Not sure if I am adding anything new, but I agree that they are mostly a negative to the hobby only because there are just too many suckers out there and there are too many people looking to rip said suckers off. If the person making these truly wanted to have them be replicas, then an obvious stamp (that would be somewhat tamper proof) on the back or something should be no problem....most display cases will have the bottom and/or the back hidden anyway which would make it still serve the purpose of being a "nice display piece". Still means risky business for online purchases, but as someone mentioned, I would imagine most high end purchases are in person.
The idea on it's own is cool. I would love to have an exact replica of my 1927 Yankees ball done so I could display the fake (or replica if you want to call it that) and securely store the actual, but I wouldn't be tempted to try to sell the fake one as real so no one gets hurt.
The inherent problem is that this guy gets to get off scotch free saying, "I sold it as a replica", which is true, but looks away to the (likely?) fact that someone is going to try to make a quick chunk of change on a naive and unsuspecting collector. Maybe they deserve it for not doing the research, but in the end, its not good for anyone.
To me it would be like Person A selling what looks to be a perfectly nice 2010 Corvette to Person B for $2000 saying, "It looks great and everything makes sense, but it was in a flood, which is why I am selling it to you for a price so much drastically lower than what an undamaged 2010 Corvette would cost. Person A leaves happy because he has some money in his pocket for what was otherwise crap. Now Person B can sell to Person C who doesn't know much about cars saying, "look at the shape this is in, and I will unload it for under the market value if you buy it today". Person B has now made a big chunk of change unethically and Person C is left to eat the loss himself (heck, he could have checked the carfax right?), or he is left with the dilemma of doing the same thing to unsuspecting Person D so that he isn't the one that has to suffer the financial hardship.
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