Same cert #, DIFFERENT flips and cards (52 Topps Mantle)

[MattyC]

Beyond barcodes and fonts, important answers lie on the card...

A key detail is the borders. The lower black border is uncharacteristically thick. It also does not form a perfect right angle with the vertical black borderlines. This variation should form much cleaner lower and top left angles than the ebay example. I just examined several specimens of this variation on VCP, and none exhibit a lower horizontal black border like this ebay example.

The stars within the black seem to be a different size than normal-- smaller.

Lastly, this variation tends to have an gently inward sloping black border on the right side-- to the point where one can just see some of the registration of the card "bleeding" out beyond the border line. With this card on ebay, the right border remains straight and perfectly flush.

Circling back to the flip, I don't like the spacing between the lines of text on the right of the flip. The lines are spaced tighter as I recall. The bar code also seems much too close to the red bottom of the flip.

It seems this ebay card is some type of Frankenstein creation that exhibits characteristics of both variations, along with wholly new traits. I'd pass all day.

Here is a comparison to a known legit example.