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Posted By: billybaseball

Also as a relatively new attendee of this forum, I have to say that its sad that a good portion of what seems to be written about is related to fraudulent cards. Real vs authentic cards? Doctored? Reprint? Is this grading service reliable? etc.

I am in no way putting down this group nor anyone in it. I am glad this group exists, and I think that this group is extremely helpful and generous with its willingness to review items in question, and to share their amazing collection of knowledge. What I am trying to say is that I can only imagine how much more interesting this board (and hobby) would be if that area of the hobby was not so prevalent.

And what about those folks who are not internet savy or just do not know of this board? They may be blissfully creating a collection unaware of the fact that they are being ripped off. Maybe "ignorance is bliss"? I have what I think is a 1922 V61 Neilson's Chocolate Charles Robertson card that I bought at a card show many years ago. It didn't even cross my mind that it may be a fake and I was happy about getting it as I pursued my cards of pitchers that have pitched perfect games. Now I have doubts about its authenticity. For all I know, it could be so obvious to an experienced collector, but that doesn't help me (or others). So not only am I gun shy about buying over the internet, but the fun of going to a card show has been tarnished. I don't know the people of the hobby such that I could understand who to stay away from or even who to ask while at the show.

As per a suggestion, I've been reading Lew Lipset's "Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards". While it is loaded with information about vintage card issues, I don't feel any more comfortable that I can tell a legit verses a fake card. I had hoped to pursue T202 Triple Folder cards. But even with some information that I've found on the internet about reprints, I still am not able to see what many board memebers can see when they identify a fraudulent card.

OK...so I should stick to graded cards. Well, that's sad in my mind but perhaps its the reality. However, then I read the article that was referenced in this thread (http://www.t206museum.com/page/periodical_5.html) that Al Rosen, the well-known collector, and a well known grading service were fooled. You can imagine how that increases my feelings of "what chance does a rookie like me have?".

Many of you have been pursuing this hobby (business?) for many years. Would it be fair to say that many of you learned about the legitmacy of cards because for so many years there were not really any fakes to deal with? Without any real need to "study" what makes something real, you just acquired the knowledge from having been surrounded by real cards. When the fakes started appearing (at least to the extent they do now), you had already been seeing and touching legit cards for so long, you just knew there was something wrong.

It seems like the creation of reprints without any obvious "reprint" markings is a huge can of worms. But they exist, and from what I've been reading here, they are often of amazing quality. Ideally, the companies that make the reprints would take it upon themselves to address this problem, but I don't know how likely that is.

With so much money being involved as the prices of the cards increase, there's so much incentive for the scum of the earth to show their ugliness. I guess all that can be done is to try and pass on the knowledge to others. I welcome hearing other's ideas or opinions.

BillyB