Help for the Rookies - spotting the fakes
 

Folks:

My search has come up dry, so I'm starting a new post.

I am relatively new to older turn of the century cards. I know A LOT of reprints exist.

Has anyone done an indepth analysis of how to spot fake cards? What I'm looking for is a side-by-side photo and written analysis of what is different between real cards and re-prints.

I found countless written statements such as "the font is off;" the border size is different;" etc.

I'm looking for something like this: In this photo, you see an authentic T206 card. Look at the font. In this photo, you see the same card, but as a reprint. Notice the difference in the font size, location, etc.

If anyone has anything like this, or knows of an external site that does this, I would love to know where to go.

I'm not only looking for t206 cards, but all of the older tobacco/turn of the century cards.

Thanks in advance for any help you might provide.

Paul

Here's a printable pdf guide to judging the authenticity of Pre-1930 baseball cards. Has in depth analysis of printing and paper stock, etc, along with simple and common sense tips

http://cycleback.com/cardsauthentication.pdf

It would help if you have a real one in hand. You can usually find a fairly worn type card without getting lots of money spent in the process. So buy one or two real cards of the set in which you're interested from a trustworthy source; ie a dealer you know, someone here that you know... If you can't buy one, at least look at a few real ones at a show or convention. So if you're interested in T206s, get a couple of real ones that are worn. A black light helps. It sounds slightly silly, and few folks want to fool with it, but hitting old paper with uv light is a great way to rule out some trickery.

Try PSA
 

Perhaps you could buy some low grade (1 or 2) PSA or BGS graded pre-1930 cards, so your guaranteed authenticity. It's true, there are a lot of fakes out there so be careful when buying raw cards.

I'd trust a reputable dealer, a solid collector, more than I would what was in a slab. But the slab folks do get it right most of the time. It is just that there's no magic to the idea that you are guaranteed authenticity when it is in a slab.

I'm not sure if you've seen this yet but there's a lot of info in the link at the top of the Net54 page: http://net54baseball.com/forum/content/alterations.html