TOPIC: Counterfeit Token Concerns

Jeff321 wrote: It would be nice if there were a process by which we could get our Charm of Avarice verified, and swapped for a new version that's numbered and has a different-colored back.

I agree. Glad it is already in the works!

Thanks Jeff for the continued support to the community! (I know it is also a protection of TD itself...) I just hate that it has come to this - hate the need for this kind of effort, just to ensure that people don't try to effectively steal from you and the community.

Picc wrote: ...when you consider some of the horror stories the vintage mtg guys tell.

....Kind of hoping for green XD

You could always verify a MTG card is on official card stock by ripping it and looking for the purple... but then you'd have a ripped card.


...Green backing sounds cool, even if I will probably never be able to make one.

CrowOfPyke wrote: That's cool. I hope this hasn't gotten down to the level of Relics and UR's, or gods forbid into trade goods. The ramifications of counterfeit trade goods... ugh....

If it is anything like what happened 'back in the day' with Magic the Gathering, people didn't counterfeit Serra Angels, they counterfeited mox's, Icy Manipulators, and black lotus (lotii?) - the cards that people rarely (if ever) saw, that they could then flip for high profits.

In that respect CoA is a perfect target, as would be any of the $1000+ tokens.
Supreme Rings, Rods, etc.

At its worst, I used to have one find its way into my shop about once a week. Generally in the hands of some shifty looking kid who was asking for $100 *less* than what current book price was. [Instead of book price, they wanted to create a situation where you felt you had to jump on a ridiculous opportunity. immediately]

Usually they just didn't look right, felt extra thick, the corners were wrong, etc. But once MtG got big enough - some of the Russian counterfeit houses got into the business .. those things basically had to be destroyed to see if they were fake.

Maybe make the more powerful tokens soul bound or something like a registry might help. RFID could make it easy though it might be too expensive.

Jeff Martin wrote: We have intercepted another counterfeit token, and we believe there are at least two parties now making counterfeits. I wanted to let everyone know (most especially the counterfeiters) that we will be taking extra precautions moving forward -- especially with the Charms of Avarice and other high level tokens. Special actions are now in place during the transmuting process, serial numbers will be added to new high-level tokens, and we will be adding in a verification process at Gen Con.

I strongly urge everyone to record whom you buy any tokens from (maybe write their name or unique mark on the token back) to discourage the crooks.

Also, I have been in contact with an old friend who is a Special Agent with the FBI, and there is interest in pursuing this case. We are now deciding whether or not to proceed. I will do my utmost to protect the amazing token collector community.

You're all awesome. Thank you for letting us know.

Please Crush these Villains.

Tokens don't really change hands that often. It should be pretty easy to track down who's doing this or at least be one step removed.

The high value tokens might as well be numbered, as the ROSP are.

I like the idea of having the currents tokens verified and then numbered. At least I am sure of all my high end tokens as every one of them came direct from TD personnel.

Thanks for the heads up. It's too bad it has come to this, but good there are some ideas to curb it. I'm pretty confident in my sources and my collection at present.

I would imagine it's at least mail fraud if someone is making and shipping fakes intentionally.

Lode

crush them mightily.

I do like the idea of the "high end" tokens having rf id chips loaded with the token. It would mean having a confirmation station at Gencon could work but still leave online or Internet trading unprotected.

a registry would need to be maintained, soul bonding would raise prices, cause delays in transmuting and destroy trade value.

I would guess there is no single easy way to deal with this.

Thankfully if anyone can figure it out it'll be a puzzle master like Jeff

Thanks for keeping us in the loop, Jeff : )

This is why I have stopped buying collections for a while.
All my CoA have come from TD. All rod seg we're verified.