top and bottom. I shave and sand them smooooth.

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Posted By: JK

those marks are on every sgc slab I have.

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Posted By: Marty

If a slab has been cracked and put back together, it should not be as structurally sound. Hold the slab in two hands, top and bottom. Twist in opposite directions and listen for cracking. Properly sealed from PSA or SGC, they will not crack. Do not use Magilla to twist.

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Posted By: Ralph

Mine have the same marks in the same area on the holders

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Posted By: Zinn

I think the marks are residue from the hermatically sealing of the holders.

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Posted By: Eric B

Maybe it's where the machine holds onto the cases as they are sealed.

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Posted By: Joann

They are mold gates. They are not related to the sonic welding. If you had two halves of a slab, in raw state never having been welded together, they would have these marks.

The halves are injection molded. So there is a channel that the melted plastic runs through until it gets to the actual cavity that is shaped like the slab, and it fills that cavity. When the two halves of the mold are separated, you have the slab half but also the the channel part still attached.

It's like those little cheap plastic toys or whatever, where you have a plastic "spine" off of which are several plastic "ribs" with a piece of the toy at the end of each rib. You break the piece off of the end of the rib and assemble the pieces.

Each piece of the toy you break off would have a little piece of the rib still attached. That's what this is. It's the piece of the channel (runner, actually) that the material flowed through. Operators or robots trim these pieces off, and the clipping can be more or less flush. I've seen sprues on my slabs that are as big as .015" or so. Even if they are flush, they will still have the white stress mark.

There's your manufacturing essay for the day. Not evidence of tampering. Not an artifcact of the weld process. Just where the sprue was clipped.

J

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Posted By: T206Collector

...it's the mark of Voldemort!

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Posted By: Steve Murray

perfectly logical explanation. So now all of you with paranoia may sleep easier tonight.