W551 Cards Best way to tell fakes?
 

Watching a W551 Cobb on ebay and I am super leary of bidding on it even though the price is low. The seller SAYS "it's an original" but the photo is blurry and in a screwdown holder. I also checked their previous auctions and all of them were reprint cards they admitted in the description were reprints. I know the tell tale signs of a fake T206 but these strip cards are a mystery to me. I would link to the auction but I am unsure if that is against the forum rules.

Not against the rule to link to any auction. You are however taking the chance(almost 100%) of members bidding against you.

True. The auction looks so fishy to me though that I haven't bid. I just need to know from now on what to look for in these cards. I am guessing the cardstock is probably the only way to tell meaning no way to know without having one in hand.

Easy answer: If all the sellers other auctions are reprints then that is what this one is too.

I don't collect strip cards so don't know much about id'ing a fake, but from a scan the image quality and color are usually off if it is a fake.

It is difficult to tell some of the fake strip cards on a computer screen. For higher end ones I would suggest buying graded if you aren't super experienced with them (most of the times they are good if graded,) and/or from a reputable person. There are lots of fakes....

To answer the question, personally, I look for fuzzier images and lithography on fakes than on real ones. The image and lines are not as clear on most bad ones.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from...+cobb&_sacat=0

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Saw the listing in question. I don't think you can tell anything about it because it is so blurry, except that the corners look a little suspicious.

Brian

Blurry scans suck