Reprints and Fakes

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Originally Posted by steve B

A few different companies have made reprints over the years. There's the Dover books, CMC which did a full set of T206, Fritsh cards? That did a bunch of sets, Sports collectors company? (The 70's one that did some T206s in B+W as a collectors set) Topps did the 52 set, as sort of a precursor to the other sets they did I think as "archives" and I'm sure a bunch of others I've missed. very few of them can be mistaken for the originals.

That's the commercial ones that were sold as reprints. They were ok for people that wanted a full set but couldn't afford it. Personally I'd rather have a worn original common that a set of reprints.

The outright fakes are anonymous until the faker is caught.

The first fake I bought was in 1978 and cost all of $2. Between then and when the 63 Rose was counterfeited I saw a handful of fantasy cards that wouldn't really fool anyone, and a spectacular 51 Bowman Mantle. That one was really strange, everyones initial reaction was "wow that's nice! " Followed by a long pause then " I mean, it's a really nice fake, right? " It was really close, but just seemed "wrong" in some way.

These days reprints can be made by nearly anyone with a bit of software and a decent printer. Not usually convincing reprints, but not horrible. I bought a couple Goudey reprints that looked pretty good in scans but were obvious once I had them. I knew they were going to be reprints- Ruth and Gehrig for $10 each. I'm probably going to frame them somehow as a display item.

Steve B

Thanks Steve

I have seen the reprints that were marked reprints,but wasn't sure if a company printed reprints without marking them reprints.
I don't have a problem with companies reprinting cards as long as they mark them as such.