Author Topic: Sorry, GAI, not good enough.  (Read 3300 times)

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Offline Paul_Maul

  • Posts: 3333
Sorry, GAI, not good enough.
« on: November 23, 2010, 07:08:06 PM »
I've really had it with the incompetence of the company known as GAI, Global Authentication, whatever they are currently calling themselves.

We've already documented their inability to consistently spot fakes during different portions of their tenure. While that's very troubling, their unwillingness to lift a finger to accurately describe what they are certifying bothers me way more.

From what I can glean, when you submit a pack to GAI (unless it is something very well known and easily identifiable at a cursory glance), you can just describe the pack yourself, and GAI will simply take your word for it and put that description on the flip. So, you can submit a 9th series green pack, identify it as an 11th, and an 11th it will be! When some innocent buyer believes it is an 11th and pays accordingly, then receives a 9th (probably losing in the neighborhood of 50 bucks in the process), the seller can't be held responsible, so the buyer is screwed. This just happened to someone on this forum, exactly as I describe. Outrageous.

So, go ahead, send in some 2nd series packs and identify them as 1st series, maybe a couple of 6ths can become 8th blues, GAI doesn't give a Ratz' ass, their reputation is already tarnished, so why worry about it? And after all, they're only wackys. As long as they are fairly accurate with important things like baseball card packs, no biggie. Oh wait, they certified hundreds of fake 1977 baseball packs as legit, never mind. Disgraceful.
« Last Edit: November 23, 2010, 07:09:56 PM by Paul_Maul »

Offline Sunstroke

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Re: Sorry, GAI, not good enough.
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2010, 07:49:32 PM »
I don't know much about them, I just bought my first pack graded by them (Make your own name stickers) But i was wondering how they really know if it's been resealed or really what is inside at all.
Looking for Saunders Art cards: Especially Wackies, Frankenstein stickers, Mars Attacks & Battle

Offline Kook

  • Posts: 1107
Re: Sorry, GAI, not good enough.
« Reply #2 on: November 23, 2010, 08:11:39 PM »

From what I can glean, when you submit a pack to GAI (unless it is something very well known and easily identifiable at a cursory glance), you can just describe the pack yourself, and GAI will simply take your word for it and put that description on the flip. So, you can submit a 9th series green pack, identify it as an 11th, and an 11th it will be! When some innocent buyer believes it is an 11th and pays accordingly, then receives a 9th (probably losing in the neighborhood of 50 bucks in the process), the seller can't be held responsible, so the buyer is screwed. This just happened to someone on this forum, exactly as I describe. Outrageous.


Yes, this is a frustrating situation. I bought an 11th series green GAI 7.5 pack (or so it was labeled) on ebay in the hopes of upgrading mine for $85 on Saturday. I received it on Monday (seller was very prompt at shipping - 100% feedback & very good communication) GAI certification isn't that important to me, and I also wanted to verify the pack's authenticity according to some pointers Dave showed me at the Philly show this past October. When I cracked the holder & checked the pack, it looked good (unopened). I then wanted to do for this pack what I did for all my others recently - verify the series. Turns out it was a 9th series checklist in the pack. That's not the seller's fault and thanks to GAI I'm out $60 for their handywork. Buyer do beware of GAI certified packs.

Dave, you really should make a whitepaper about authenticating packs (isn't it already in a thread on Greg's forum?) for all unopened pack collectors. This is truly the wild west with these packs. You probably have to budget for buying a few before you get a truly authentic one. Is PSA any better? I don't recall seeing any PSA unopened packs.

Offline BumChex

  • Wacky Packages Forum
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Re: Sorry, GAI, not good enough.
« Reply #3 on: November 23, 2010, 09:36:42 PM »
I believe they are taking everyone's word on this. These guys really have no credibility in the industry. When I see their packs I generally run away. I'm not a pack collector but have acquired a few in the years. I also don't believe most of the ebay sellers. It's a total buyers beware and truthfully I won't spend big bucks on packs. You have no way of knowing.

