Fake or real?

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by swarmee

If the card measures short, then what I'm saying won't work. But if it measured as full, you would know it's counterfeit because there isn't enough border for a 2.5" wide card.

Which card(s) are you referring to? The Mays and the 64 Mantle don't look like they have too little border space to me (in person, maybe the photos above look different). The Mantle is off center, of course, but not suspiciously so. Are you seeing something I'm missing?

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by ASF123

Which card(s) are you referring to? The Mays and the 64 Mantle don't look like they have too little border space to me (in person, maybe the photos above look different). The Mantle is off center, of course, but not suspiciously so. Are you seeing something I'm missing?

Don't overthink it. Simply measure the Mantle card and post it here. If it comes out as 2.5" wide, then it's a fraud (because a real card that is 2.5" wide would have more 'burlap' on the sides than the Mick does). If it's shorter than 2.5" (and possibly trimmed) then the jury is still out, because it can't be conclusively proven whether or not it's real from that fact alone.

Another way (probably?) would be to measure the Mantle card's active area (from the black line on the left across to the black line on the right). Then measure that same distance on other 1968 cards and see if they match (or come extremely close to matching). If they don't, it's bad.

[ASF123]

We all seem to agree that the 68 is fake, so I’m trying to find out if anyone thinks the border width on the other two is wrong? If it’s just the 68 you’re talking about, then yes, that may be another sign. But I’m more concerned about the other two at this point.

[swarmee]

I think you should be able to tell the other ones with a loupe/magnifier in the solid sections (purple on Mays, black bottom section on Mantle). Both look real to me from the scans.

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by swarmee

I think you should be able to tell the other ones with a loupe/magnifier in the solid sections (purple on Mays, black bottom section on Mantle). Both look real to me from the scans.

I just double-checked both of the solid sections - the Mays against a Murakami RC and the Mantle against a 64 Kubek - and they both look 100% legit as far as I can tell. It's strange.

[swarmee]

Why is it strange? That a seller was duped by a fake Mantle and sold all three to you? That seems like it would happen pretty often.

[ASF123]

Yeah, I guess maybe I'm just being too suspicious in thinking that if one is fake, the seller is unscrupulous and the others must be too. It's tough diving back in to the hobby waters after so long, with so many good-intentioned warnings that fakes and trimmed cards are everywhere.