Seeking thoughts and opinions.

[ALR-bishop]

I do not know about pre war, but the Standard Catalog ( 2011), lists at least two groups of fakes...as fakes. At page 397 it lists "1950s-60s Topps Promotional Samples". These look like small versions of the Topps regular issues but the backs have only a stamp which reads "Promotional Sample, The Topps Co, Brooklyn NY". The cards are 1 1/4 by 1 3/4 and involve someone cutting the pictures out of the Topps Surf books and pastng them on some cardboard

Then on page 1308 it lists "'Pewter' Gallery Ingots, which it says are counterfeits of the Topps Gallery of Immortals and Gallery of Champions, which were replicas of Topps cards for different years ( 1984-91) done in aluminum, bronze or silver. Topps did do one pewter card for each year for one player, but counterfeits of others surfaced on ebay.

Once they were in the catalog, I had to have a couple of examples of each which I easily found on ebay. The Catalog says they have no collectible value, but in my mind, being in the catalog gave them some minor value to me, even though the purpose of the listing is to warn folks they are not genuine.

The 89 Fleer Ripken obscenity card has several variations ( white out, black boxes, black scribble, cut outs, ect.) but has just as many fakes of each, which have become collectibles in and of themselves of sorts

[Roofman4]

I agree 'stache, I am not in the hobby to collect fakes either. I have seen the phrase "stewards of the hobby" in these board a few times. I don't want anything but the "real" thing in the hobby. I want to do the right thing all the time. If that means acquiring a fake/counterfeit card (cheaply) along the way to educate a young card collector, I will. My daughter and son are to the age of learning to and interested in collecting, it is nice to have both real and fakes to show them first hand. It is also nice to have them to show the stubborn novice collector (which I know a few) that the card they swear is real is actually worthless.

I thank all the different views on this issue, keep'm coming!

[steve B]

As Don said, some coin collectors will keep examples of fakes for reference. I have a couple, and they're interesting. Fakes done in the period can be collectable.

It's the same with stamps. Some collectors and I believe all of the expertising organizations have some as a reference collection. Many of the most dangerous fakes can be traced to the original forger, and in a few instances a philatelic organization has exposed the forger but purchased their entire stock and forging equipment. In the case of the most skilled forgers at least one had the remaining forgeries put into books and sold. And some of the forgeries are worth more than the originals.

Sperati was among the most amazing technically. And some of his sell for a very good price.

http://www.glenstephens.com/sperati.html

And a page with a few more of the better ones in a specific specialty.
http://www.jlkstamps.com/fakes/fakecsa.htm


There are a few baseball card fakes I'd consider collectible. The rose rookie fakes are available and I'd like to get one someday. Even one of he ones marked as fake. Plus most any that were produced in a small time period in the early 90's. Those all required a bit of technical ability since they were printed on a press just like the actual cards. The newer generation of stuff printed on a printer from a scan aren't all that interesting. I do have one, and while it was a maybe in a blurry Ebay scan it's obviously fake seen up close.
I also have a fake E121 I got in 1978. Strange card, fake, trimmed, and a ton of work for the $2 it cost me.

Reprints are a different thing. I suppose I'd go for a few of them, I wouldn't mind a T201 set that I could fold and play with, reprints would be perfect. Maybe a reprint of one of the game sets, so I could play it. Other than that I enjoy a single low grade original more than a fistful of reprints.

Steve B

[ALR-bishop]

I keep one of those counterfeit 1959 Fleer " Ted Signs" in my set next to the real thing for reference. I remember when they were making the rounds like the Rose card. I think Larry S told me he ran into what he felt was a pretty good bogus 1951 Topps Stankey Current all Star at a show not long back. I wish I could get a decent reprint of the Stankey, Roberts and Konstanty to put with my set of the 8 issued cards.

[EvilKing00]

This is a reason why i do like graded cards, not for the grade but to ( hopefully) prove its a real card. I have learned alot about the t205 set, and can easily spot a fake. But in my other travles im not so sure. So a sgc slab gives me faith that the card is real