t206 spotting fakes ... any tips?

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Posted By: quasirob

I would guess that this subject has come up many times in a forum such as this, but I just registered today and after searching through the first 5 or 6 pages I figured I'd just ask. After a long break from card collecting (since the early 90's), I registered with ebay in May of last year and have been faithfully checking out the 'pre 1930's singles' and '1930's singles' daily for at least the last 5 months. I have bought a fair amount of t206 and 33 goudey cards (11 and 10, respectively), but given all the hype about t206 forgeries have gotten a little concerned that some of my cards may be fakes.

The 10 I own all measure up to one another (so far I've bought 2 'trimmed' cards but returned them), which I expect is common even among forgeries. I had read somewhere that checking the registration is a common means of spotting fakes .. in particular, that it is brown lettering, all caps on name, cap then small letters on team location. Question: is it fairly light brown lettering on ALL authentics? does anyone else have trouble differentiating darker brown shades from black (almost went cross-eyed last night scrutinizing the letters under a bare lightbulb)? One of my cards appears authentic in every way except that the lettering color is either REALLY dark brown or grey/black.

Are there other tips anyone can provide about trying to authenticate your own T206 cards? PSA is great I'm sure, but last time I checked it's somewhat expensive .. plus I kind of like having cards that aren't slabbed for eternity under a thick coat of plastic. Any help or tips that fellow users could provide me with would be appreciated. I love collecting the ungraded cards (for the better deals, and the reason described above), but I'm shooting for all VG-EX or better and these days even the commons in this condition are in the $20-30 range so I'd hate to be collecting fakes. Thanks, all.

Rob

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Posted By: Josh K.

here is a start:

http://www.cycleback.com/baseballcards/



One easy way to tell if a card is a reprint/forgery is to look at the dots that make up the picture. If they are multicolored and in a hexagon (I think) shape, its a modern card. If the dots are one color, more likely to be authentic. This is one of those "I know it when I see it things" so if Im describing this incorrectly, hopefully someone will correct me.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

If you have a small collection of genuine T206s and enjoy looking at them, the reprints will stand out in person. The reprints will be on different stock (tone, glossiness, thickness). But most important the reprints won't look right. At the least, you would say, "There's something strange about this card."

Realize that most fakes are intended to fool in person people who don't collect the cards, not people who collect the cards.

Josh is correct, if you get a strong maginfying glass or handheld microscope, you can identify T206 reprints due to the fine multi color dot pattern in the printing of the player image. If it looks like the dot pattern on a modern card or color picture in this week's magazine, it's a reprint. If you look at the image area of a genuine T206 under a microscope, it almost looks like a watercolor painting.

The good thing for early baseball card collectors know about it is that this 'multi-color dot pattern = reprint' applies to almost all early baeball cards-- Old Judges, Allen & Ginter, Gold Coin, T3, Peck & Snyder, T5 Pinkerton, early E cards, T200 & T222 Fatimas, etc.

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Posted By: barry arnold

just went to your personal website for the first time thanks to Josh K.
and found it most helpful.
great bio. too!

many thanks

barry arnold

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Posted By: quasirob

Thanks Josh for the link to the Cycleback website ...

The article was extremely well done and is very helpful, precisely the type of site I have been searching for these past couple of weeks.

Thanks also, David, for the response. If the website is your own and you authored the article 'Judging the Authenticity of Early American Trading Cards', then fantastic job! Just what the doctor ordered for pple such as myself who are relatively new to collecting pre 1940 baseball cards.

The help is much appreciated.

Rob

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Thanks for the positive comments (the site is mine), I appreceate it. Of note, the picture of me shows me standing in front of the George Gipp Memorial in his tiny hometown in Michigan. The red streak running down the wall is the rust from his plaque way above my head.