Blue front 1958 Hank Aaron

[bnorth]

After a little "testing" in my home lab I would say that at least 99.9% of the blue 1958 Aaron cards are fake. I would say all of them, but there is a slim chance 1 or 2 might be real. If it was just not the Aaron that shows up blue in this set I would give it a little more chance of being real. Since there are no other blue cards showing up I stick with most are fake/altered.

Not wanting to chance hurting a 58 Aaron card I picked card #451 Joe Taylor as my test subject from the 58 Topps set. I know it has a different shade of green background, but in science green is green.

Here are the before after pictures and before anyone asks no I will not tell you how it is done.

[glynparson]

Statement that there are probably real ones out there as I had seen the Aaron back when this would have been seen as a negative and not a positive, also cards don't look quite the same to me as an Aaron.

[sflayank]

of course the blue aarons are counterfeit...amazing to me it took this long for someone to say it

[ALR-bishop]

Originally Posted by sflayank

of course the blue aarons are counterfeit...amazing to me it took this long for someone to say it

Not sure about the rest Larry but I was waiting for your opinion before deciding which way to go

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

Not sure about the rest Larry but I was waiting for your opinion before deciding which way to go

No faith in me Al?

[doug.goodman]

Showing that it is possible to create a fake blue card does not prove that all blue cards are fake.

Doug

[Footballdude]

Been reading, and re-reading, this thread with interest. First let me say I am not generally a baseball collector and I have never owned a '58 Aaron, so I cannot comment on other peoples card that they have in their hands and can see better than I.
Having said that, I am generally a skeptic, and here is why.

Doing some general research on printing, I have found out that this type of printing is referred to as CMYK printing (C=cyan, M=magenta, Y=yellow, and K="key" or black). It is my understanding that printing is generally done in the order of the initials. In otherwords, a sheet is printed with cyan first, Magenta second, yellow third and finally black. There are a couple ways I could see a sheet getting through without the yellow being printed.
1 - The press ran out of yellow ink.
2 - An operator removed the sheet after the magenta printing, skipped the yellow and put it back on the press before the black (not likely in my mind).
3 - 2 consecutive sheets could have got stuck together after printing the cyan and magenta. If stuck together, the top sheet would recieve the yellow, but not the bottom sheet. This sort of thing happens, I'm sure, however it doesn't seem likely that the sheets would separate after the yellow and each make it through the black process. I would think if the sheets got stuck together, the bottom sheet would miss the yellow and the black.

Regardless if any of these happens, the fact remains that the entire sheet would be missing the yellow.

Here is a picture I found on the internet, of a partial(?) uncut sheet of 77, 1958 Topps baseball cards, that includes the Aaron card.

[IMG][/IMG]
If a single sheet, assuming a sheet only consisted of these 77 cards, made it through without the yellow, then not only would there be a blue Aaron card, but the 32 cards shown that have a yellow background, would in fact be white. This would include Ted Williams, Duke Snider and Don Drysdale.

My own opinion is that most are sun, or light faded, but I don't mean intentionally.

I have seen numerous card dealers over the years, both in shops and open-air sellers, who have had the same stock of show case cards for years. Cards that sit in showcases, without being rotated or sold, will, over time, fade from the sun or even fluorescent lights.
the Aron card is a key card in the set and would have been more likely to be in a showcase than other "common cards from the set, thus it is more likely to get faded.

Does this mean that all are illegitimate? Of course not. Anything is possible with Topps' suspect quality control.

Looking at some of the "blue" Aarons I can find on the net, it is obvious to me they are indeed faded. You can still tell the white around the Braves logo has yellow tinge to it, compared to the white border of the card.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by sflayank

of course the blue aarons are counterfeit...amazing to me it took this long for someone to say it

I have been saying it since post 8 in this thread. I just have proof now that they can be made.

Steve there is no chemical residue on the card and it reacts the same as any normal card from the 1958 Topps set under UV light.

Not all missing color cards are suspect. Some year/brand of cards are easy to remove colors and some are not.

This card is one of the few cards I 100% stand behind as leaving the factory missing the yellow ink. I have found a few other cards from this set also missing the yellow.

[steve B]

I'd say that's proof that some are fake. Thanks for doing the experiment.

I also understand not telling how. For what it's worth you might share that with the big three grading companies. fwiw I'd be very interested in knowing, from a technical standpoint. I was the sort of person to fake stuff I'd have done it long ago. Having the technical knowledge includes the responsibility of not using it the wrong way.

Did the process leave any clues behind? It looks like the cards logo didn't have the yellow entirely removed. But I'm wondering if whatever was done left chemical residue, or changed how the card reacts to UV. If there's a way to tell an actual missing color card from an altered one that would be the best outcome.

Without that, I'd have to say that any Topps card with missing yellow should be suspected of being altered.
Besides the cards that would be obvious like green backgrounds, there should be commons with less obvious missing yellow if it's actually missing. (And of course, they'd be just as easy to fake)

Steve B

Originally Posted by bnorth

After a little "testing" in my home lab I would say that at least 99.9% of the blue 1958 Aaron cards are fake. I would say all of them, but there is a slim chance 1 or 2 might be real. If it was just not the Aaron that shows up blue in this set I would give it a little more chance of being real. Since there are no other blue cards showing up I stick with most are fake/altered.

Not wanting to chance hurting a 58 Aaron card I picked card #451 Joe Taylor as my test subject from the 58 Topps set. I know it has a different shade of green background, but in science green is green.

Here are the before after pictures and before anyone asks no I will not tell you how it is done.