1928 Fro Joy Babe Ruth cards... This kind of bugs me- " Unknown originality"
 

These kind of listings on ebay are rampant. What bugs me a little bit is that when you tell the sellers what they have, they thank you and leave it as is, which to me is fraudulent. These cards are NOWHERE close to real. I reported them to my contact so we will see. If someone buys them they will be the "Sucker born every minute" buyer. For any novices, as to how to tell, the lithography on these is really off and the cardstock looks fake. Any comparison to a real one would show it easily...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1928-FRO-JOY...kAAOSwcgNZKxDr

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1928-FRO-JOY...kAAOSwcgNZKxDr

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It's interesting in the listing specs where is says "Original/Reprint" the seller put "Unknown." My gut tells me the seller is trying to scam someone.

Tell tale sign for me to tell is the box on the back. The fakes don't have corners that join.......

If you title something "1928 Fro Joy Babe Ruth" you are saying it is real.

I got word back from my contact. Once he saw them they had already been closed with no bids. Lots of shady sellers on the bay....

How about this one?
https://scontent-dft4-2.xx.fbcdn.net...dc&oe=59C7F084

Zoom in:
https://scontent-dft4-2.xx.fbcdn.net...77&oe=59DDF54E

Card back:
https://scontent-dft4-2.xx.fbcdn.net...bf&oe=59CE539A

Sheet back:
https://scontent-dft4-2.xx.fbcdn.net...25&oe=59C63009

Got this off eBay two years ago for like $75. Figured it was an early copy, but the printing has the waffle effect at high magnification that would mark it as an original. Boxes on back of card are complete squares. I didn't want to cut it up and send it to BVG because a complete sheet is pretty cool, and if it was fake, didn't want BVG to call it real.

Reprint

Beckett gets these correct. Look at Babe's faces on the sheet. Very poor lithography, compared to others you can find, is usually a very poor sign, in my experiences, regardless of the rest of it. It has artificial aging too.

Yeah, the artificial aging (cream waves) are a tell-tale sign. When did they stop using the printing process that created the waffle process? Is this a pre-1970s reprint?

There is a great .pdf on our site in the resources section, authored by our own David Rudd Cycleback:
http://cycleback.com/cardsauthentication.pdf

Personally I have better luck looking at the other characteristics. Halftone and lithography were both used in the first half of the 20 century....


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A new edition of the guide is coming out in about a month, including with more details and bigger and better pictures. The guide is nearly ten years old and I had long wanted to update it. But don't worry, there are no big corrections ("Everything I said in that chapter is wrong!"), just addition of new information and details.