Ruth Fake?

[TyrusRCobb]

So the card in question will be in an estate sale this weekend. The guy just sent me the photos and I'm looking for opinions regarding the card's authenticity and value. As always, thanks.

[cubsfan-budman]

fake! i'm a complete noob, but i'm pretty sure that the reprints have the red bar along the bottom in line with the picture, where a genuine goudey will have the red bar slightly wider than the actual pic.

am i learning?!?!

[TyrusRCobb]

So, perhaps the bidding should begin at .01 and go in increments of .02 until someone reaches a mind boggling 1.00

[cubsfan-budman]

There's an example of the "real" deal here:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=154377

[drc]

It looks fake to me. Specifically, the boarders are much whiter than the white on Ruth.

Lots of fake/reprint/counterfeit Goudey Ruths for sale out there. One of the most counterfeited cards and some are deceptive too. If you're unfamiliar with the card and buying online, it's best to buy it graded.

However, if you have genuine Goudeys on hand, even commons, reprints are pretty obvious in person. For example, I had some player signed reprints a while back and the cards were about 3x glossier and 2x brighter/whiter than the real cards I had. Obvious as reprints at first site.

[glynparson]

NOt even remotely close.

[drc]

One of the best was to educate yourself for online buying is simply to follow reputable auctions and look at photos of real cards. When you do that enough, most online reprints will be obvious. Not all, but a lot of reprints are obviously reprints at first look. The experienced eye is a sophisticated tool.

My story is an old time collector wrote me that he had been avidly collecting Goudeys for years, recently heard about fakes and was worried that he might unknowingly have some in his collection. I told him that if he'd been collecting genuine Goudeys for years-- enjoying looking at them, handling them, sorting them, etc-- he'd be the first to know if any were reprints.

[TyrusRCobb]

I'd like to thank all of you for your comments and advice. Clearly, I'm not a card guy. In the estate sale write-up there was a general list of items and the Ruth card was just kind of stuck there in the middle. You'd think such a card would be the center piece. Even with my untrained eye the card just didn't seem right. Now I'll send the guy an e-mail letting him know that he's got a fake.