I recently met a guy who told me that he makes a living selling on Ebay, he also added that he runs an authentication/grading service.

I took a look at his slabbing website and it is primarily trading cards (or so I thought). I will not reveal the name of the grading company and I do not know his Ebay name. He does not deal in casino chips.

He originally spoke of the slabbing business in terms that lead me to believe that he does not put much stock in the grading but did it for the money.

He has now told me the details of his scam (He was the one who used the word SCAM). In fact the grading company is a shell. Though he has a website offering to grade items, he does not pursue that business (though he occasionally does grade and slab for others it is not his primary business.)

What he does is buy old books and magazines with sports pictures in them. Then He cuts the pictures out and slabs them, giving them a grade. From the front they look like they could be old baseball cards. Then he sells the item on Ebay. Lets say he bought a book called (and I am making this name up) "SMITH'S ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF BASEBALL" and in that book there was a card sized picture of Babe Ruth. He lists iit on Ebay as "SMITH'S BABE RUTH GRADED 9.5" He lists the grading company and a link to his website so that you can verify the authenticity of this item. The listing suggests that this is a baseball card but never actually says it is. The sole purpose of his website is to lend credibility to his Ebay sales.

He told me that he had about $150,000 in gross sales last year and netted about 50% of that figure. He was booted from Ebay over a different matter (VERO dispute) and uses a false name to keep his current account.

He says he has a 94% positive ebay feedback rating. He says about once a week he gets a complaint email and every few weeks a refund request (He says that he only occasionally grants refunds and then only on inexpensive items).

When I search Ebay for the name of the slabbing company I find many items which I beleive are genuine cards, so my guess is that he began by grading cards (undoubtedly overgrading them and selling them) and then found it was more profitable to just make up new "cards".

He does not view what he does as wrong, because when he sells them he does not explicitly state that they are cards. He considers this salesmanship although he did refer to it as a scam. (sounds like some people who sell fantasy chips)

He has promised me he will stay clear from casino chips, I believe him because he can not get the same profit margins on chips that he can get in his present "venture"