Possible fake 12 Back C3PO (link to RS)

Hi guys,

The other day i startted a thread on RS about a 12 back C3PO i have wich is very questionable and is possible a fake.
Few off the guys from the podcast who where in Belgium for FACTs had the oppurnity to inspect it personally.

I hope you don't mind i just post a link to the RS thread (i know i can copy the text, but the pictures are up on RS and i don't have access to any image hosting sites here at work).

Love to hear your thoughts aswell and how bes to proceed with it.

http://forum.rebelscum.com/t1115030/

Cheers, Dennis.

I must admit that from the pictures it looks good to me. It looks like it's maybe one of those 12 backs where the back of the card is in matt for some reason. I used to have a 12 back R2 with the same thinner card and matt backing and that one went through AFA with no problem (not that that means anything :lol: ). Also I can't really see any problem with the bubble on it. The seal is a little wavy down the inside edge but again my R2 was the same as this.

It's impossible to say without it in hand but judging from what's on display I'd have to say it's fine.

Ian

Although there are far better people than me I had this in my hand and thought it looked fine too. Yes there are worrying signs about it but nothing to say for certain it's not legit

Yeah i know Rich, but i dont know if you were around when i talked to Darren and the other dealers? None of them was positive about it....

Looks fine to me and I have never brought a fake or reseal. Don't think I have anyway. :?

Here's a couple of pictures I found of my old R2. I remember questioning the thin card stock at the time but couldn't really see anything wrong with the rest of it (although looking at the bubble seal now it does look a bit off?).

As I said it ended up being AFA graded by the current owner and received an 80 so I never really questioned it after that. As I also said though that doesn't necessarily mean anything but I'm sure they must have seen this type of card stock before.

Ian

Whilst I was putting these last pictures up I thought I'd just mention these other two 12 backs I had when I put my set together. The current owner of my old 12 back set ended up sending them to AFA to get graded (as mentioned in the last post with the R2), and to my horror he told me that 2 of them were refused due to them being reseal . As you can imagine I was quite shocked to hear this and tried to offer the buyer a replacement but for some reason he didn't want it.

I thought I'd post them them up here so that you could take a look at them. This sand people one always seemed odd to me as I owned another at the time and noticed that the bubbles were different in size. I gave the buyer this one as it was the nicest of the two but wished after I'd let him have the other one for obvious reasons.

Here's the DSC. The one thing I always noticed with this one is that there was some fluff stuck to the side of his boot (not that you can see it from the picture). I always wondered how it got there and have since thought that maybe the boots were repainted.

Both these card backs look good to me and i never suspected that anything was wrong with them so it just goes to show how things can get by people. That said though maybe it's another AFA classic mess up :lol:

Worrying I probably would have said there ok, although once you no it's hard to say the bubbles do look a bit off though. I always say if there is any doubt what so ever then assume it's fake.

theforceuk said:

Worrying I probably would have said there ok, although once you no it's hard to say the bubbles do look a bit off though. I always say if there is any doubt what so ever then assume it's fake.

Click to expand...

I think that's what most people did at the convention. If in doubt say it's fake.
At first i was thought to good to be fake even with the things in question, but since the con, i changed my mind and believe its fake aswell. Altough i am sure if i send it to AFA, they most likely will refuse it, there are things about this MOC that keep me in doubt.
I have seen fakes (bought a cheap recard on ebay once just to see how it's was made, to learn more about it).
I also checked online to the references to spot fakes, there was a great post with reference pictures on FB awhile ago.

This C3PO doens't have the common flaws recards have. like logo, lettertype, etc..

The print is not a home made print or scan job, this is a quality professional print, so if you would go that far, would you use a totally wrong kind of paper/stock?


The bubble is not a new bubble, is has aging, scratches outside and inside from the figure rubbing against it.

If you recard a figure i assume you try to use a nice figure, this one has a problem to his hip which seem to show flacking off gold paint and the bubble is filled with small flakes along the seems next to the seal.


I spoke with a few people who bought from the seller (had problems with the seller) they recieved their items, they where genuine, but had issues along the way, wether it was hiding flaws, ethical delaings issues, .... but none off them got a reseal or questionable MOC.

The seller gone silent to me currently and i expect he won't get back to me now anymore.
He was user Marvinrobotor in the past on RS and now uses username IFY. They both where the same person and are banned on RS now.
His name is Edgar Schelp. He is from Germany (located near switzerland, in Rheinfelden)
uses email adres [email protected]
He was the guy who tried to start the Germantoygrader.de company which didn't take off.

Just a heads up if you ever encounter that guy when buying something.

Hi Dennis,

Do you not think your 3PO card back looks the same as my old R2? I'm sure there must be other matt backed card backs out there.

Ian

Bit late to the party but anyway:

Here's my examples of re-sealed 12 backs with matt backs, from left to right R2D2 Taiwan, Chewbacca HK and Vader HK. The R2 is of thinner card stock the Vader and Chewie have the same thickness card but the Chewie is whiter on the edges. The card standing up is a glossy back Sandpeople, not sure if this helps in anyway but.....

For the record these are all original card and bubble re-seals, not re-cards. R2,SP and Chewie were purchased as cards with the bubbles semi-detached Vader was bubble, footer and card due to a poor seal. All are legit unless they were faked in 1977.

Sweet Ryan, looks they have a similar matte Back. Can you post some better pictures of the Back, showing the matte and texture? Also could you post some pictures of the punch tabs?

No problem Dennis give me a bit and I'll get it done.

The R2 looks to be pretty much the same as my old one, even the hanger placement although mine was Hong Kong. This is what makes me think that these thinner, matt backed cards did exist back in the day and aren't some sort of re-card.

Ian

Here you go Dennis:

First up R2,





Vader, Interestingly enough he has a fairly Matt front as well compared to the others.








Chewbacca,

Thanks Ryan,

I also spot a look Alice punch in your pictures.
With more people having the thinner carstock and matte cards, it actually gives me hope again, that mine is real.
I never bothered sending to AFA, but i am also glad i Did not ripped that sucker open, when i really thóught it was fake.

Well i guess i'll keep it as is.

Thanks, Dennis.