[mattjc1983]

I've never acquired and completed an entire post-war set entirely on my own from commons boxes, eBay, etc. but am considering it as something fun to do.

I'm less concerned with ending up with a doctored card as I am with ending up with a completely fake card or reprint (especially with today's high quality scanning and printing technology). For those who have built postwar sets and don't mind taking a minute to answer: how prevalent do you think full-on fake cards are for the years ~49-79, besides the key rookies (or near rookies in the case of the 52 Topps Mantle)? Is fakery prevalent enough for cards of that period that the average buyer needs to be highly educated on the details of each card to do something like this? And if yes, there are known fakes of every brand/year, is it only on those of more than nominal perceived value (say a 65 Topps Eddie Matthews)? Or even the commons?

For example, my father-in-law is maybe 15 cards short of finishing the 1965 Topps set. Mostly commons, but I know the Mathews card is one he needs. He approaches it very casually; he basically just carries a list in his wallet of what he needs and browses tables and commons boxes when he sees them. Do you think the average buyer like him can generally trust that what they're buying for a set like that is going to be an original card? Or have cards from even less valuable sets been found to be fake? I suppose buying cards encapsulated can give some piece of mind (if you trust the TPAs) but that seems like real overkill, especially on commons.

Just wondering how educated I need to be (from design, to card feel, to print dots) if I'm interested in doing this, and how y'all approach eBay sales where you can't touch or even closely see a card. If it's helpful, 56 Topps is what I'm considering. Thanks in advance.