1940 Play Ball reprints?

[shaunsteig]

Hi all,

A while ago I had purchased a lot of 1940 Play Balls, and only recently have returned to collecting baseball cards again. One of my projects is to try to complete this set. A significant change that I've noticed is the development of online purchasing, both from stores and from auction houses, particularly EBay. One thing I've been concerned about is that there are a lot of ungraded cards on EBay, particularly for the more sought after players (eg, DiMaggio, Jackson, Williams). Some of those say that they're reprints, but many listings write things to the effect of "I don't know if this is a reprint". They're selling by auction at a fraction of the price for a graded card, and do have numerous bids so I can't be the only one tempted to bid on these. Has anyone had experience with authenticating any such cards? I recognize this belongs to a broader question of "buying ungraded cards via EBay", so if you have thoughts on other sets, I'm all ears for that too (particularly T206s).

Thanks for your thoughts and help.