1948 Leaf authentic or fake?

[DarthFIJI]

I got raked over the coals from the seller for questioning the authenticity of this card (https://www.ebay.com/itm/387443219639) and wanted to get your guys thoughts. The 5th picture caught my attention. I zoomed in and the printing pattern looked awfully suspect. These pics are from slabbed 48 leaf cards. What do you guys think?

[gonefishin]

Not an expert by far, but the print dots appear to be period from my point of view, however, you may want to magnify them even further to view the dots closer. On modern printing dots they would be very precise, and on the colored portions they would glow and really stand out.

Just my opinion, but from what you have provided they look authentic to me.

[DarthFIJI]

Sorry, I probably should have been more clear. The pics in the thread are authentic and just an example. The card in question was the eBay link.

[Eric72]

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert with this particular set. I'm just basing my opinion off of what I know about printing from the time period.

I looked at the Spahn and didn't see any glaring issues. The pictures in the listing aren't the most detailed, though. I could be missing something.

[DarthFIJI]

Originally Posted by Eric72

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert with this particular set. I'm just basing my opinion off of what I know about printing from the time period.

I looked at the Spahn and didn't see any glaring issues. The pictures in the listing aren't the most detailed, though. I could be missing something.

Thanks for the reply. When I zoomed in on the listing's 5th pic the printing pattern looks like cross-hatching and all the others are tiny dots, pixelated. Probably just me being too critical.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by DarthFIJI

Thanks for the reply. When I zoomed in on the listing's 5th pic the printing pattern looks like cross-hatching and all the others are tiny dots, pixelated. Probably just me being too critical.

It's not a bad thing to be critical. This hobby of ours has attracted plenty of rotten apples over the years. Many of them create and/or sell counterfeit cards. I'm glad we've got a group like Net54 to help us spot the fakes.

Your experience with the eBay user is a separate (though, in this case, related) issue. Regardless of what someone is selling, their customer interactions shouldn't leave the buyer feeling as though they've been "raked over the coals."

[steve B]

I don't like it at all.

The backgrounds as you can see from the scans of real ones are a solid color, no halftone at all.

The closeups all appear to show a patterned sort of halftone over the entire card.
Maybe a scanner issue, but it's probably from a modern computer printer.

[jchcollins]

Upon first glance it looks good to me, but for a card north of $300 I would be looking for it in a PSA or SGC slab to start with.


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[Collectorsince62]

Has anyone else noticed how many strongly graded Leaf Jackie Robinson cards are listed in recent auctions? It seems like every major auction has at least one and sometimes several. I had always thought Leafs were much scarcer than Bowmans from that period, but there sure are a lot of Robinsons lately. Maybe that many Leaf Jackies in great shape have survived, but it just strikes me as suspicious. Someone please tell me my suspicions are unfounded.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by Collectorsince62

Has anyone else noticed how many strongly graded Leaf Jackie Robinson cards are listed in recent auctions? It seems like every major auction has at least one and sometimes several. I had always thought Leafs were much scarcer than Bowmans from that period, but there sure are a lot of Robinsons lately. Maybe that many Leaf Jackies in great shape have survived, but it just strikes me as suspicious. Someone please tell me my suspicions are unfounded.

I think the whole "rarity" line for many cards, and series of cards - particularly for some notable Topps high number series - is / has always kind of been on shaky ground. Most of these issues were determined to be "rare" in the earlier days of the organized hobby, when there was no internet, no eBay, no constant card shows every single weekend all across the country. The market was a lot more disorganized, and not nearly as properly allocated as it is now. Is any base Topps card truly rare or scarce?

I'm digressing here, but the point would be maybe more of many things - including 1949 Leaf cards - really existed all along. I don't know, just speculating.

[steve B]

Many things are less "rare" than they were before the internet.
Ebay helped show just how much there is of some stuff.

More expensive cards have usually followed a cycle of availability.
It's being bought occasionally at a decent and slowly increasing price.
It's bought at fairly high prices in spurts based around publicity.
Then the supply dries up for a while, and it eventually gets back to occasional sales.
Once a "big" sale happens, and these days big is actually a lot of money, many of the people who have held onto theirs for years decide to sell.

So far most of my cards haven't been in that league, but I have occasionally considered selling off a bunch of the "better" ones that aren't in great condition.
Except the one time I did that I regret, and still haven't finished that set a second time.