My theory -And I know I'll probably take some heat for it- Is that the traditions and culture of sports memorabilia collecting make the faking much easier.
In stamps there has been a lot of record keeping regarding the tiniest detail since sometime in the 1840's (1840 was the "first" postage stamp) Fakes made to fool collectors began to appear probably around the 1850's And there have been detailed descriptions of the assorted fakes and info about who made them for nearly as long.
And the fakers have often been bought out with their stock and equipment being retained by a national stamp collectors organization.
Coins have been faked for a very long time, but the enforcement has often come from governments.
In both hobbies the national collectors organizations have been pretty strong, and being kicked out for faking or shady dealings was usually a career ender for a dealer. Doing what's considered "right" was business as usual. (Very victorian era attitude, those outed as frauds were priahs and ruined men in the eyes of those in the hobby) The guy I hung out at took a return on a coin he'd sold something like 10 years before that turned out to be altered. The only question asked when the coin was shown to him was howmuch it had been bought for as he didn't recall. - NO certificate, no reciept, just a memory of having owned that coing and having sold it.
Not that there haven't been bad apples, ther have of course been plenty of them.
With Sports memorabilia there hasn't been the constant build up of detailed knowledge. In stamps I can look up if a stamp was typographed engraved or lithographed. I can't do that with most sports collectibles. Many collectors have an attitude of open rebellion against the very concept. Granted the people doing grading /authenticating are often just as blind as the collectors, but that's what most collectors want, someone else to have knowledge and make a clear determination of wether something is real.
Yes, there's a concern that the fakers will learn enough to make it hard to determine if something is fake, but the technical skills have literally been out there since the 1800's. Knowing what may have been done to something lets you know what to look for to be sure it hasn't been done.
In stamps, the certs will tell you what it IS if one is issued. If I send a stamp in as a US #500 and it's not they'll issue a cert stating that it's actually a different one. The ones where they declare "we decline to render an opinion" are the fun ones. That means the people who should be experts have looked at it and can't figure it out with confidence. That's either REALLY good or very bad. And it may take years of research to figure out which.
I can't think of many sports collectors who would accept that.
Amd maybe rightly so, so much of this stuff is really a gray area. The technical knowledge either isn't there or is too closely held.
Until things change so that a faker is essentially out of the business when found out and the average hobbyist wants knowledge instead of a "bargain" the fakers and frauds will have an easy time of it.
Steve B
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