Nice ebay auction E90-1

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Posted By: leon

Our favorite scammer/wannabe dealer......I love this part of it...

"Has some light caramel staining on the bottom which is only mentioned for accuracy"

how about adding...."and it's trimmed to hell"......for more accuracy....


http://cgi.ebay.com/E90-1-Nap-Lajoie-American-Caramel-Ex-Mt_W0QQitemZ290118643820QQihZ019QQcategoryZ86847QQ rdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

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Posted By: Bottom of the Ninth

Nice feedback rating too.

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Posted By: Mike

Who ever trimmed it, never took 1st grade scissors class.

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Posted By: peter chao

Guys,

The trimming is kind of obvious for this card, but I always have trouble spotting trimming. I normally look at the corners first, if the corners are too sharp I start to suspect trimming...or I will measure the card against a known authentic card and if it doesn't measure up then I start to suspect trimming. Is there anything else I should be look for?

Peter

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Posted By: leon

You can ride your surfboard on the waves of this one. Other than that a few things I look for are:

1. wavy sides or tops
2. bat ears on the corners (cuts that sort of go up at the ends)
3. size- though this is less relevent on most of what we collect since normal sizing can be quite varied
4. my biggest one is having corners that aren't in relation to the others ie...having 1-2 sharp corners and 1-2 worn ones....they don't come that way
5. anything in a PRO holder or anything coming from this seller is suspect
6. know your series....such as E101....usually have one big bottom or one big top....if there are 2 small ones then you probably have an issue.....

there is more but this is a good start.....imo....

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Posted By: Jason L

so I can't resist commenting on your statement regarding E101s: I like one or the other large, but generally the top, and certainly never both!

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Posted By: Dylan

Well atleast its obviously trimmed. The troubling ones are the cards that are sold with poor scans or have a light trim that isnt immediatly noticable and you up paying through the teeth. The line about the staining being mentioned for accuracy is classic considering the card. Even if it was pristine, who wants to buy a card from a seller with 23 negative feedbacks in the past month!

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Posted By: leon

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Posted By: barrysloate

Original candy cards have huge borders, and you know a good one when you see it. That Lajoie is a joke.

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Posted By: Joann

I am horrible at spotting trimmed cards - I tend to stay away from anything that could even possibly be trimmed just b/c I don't know I could tell for sure. But to Leon's list of cues I would add the following:

1. Condition of corners inconsistent w/condition of the rest of the card - corners look great but the rest of the card more worn. Particularly, if there is chipping near sharp corners I tend to stay away. I don't think I can imagine or figure out how something could get hit enough to chip, but not dent the corner.

2. Slant cut on one side, but not the opposite side. If I see an edge that is not parallel to the image border, I look at the opposite edge to see if it is off in the same directon - if there is a slight diamond cut. If one edge is slanted but the opposite edge square, I stay away. I know it could be miscut, but this is where I would rather play it safe as I am not that good at making those subtle judgments.

Joann

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Posted By: Paul S

My kind of thread. All tips for spotting fakes immensely appreciated. Thanks.

I've uploaded the front and back of my own E90-1 Lajoie. Even in its poor condition it looks better than the fake. Operating along the lines of what has been mentioned about borders, I went through my own E90s. The trend seems to be that the bottom border was intentionally meant to be larger (than the side borders) and larger than the top border...easily either at least 40/60 or 30/70 top to bottom. This is true for 35 out of my 45 cards. And that the left and right borders strove to be as close to 50/50 as they could get (although my particular Lajoie doesn't display that.) Of the other 10 it looked like 5 either wanted to look that way but didn't/couldn't (i.e., leaning towards it but not very pronounced) and the other five were random, as they didn't much know what they wanted to do. My feeling is that if these cards could do their own borders like we do our own hair, the left, top, and right would be even and the bottom would be noticeably larger to accomdate the text. But that is just my own subjectivity (and my own hair rarely does what I want, anyway.) The color of my scan is extremely close to the colors of my actual card.




I think the bogus card was not scanned, but photographed, and then downloaded into the computer, because it verges of that fisheye look that happens when a camera's lens is too close to the subject. Also, on the back the lines on the bats have that squiggle look to them that screams lo-res, either saved that way or initially shot that way. Not that the scan is intended to reveal the truth, but the black print on the white back screams xerox to me. I love the line about the store being closed for a week, where to you think they will be when it reopens? Somewhere offshore that has no extridition pact with the U.S.?

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Posted By: Jimmy

I am surprised his feedback is not worse, does this seller not sell too many pre-war cards or is this common for (Broadway Rick's) - Leon gives a good explanation above - good resource

Jimmy

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Posted By: Dylan

Leon's dead on about those E101's. Here's the one I own, and just about every other good one ive seen for sale recently has that big bottom border too

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Posted By: Dan Kravitz

I have never seen a legit e101 without a big fat bottom or top boarder.

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Posted By: Bill

I emailed this guy, just out of curiosity, sometime Friday late AM. I like to ask the question "Can you 100% guarantee that this card is unaltered in any way, shape, or form?". I get a response about 11 PM that night. It's an automated email! It lists a bunch of FAQ's that he apparently gets. The email states that if none of the FAQ's answer my question, then they will get back to me during normal business hours.

I don't know about some of you but when I have auctions up on ebay, I check very frequently my emails in case someone has a question and respond in a quick manner. Even IF I planned on buying anything from this guy, I wouldn't now.

Change your socks, drink water, and drive on.