Offline Kook

  • Posts: 1107
Re: Sorry, GAI, not good enough.
« Reply #4 on: November 24, 2010, 05:50:43 AM »
I've really had it with the incompetence of the company known as GAI, Global Authentication, whatever they are currently calling themselves.

We've already documented their inability to consistently spot fakes during different portions of their tenure. While that's very troubling, their unwillingness to lift a finger to accurately describe what they are certifying bothers me way more.

From what I can glean, when you submit a pack to GAI (unless it is something very well known and easily identifiable at a cursory glance), you can just describe the pack yourself, and GAI will simply take your word for it and put that description on the flip. So, you can submit a 9th series green pack, identify it as an 11th, and an 11th it will be! When some innocent buyer believes it is an 11th and pays accordingly, then receives a 9th (probably losing in the neighborhood of 50 bucks in the process), the seller can't be held responsible, so the buyer is screwed. This just happened to someone on this forum, exactly as I describe. Outrageous.

So, go ahead, send in some 2nd series packs and identify them as 1st series, maybe a couple of 6ths can become 8th blues, GAI doesn't give a Ratz' ass, their reputation is already tarnished, so why worry about it? And after all, they're only wackys. As long as they are fairly accurate with important things like baseball card packs, no biggie. Oh wait, they certified hundreds of fake 1977 baseball packs as legit, never mind. Disgraceful.

Dave,
I just thought of something that might be quicker & easier to do and be much more effective than a whitepaper or post... What about a 5 minute primer on youtube with some pointers about spotting fake packs. You can then post a link on the forum. A video would allow you to show what to look for much easier than pictures & text & it would be much faster to make.
You could sign the video: (or even better a pacman avatar gobbling up unopened packs)
Just a thought. I'm not trying to add to your workload.


Offline Kook

  • Posts: 1107
Re: Sorry, GAI, not good enough.
« Reply #5 on: November 24, 2010, 05:57:23 AM »
I believe they are taking everyone's word on this. These guys really have no credibility in the industry. When I see their packs I generally run away. I'm not a pack collector but have acquired a few in the years. I also don't believe most of the ebay sellers. It's a total buyers beware and truthfully I won't spend big bucks on packs. You have no way of knowing.

Yes, GAI really is a false sense of security to sellers & buyers. I'm very happy that I only have a few packs left to complete my collection. I have been very lucky to only have received a small percent of fake packs and Dave (Paul Maul) has been a tremendously helpful and very generous resource in authenticating my collection, teaching me what to look for and providing leads & references to help me plug the holes in my collection with authentic packs from verified sellers. I don't envy anyone just starting out collecting unopened packs in this environment today.

Offline BustedFinger

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Re: Sorry, GAI, not good enough.
« Reply #6 on: November 24, 2010, 06:48:14 AM »
Dave,
I just thought of something that might be quicker & easier to do and be much more effective than a whitepaper or post... What about a 5 minute primer on youtube with some pointers about spotting fake packs. You can then post a link on the forum. A video would allow you to show what to look for much easier than pictures & text & it would be much faster to make.
You could sign the video: (or even better a pacman avatar gobbling up unopened packs)
Just a thought. I'm not trying to add to your workload.



I asked Dave the same thing a while back and his very valid response was that he did not want to make something openly available on the internet on how to spot fake packs because it could easily be used for the opposite:  Tips on how to fake a pack so that it cannot be easily detected!
Giving "The Hobby" the finger since 1999!

Offline Paul_Maul

  • Posts: 3333
Re: Sorry, GAI, not good enough.
« Reply #7 on: November 24, 2010, 12:37:04 PM »
Checking packs for legitimacy is really one of the absolute hardest things to explain in words. If you can sit and look at
the pack together, it's much much easier. I don't think youtube would even help anyway, as to see anything you need the back of
the pack at just the right angle to the light source. That's another thing the GAI slab makes impossible. If you try to check the pack
within the slab the light reflects off the plastic making it hard to see anything of use.