Please help, fake or real Babe Ruth

[Bugsy]

Originally Posted by gnaz01

Chris, is that the one you bought from Leon??

Yes, it is. It failed the blacklight test so I can't imagine there is any way that it could be genuine.

I seems like a lot of others had the damaged H wrapper, so it would be nice to have a few more voices chime in. Anyone else test theirs under a black light?

Thanks again!

Chris

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Bugsy

Yes, it is. It failed the blacklight test so I can't imagine there is any way that it could be genuine.

I seems like a lot of others had the damaged H wrapper, so it would be nice to have a few more voices chime in. Anyone else test theirs under a black light?

Thanks again!

Chris

Hi Chris
I haven't followed this thread for a few days. If it failed the test then just shoot me an email and let me know what you paid and I will fully refund you. I need to check my current one too, I guess. My email is leonl@flash.net. Everything I ever sell has a lifetime warranty for authenticity. My apologies too. Of course I had no idea. Also, I would like to get it back to keep as a comparison. I will pay shipping both ways too.... thanks...

[HBroll]

Well I put my wrapper under the black light expecting the worst but to my surprise it did not light up. I put 2 reprint Exhibit cards on on each side of the wrapper and in the photo you can see both of them light up but the wrapper does not. My wrapper has the damaged "H". I wish I knew about the black light years ago when I bought those fake Exhibits. Here are the photos:

[PhilNap]

Legendary has one for auction. Lot 1754

[glchen]

I've been reviewing this thread. Is this a good summary of the points here?

Definitely determines authenticity
-------------------------------------------
(1) Black light test. Should not light up.


May help determine authenticity
--------------------------------------
(1) Should be wax paper and not regular paper.
(2) Examine the color contrast between the light wax paper and the dark ink images of the graphics
(3) Look at the creases on the white border. If it is real wax paper the crease will actually break the wax and create a white line, but if it is printed on paper and made to look real the crease will just be a paper crease and not change the color of the item.
(4) There should be fold lines where the chocolate would have been inside of wrapper. Link


Does not necessarily determine if the wrapper is real or fake
-------------------------------------------------------
(1) Issues with the "H" in George H. Candy Co. Inc.
(2) The number "7" on the wrapper


The difficult thing about this is that it looks like it is really difficult to determine authenticity until you have the wrapper in hand. And I don't know if you buy a wrapper off ebay and it doesn't light up under black light if that will convince ebay that item is not as described.

In this REA auction (Link), REA states that they believed there are only around 15 genuine wrappers in the world, and that "Authentic examples such as this are actually very easy to distinguish from the fakes, but real ones are so rare that few collectors have ever even had the opportunity to compare." Unfortunately, they don't give that distinguishing characteristic.

[thecatspajamas]

[QUOTE=glchen;994459]I don't know if you buy a wrapper off ebay and it doesn't light up under black light if that will convince ebay that item is not as described.[QUOTE]

Unfortunately (for honest sellers), you don't have to convince eBay of anything to claim that an item is not genuine. I've had plenty of genuine items returned to me over the years in spite of point-by-point explanations to both the buyer and eBay agents as to why the buyer was mistaken/wrong/making things up. They will usually make the buyer return the item to get the refund, but will also force the refund of the original shipping cost. So in a case like this, where the item actually is fake, I suppose that would be a good thing, as I think you would have a hard time locating a genuine article in the mountain of fakes.

More problematic would be trying to get your money back from an auction house that sold a fake, whether intentionally or not. All should have some sort of process in place for filing a claim on something like this, but some are more stand-up than others, and due to the nature of the item, you may have to jump through a few more hoops than the usual "I sent it off to xyz and it came back as 'not authentic'" route.

[PhilNap]

Originally Posted by glchen

Does not necessarily determine if the wrapper is real or fake
-------------------------------------------------------
(1) Issues with the "H" in George H. Candy Co. Inc.

I think the obscured "H" is a huge red flag to stay away. I haven't seen one I believe to be fake that has the "H" intact. And the few that have been sold that appear to be real all have the "H".

If not having the luxury of examining one in hand to feel the paper and do a black light test, for me, the "H", the style of font, and positioning of the lettering are the most telling factors.

[gnaz01]

Originally Posted by PhilNap

I think the obscured "H" is a huge red flag to stay away. I haven't seen one I believe to be fake that has the "H" intact. And the few that have been sold that appear to be real all have the "H".

If not having the luxury of examining one in hand to feel the paper and do a black light test, for me, the "H", the style of font, and positioning of the lettering are the most telling factors.

Phil,

With that understanding, would you say Legendary's is bad then??