Counterfeit sports cards from Omaha, NE

[MikeGarcia]

I've never ever seen such a pronounced "ghost" on a '57 Mantle as on your bottom example..

..

[Marchillo]

This is really disturbing! I don't pretend to be an expert on identifying counterfeits. I'm doing my best to learn and read things on here. But one thing I will say is at times depending on the card I do pay a bit of a premium to get a graded version to increase the chances that its legit. I didn't realize there are lots of counterfeits in slabs. I totally get the second hand autograph authentication can be a bit of a crapshoot but I thought the card market was pretty tight.

[MrSeven]

The buying feedback on all of those eBay accounts mentioned is full of reprints.

What does that tell you? Slabs all look bad.

[Leon]

This seems like an important topic so was moved to the front page for more eyes to view it. Fraud is always a black eye for the hobby.

[bbcemporium]

Not an exhaustive resource by any means, but here is an article I wrote several years ago on this issue. I made some updates last year. Here is a link to the article.

http://bbcemporium.com/california-craigs-list-psa-scam/

[bbcemporium]

Here is a side by side comparison of the good and bad card

[bbcemporium]

Here is a side by side of the Mantle