Fake Shoeless Joe Sporting News

[Eric72]

I found an M101-5 (1915 Sporting News) listing in another guide. The photos still lack the apostrophe shown in the ebay auction. Perhaps I am missing something?

Please know that I am here to learn and would greatly appreciate input from everyone here.

Best Regards,

Eric

[Runscott]

Simply reading his scamster explanation is enough to know it's a fake:

"This card is stiff from the water damage. That said, I must adhere to EBAY rules and say this could be a novelty/reproduction card"

[Bwstew]

I learned the hard way by buying a fake. The black border should be closer to the picture. I think that's correct any way. What I look for now. BW

[nolemmings]

Eric,

Your guide is outdated and flawed. M101-5s do not exist with Sporting News backs. Moreover, you've already noted the forger's puctuation error, and if you were to look at a real TSN back you would see the obvious differences between it and this garbage--check ebay now. Finally, there is the tell-tell gap between frame and photo edge on the front of the card, and it lacks any semblance or remnants of gloss--probably some sort of laser copy of a reprint.

The real version of this card comes up for auction every so often, and you will see that it is an m101-4 Jackson #87. Review archived auctions from any of the major auction houses and you can see from the scans there how different this fake is from the real deal.

[Buythatcard]

Check out the link to "Detecting Card Alterations And Reprints" which will give some good clues to look out for. The space between the border and pic is usually a good indicator.

BTW, the link is at the top of Net54 page.

[Eric72]

Thanks to everyone for their advice. I appreciate all of the information, especially regarding the guide. I know it is out of date, being from 1993; however, was unaware of it being flawed. Up to this point, I had considered it to be a good resource.

Here are a few photos. One is the front cover of the book. The other two are of pages where I found info on the M101-5 cards. The author apparently believed they were issued with Sporting News backs.







I welcome any additional insight as to how trustworthy (or not) this guide may be. Collecting pre-war material is new to me and I am grateful to everyone for helping to steer me in the right direction.

Again, thank you very much.

Best Regards,

Eric

[SushiX37]

I'm lost. Is Eric the seller? Why is he defending this guy?

I'm also somewhat new to pre war cards, but I'm not new to eBay. That little disclaimer has nothing to do with eBay policy, it's just a way out if he sells the card and it turns out to be fake. Then again, I think we all know that.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Rich

[nolemmings]

ah yes, the Hager book. Not a horrible reference, if you can get past the lousy spelling and grammar. The colored pictures are nice and there is interesting data--the author's reputation and history are also "colorful".

In his defense, some of the info listed here was commonly believed to be true at the time of publication, but has since been corrected. This particular listing is chock full of inaccuracies. First, m101-5 was issued in 1916, not 1915, and as noted before, was not issued by The Sporting News. While the set was used by other companies, Weil Baking and Globe Stores were not among them (those ad backs are on m101-4 only). The set did not include Federal League players- although a couple may be seen wearing Fed Lg. uniforms, all cards are captioned with either National or American League teams.

Still, if you look closely at the TSN back shown in Hager's book, you can see how it differs from that fake on ebay-- note the horizontal lines that set apart the second and fifth lines of text, for example. Again, looking at archived auctions from the popular auction houses should also provide you with information to help you spot these fakes.