What are some good resources to learn about detecting fakes/reprints?

[steve B]

Originally Posted by drcy

Buy from knowledgeable sellers.

For T206s, Goudeys, get a few cheap commons first. Reprints and fakes will be distinctly different than the real cards.

Learn to identify printing processes, so you can tell both antique and modern printing. This is of particular help when you are looking at a card you are unfamiliar with.

Ask for second opinions, such as from people on this board.

If a card or other paper/card ephemera smells musty, that's a good sign.

A year ago I came out with a new guide to antique printing processes and authentication of prints. It is a general printing guide, but covers the processes for cards and for those collecting other items like programs, signs, etc. Baseball cards are prints, just little ones on cardboard. The guide is in pdf and well illustrated. It's concise, but a pretty complete guide for the area and I wrote it in part so I wouldn't have to write about it anymore.
printing guide

Just read about the first 50 pages, and that's a really great guide. There's a few minor points I might not entirely agree with, but getting into them would be rather technical and would only serve to create confusion in the target audience.

So few guides of any sort manage to impart the technical basics without getting too complex for the average reader. This one is excellent at getting the main points across clearly. Pretty much anyone collecting any thing printed or with a printed element (Furniture or musical instrument labels that sort of thing) should down load it and read it occasionally.
One of my hobbies there's a series of very technical articles that are from a few years ago and while my memory is still halfway decent I reread them completely about every 3-6 months. And at that I still find things that have taken on a slightly different meaning.

Steve B