Microscope Pays Off

[Archive]

Posted By: Billy Martin, Jr.

I finally got my microscope in today. I gotta tell ya folks.... I love it. I bid on, and won one of those QX3 off of ebay. These things retail for almost $100. I got it (with shipping to an APO) for $40. It's a digital microscope that uses your USB port on your computer. The images are viewed via your computer screen at 10x, 60x and 200x.

Anyway, I had just won a lot of '39 Play Ball cards and I felt that at least one was circumspect from visual observation alone (I'm by no means an expert, but I have about 140 of the '39s, about 20 of the 40's and half the 41's now to compare to). I withheld judgement until today though, but now I know it is definitely a fake.

Below I've included 3 images. The first is a picture of the front of the card...A 1939 Play Ball Donald McNair #105 (10x magnification). On the right you can easily see the sawtooth border. This should be a solid border.


Next we see the lettering on the back of the card where it says "Bats: Right" we see the "ght" of the fake (60x magnification)


And finally, the back of a real '39 Play Ball Paul Derringer #15 for comparison. We see the "ght" (60x magnification)



You can quickly and easily see the difference between the two.

Unfortunately this is all after the fact. Fortunately, the McNair only cost me about $5. I'm going to chalk this one up to experience though, and I'm going to keep the card as a future tool and reference piece. I'm also not going to make any disparaging remarks against the seller as I believe this was an oversight in a large lot of cards that otherwise has been great, but I've emailed them and am waiting to see how they might handle the situation.

Anyway, I just thought this might be of interest to some, and I welcome the opportunity to contribute, and hopefully provide a little education.