1951 Bowman Mantle - Expensive lesson?
 

This might be an expensive lesson...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1951-Bowman-...p2047675.l2557

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Agreed. It looks like the corners were intentionally clipped/rounded as part of the artificial aging process. I hope this was the result of shill bidding rather than someone paying that for a fake.

Well, the "winning bidder" has almost 35K transactions on ebay, so your first guess is probably correct, unless a buyer with that much apparent experience could be easily duped. In addition to the red flags on the front, the back immediately screamed artificial and clumsily executed counterfeit to me.

If that is a real transaction it's pretty sad. I have a hard time feeling bad for those who fall for these scams, but that price is half way towards a real 1.5-2 graded 51 Mantle. Expensive lesson indeed.

It is listed as an original so it shouldn't be difficult to return when the buyer receives the fake, assuming he's able to make that determination.

The back jumped out at me. It looked like a distressed reprint, and a little to 'white' rather than the 'greyish' back on the real ones. This might be one of those times that having a couple commons to compare to might really help.

Expensive lesson
 

The main thing I notice in almost every reprint/fake card - is the dark tea staining on the edges. It is hard to get the aging solution to evenly penetrate the edges AND the surface giving it that dark brown ring. I have seen that in almost every "aged" card.

Z

The ones that used to tickle me were those produced a couple decades ago using the licensed reprints. The intrepid counterfeiters of that period simply erased the reprint line on the back, leaving a wide blank space and then put the card into a tea bath. I guess quite a few naifs were taken in back then, but the fakery appears to have gotten a little more sophisticated now.

i did some searching on sold auctions yesterday, on ebay, and was stunned at how many fakes are being purchased seemingly unknowingly. It was one after another.

A lot of emptors out there who are not caveating.

It's out of control, I agree Leon. So many people buy these things, too - and for good money at that!

'51 Bowman
 

Funny stuff Peter. I wonder how many of the buyers actually get their money back?

Z

Today's technology has made it much easier to create good fakes. I've bought some reprints on eBAY lately for the 60s Topps sets that I sometimes buy raw cards from, just to see how good these totally "original-looking" reprints are. For the most part they're VERY good. Much better than the ones we were seeing 10-15 years ago.

So we are now entering the era where fakes are going to become commonplace. I know many people don't like to buy graded cards, but it's going to be much harder in the future to buy "right" raw cards. And it's going to have to happen with "card in hand", not online.

If I can tell it's a fake, then it's a bad fake. I wouldn't go within miles of those corners. (Or an ungraded 51 Mantle on eBay, for that matter.)

Really, you shouldn't be buying $1000 baseball cards on eBay if you can't tell that this is a fake. Spend some time studying before breaking out with that kind of money.

The seller has 800 feedbacks at 100% positive, and nothing about the listing (besides being an ungraded Mantle rookie I mean) screams scam. Does he make a habit of selling fakes, or did he fall for this one too?