There is also the "how stupid is the dumbest person" problem. To assume that a decent percentage of these are real, you have to assume that a seller at a flea market knows just enough about sportscards to know they are worth hundreds of dollars, yet too stupid to do even 2 minutes of research to see how valuable his wares might be. Also, assuming the pictures represent how the cards were presented at the flea market, the seller either had card collecting supplies (sheets and card savers) or went to a card store or online to acquire them to protect them. Again, if you have a level of knowledge that such cards may be valuable and need protecting, I doubt you just package them up in a lot of 100 cards with no research at all what is even an approximate value. It would have been slightly more believable if they were found loose in an old cigar or Hostess Ding Dongs box.
Finally, I go back to the "dumbest person" problem. I know nothing about women's fashions. If I inherited a closet of shoes, I would have no idea of their value. But, if I saw names I had heard of before printed on the shoes, I would at least Google for 3 mins to see if they are worth anything. Typing "Babe Ruth autograph value" pulls up a Google result page where nothing is under $15,000. I am not just tossing that in a lot of other names I have heard of and slapping a $500 price tag.
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