reprints should be outlawed!

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Posted By: eric p.

i am sick and tired of seeing reprints, fakes, and reproductions on ebay, at shows, in catalogs and online up for sale, dealers and people in general should be prosecuted for making and selling these pieces of garbage, i don't care if their selling them as reproductions or not, if you can't afford the real thing than tough sh*@, there are cards i would like to have that i can't afford but that doesn't mean i want a repo (n172 pcl cards for instance), if i can't have the real thing than why bother, the only reason they are made is to fool people at least 99% of the time anyway, i have never bought and have never been a victim of these worthless pieces of cardboard, you know the dealers i am talking about who sell these worthless gems, i don't care whether their turkey reds, t204's, t206's or n172's they are reproducing, they are still garbage, maybe it's just me, if it was up to me which it is not, i would outlaw these cardboard rejects, if you have to supplement your income by selling these fakes then get a real job, let me guess, their reproduced for educational purposes (bulls%*@), i am sorry if i offended anyone but that is how i feel, i know there has to be at least one other person that feels the same way i do, maybe i am wrong and my outlook is wrong, eric.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

My personal feeling has long been that reprints should be required to be significantly different than the original, along with having text or copyright detailing that they are reprints. Significantly different would include a 1955 Topps Sandy Koufax the size of a postcard, or a T205 with silver borders instead of gold ... I don't think there's any legitimate reason to be making reprints that look identical to the originals.

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Posted By: CHRIS

AMEN! REPRINTS SHOULD STATE,AND QUITE CLEAR ,THAT THEY ARE AS SUCH! IT'S GREAT TO SEE WHAT THE CARD LOOKED LIKE ,BUT WHEN YOU HAVE PEOPLE TRYING TO SELL, AND THEY SELL QUITE A FEW, CARDS THEY KNOW ARE FAKES IT MAKES ME WANT
TO ROUND UP A POSSE AND GRAB THE OLD HANGIN' NOOSE!

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Posted By: barrysloate

I agree with this post that reprints are really dangerous and that countless people have been hurt by them. I think a reprint is supposed to look like the original card, but I feel the word "reprint" should be printed clearly on the back. But I can't tell you over the years how many calls I've gotten from people who wish to sell me rare cards, and when I ask them what it says on the back, they read to me: "dover reprint." They still think they have something valuable. They can't really be illegal, but no question they are dangerous and for ebay sellers who are ethically challenged, they sure do cause a lot of grief to unsuspecting buyers. Maybe the answer is if you are unsure just buy graded cards. What else can you do?

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Posted By: davidcycleback

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Posted By: dennis

could not agree with all you guys more...reprints should be clearly marked.now what are we going to do about the scammers who steal scans and make lazer copies. i say chop there ____ off!

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Posted By: davidcycleback

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Posted By: Josh K.

I agree that it would be nice if reprints said "reprint" on them. However, that alone will not deter the determined scammer. Its all too easy to scratch out words on the back of a card or as alluded to above, make a color copy and/or photoshop something.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Josh, in the perfect world, it would illegal to sell a reprint that doesn't have the required reprint text. If the reprint text has been scratched off, or the back skinned, an eBay seller would have to get out the pen and write it on there him/herself. I mean, honestly, what's the legitimate (I said legitimate) value of a Cy Young or Babe Ruth reprint that is heavily damaged, including heaving soiling and with portions of the back scratched off. The mint versions can't be worth than a few bucks.

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Posted By: Judge Dred

To make it easy on everyone, ebay should make the seller stand behind the card if they don't sell it is being sold as authentic/original/unaltered (not a reprint). In other words if it isn't being sold as a reprint then the seller should be OBLIGATED to provide a refund if the buyer finds that the card is a reprint or not as described (altered). The only problem would be that it would have to be sent to a reputable authentication service within a short period of time after the auction closes to determine if it's real or not. I realize most of us could spot an altered/reprint card but then it becomes the sellers opinion/word against the buyers/opinion word. Pretty sad. I suppose this is what feedback is for and this is why you should be careful when bidding on raw material from a little known source.

What really irritates me are item descriptions that say "being sold as a reprint - it doesn't say reprint on it anywhere." In this case anyone bidding on it should be $h!+ out of luck if they win it and find out it's a reprint.

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Posted By: Rob

Eric P,

Two things - one, I agree with you whole-heartedly. Reprints should be made illegal and need stiffer penalties for "deceptive" sales tactics. Second, from the sound of your post, looks like you need a hug.

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Posted By: robert a

eric.
you're not seeing t210 reprints out there are you?
robert

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Posted By: eric p.

i mainly collect t210's and t211's so i don't have to worry as much as someone who collects t205's, t206's, and n172's, i haven't seen or ever heard of a t211 reprint but that doesn't mean i won't see them in the near future, i have seen a couple of t210 reprints, the reason i am so upset is because i hear of collectors getting ripped off left and right, from beginners to veterans, i know there will always be scammers but it makes me sick to see and hear of innocent people buying something that they think is real and come to find out later it is a fake, i think i do need a hug or something, with the technology today the sky is the limit for the scum who produce these worthless cardboard wonders, some of the repo's out there are so close to the real thing that it's scary, veteran's in our great hobby are being fooled, grading companies as well have been deceived (mainly with alterations), that's why i have such a problem this epidemic!

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Posted By: Scott Forrest

There is a market for people who want legitimate reprint sets and can't afford the real thing - why penalize them?

There is also a market for selling to people who don't do enough research before making their purchases - you can't protect everyone from themselves. I have never accidentally bought a reprint card, and I'm sure there are many board members who can say the same thing. Sure - do your best to stop the forgers and scammers, but ultimately ebay and yahoo need to start policing their auctions better. Giving an employee a part-time task of monitoring the vintage card market for obvious scams seems reasonable, but it won't happen - ebay wants the money that these scam artists bring in.

Here's the other thing many of you are missing - a scammer can forge a real card with no problem whatsoever - he does NOT need a card from a reprint set to do this. Most of these fakes on ebay are forgeries, not reprints.

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Posted By: Howie

The companies are to blame for making their reprint sets so easily confused or modified to resemble the originals. Okay so one company made their Turkey Reds 2.5 x 3.5 and people are still getting ripped off so maybe there's nothing they can do except put them on shorts and mugs. Ebay is to blame for allowing reprints to be listed in the vintage card categories, and for allowing careful wording of the scam auctions to conform to their rules yet still give the buyer hope. Scammers are to blame for listing all that crap. And buyers are to blame for being greedy, stupid, or careless.

Ebay has made it so easy for scammers to pump this crap into the market. I'd like to run auctions on Ebay for reprint cards and tell the suckers not to send me any money. Will Ebay allow me to call them suckers? I'll give instructions on how to print out the pictures in my auctions so they can make their own reprint cards. Would my fake reprints cut into the sales of the real reprints? Will Ebay stock go down?

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Posted By: Scott Forrest

<<The companies are to blame for making their reprint sets so easily confused or modified to resemble the originals.>>

All a scammer has to do is steal a nice scan of a real card, print it, glue it to cardboard, add tea leaves and bake. It isn't hard. Reprint set cards are NOT necessary for scammers.

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Posted By: Robert {Bigb13}

Reprints are very dangerous thats why I would never buy anything from the dealer on page 2 of SCD every week. Seems like 1/2 of the stuff on the page are reprints. Rob