Duly note that I think most fakes-- including baseball cards and normal ephemera--, are easily identified without the highly advanced scientific tests. Radiometric dating and such are usually done with priceless museum relics or part of academic study. I'm sure all the authentic and questioned Vermeers and Michelangelo paintings have had all the tests on them.
If you collected meteorites or moon rocks or ancient Chinese ceramics or had a historic baseball artifact, I could see how a normal collector might want those tests done. But no one needs radiometric dating to authenticate a T206 or ACME news photo.
In fact, some of the more effective tests are the ones collectors already do. Simple stuff like blacklight, checking for gloss and texture, measuring thickness, and holding a questioned card next to some real ones are very effective tests. A test doesn't have to be complicated or expensive to be effective and important. A bunch simple tests used together can be greater than one expensive nuclear physics test.
Though I readily admit that, beyond knowing how the ink and paper tests work and knowing the basic stuff average collectors know, autographs are outside of my area of expertise. Not something I've focused on or been interested in, and I never present myself here as an autograph expert.
Last edited by drcy; 12-09-2018 at 10:03 AM.
|