Help With Authenticity

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Posted By: davidcycleback

In many to most cases where a card is judged fake by this board, the card in the scan simply looks bad. It is often compounded by other signs (private auction, no guarantee, dubious history, etc).

Sometimes there are technical impossibilites & problems viewable in the image. For example, the seller says the ink washed away because it got wet with water, but lithographic ink does disolve in water ... It used to be that many handmade fakes had obviously clipped corners that were described as "naturally rounded corners," or a 1933 Goudey Ruth (real one on cardboard) that was paper thin and wavey in the image ... Most of these technical problem cards ALSO look like crap AND had a dubious seller/description, so it's usually not a close call for the potential bidder.

Also, it's general knowledge amongst experienced collectors that one should only buy a raw 1951 Bowman Mantle or 1952 Topps Mantle from known reputable dealers. Beyond fakery, there's the issue of trimming and grading accuracy on such an expensive card.

Often times it's not so much an issue of authenticity, but whether or not you should bid. And if a $8,000 min bid raw 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle is being offered by someone with low feedback and you've never heard of him, and you aren't so sure about the story, it's prudent to wait another day and another Mick.

But, as I said, many online fakes simply look like cr*p, and you wonder if the people bidding on them have actually ever seen a real one before.