indianawars said:
That's a hideous stunt to pull on people... Well done for highlighting it Joe.
No problem at all, it's definitely an eye opener to people when they first hear about it but it's been going on for years
Here is a Kenner figure I used to own that had two stickers placed over a nasty rip from a previous sticker removal attempt. Notice how there is no litho on the backs of the stickers! (These literally just fell off when soaked in goo gone)
Before sticker removal:
After:
Stickers:
I think if a sticker looks suspicious then it's definitely worth taking a closer look, even if you only pull it up slightly to see if there is any damage underneath. People have fooled AFA countless times with transplanted stickers too so don't for a minute think a graded piece is safe.
TBH (having learned the hard way) I wish people would just leave stickers alone, there really isn't anything wrong with a vintage original price sticker and if one bothers you - don't buy it. All of those cover ups in the article were no doubt done to conceal damage that happened because people tried to remove original Kay Bee stickers. Those stickers are stuck down so good they very rarely come away clean. Need to do a campaign to stop people from meddling with things