Bogus 52 Mantle?
 

Think I spotted a bogus '52 Mantle. What do you all think? When I looked at the card something felt off about it...it's a pretty good job, resembles a type two with the clean starts on top and all four lines around the logo in place. But then I noticed the team logo: the lettering "Yankees" is very fine, it looks far better than a legit card, where it's just a bit blotchy from the inks running together. The stitches on the ball look too wide on the suspect example. And, on a real card, the bat is solid black...on this example, the bat is two tone black with white in the center. It's almost too much detail.

What's really bothersome is the PSA holder/cert is legit. But that card...just doesn't seem right. And it sure doesn't look like a 4!

What are your opinions? Should I notify the seller and/or report the card?


http://www.ebay.com/itm/1952-Topps-3...item4ab21058cc

hard to tell, the colors are screwed up (may just be contrast issues with scanner/photoshop??)

its a left stitch card and the back and front are correct (some reprints have the wrong back ie right stitch back on a left stitch front or vice versa)

many of the easier fakes to spot will have the image washed out and a new dark black borderline made (sometimes too thick), so its easy to see the color difference when you compare the "R" on uniform to the black line just below it. this doesnt have that prob. Also some fakes the border around the red box on back will have a combined width that is too wide, this doesnt have that prob

quick look, Id say its just bad scans

the thing that would piss me off if I was interested in the card, is for a card so pricey, the enlarged image is less than lifesize. if it were bigger it would be easier to see the details


but then again this memorylane auction has the same size small scan and the card is 2X the price... wtf??

go to scanning school! lol


http://www.ebay.com/itm/1952-TOPPS-3...-/300601928959

Aloha!
 

Wow that's a tuff call from a scan.....I don't know Frank..I owned a dozen or so 52T 311's type 1 and 2 and I don't think I have ever seen Yankee's printed on the logo that sharp also the black outline of the logo looks razor sharp. You probably would know better than me, but thats one I'd like to see in person. Everything else seems good about it. Dave. (Hi, FKW keep dry and happy holidays).

Also
 

if this is a fake it's a new kid on the block....that bat in the yankee logo aint right....that white in the bat doesnt appear on any other 52 t mantle i can find. hmmmmmm very very dubious. dave

I think it's a poor quality scan or photo. He may have fooled around with the image too much (resize, fix colors or such)

A Fake for Sure
 

No way the card is real. The font in the PSA flip is wrong. This fake card is sitting in a frankenslab.

Mantle
 

There you go again Keith, "clouding" the issue with facts

Interesting, I did not catch that. I ran the number and it matched up...of course someone could've just lifted it from another auction.

What are the diagnostics for PSA fonts?

Also, I've requested a high res scan from the seller. He said he'd get one to me, but haven't heard from him yet...in a few more days if I haven't heard anything I'll notify the seller and/or ebay...

Also, the right side of the holder looks frosted, as if it were cracked open (especially visible from the back scan).

stomach test
 

When I first looked at it it didn't pass my "stomach" test. In other words.....it upset my stomach as something didn't look right. Good catch guys. To me it was the off color of the white borders that looks screwed up. I am not an expert on '52 Topps but have obviously seen many thousands of them.

I've never tried to fake a flip, so I'm not exactly sure what the typeface, kerning and size are, but this fake flip is using Arial which is close but not a true match. Also notice how the spacing of the numerals is too "open".