Help with '28 Ruth Candy...

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Posted By: cmoking

Yours looks like this "low-quality" one that I have:




but not as clear as this "high-quality" one:




From talking to others, my current opinions are:

I believe the "high quality one" is definitely real. FWIW, both REA and Sloate had these cards in SGC holders in their auctions. I have also been told by a prominent collector (I'm not sure if he wants to be named) that one of his elder relatives actually collected these cards as a kid, and it looks like the high quality ones.

I believe the "low quality one" may be real or may be fake. I know some knowledgable guys have told me they think it is probably real, but they are not sure. Other guys have told me they suspect they are fake, but they are not sure either.

If the low quality one is fake, one thing I am pretty sure of is that it is not a direct copy from the high quality one. The print is too different. Notice the "The" under "4" - they aren't in the same spot. That doesn't mean its real, it could still be a fake or reprint years after the fact. I'm just saying if it is fake, it isn't a copy from the "high quality one".

One theory that I think has a chance of being true (or maybe I am just hoping it is true since I own both low and high quality ones) is that these cards were printed in the two different ways (maybe Leon was the guy that mentioned that theory to me, I forget who it was, apologies)...and distributed in different ways and/or different places. Here is the back of the high quality one:



This back shows "Cleveland". I've heard some people mention they have seen backs that show "San Francisco", I can't remember if I've seen them, if I did. Possibly they decided to stop the promotion and thus issued the low quality one without the back. Or they went cheap and just issued them on different stock, lower image. Or they are fakes. Also, notice that SGC has graded a few #1s through #5s, but no #6s. Maybe the company didn't issue many #6s so that few could get the complete set for a redemption. Or maybe the ones that existed were redeemed and then destroyed or thrown out once they were sent in. This also leads to another thing about the low-quality ones - maybe the #6 card for the low-quality one isn't tough to find (compared to the other cards) because there was no redemption issue. Just a thought.

I also know I've seen other lower-quality cards that are even lower-quality than the low-quality ones. Possibly (again, maybe I am only clinging on to this possibility) the "even-lower-quality" ones are fakes off of the low-quality ones.

PSA won't grade these anymore, either of the low or the high quality ones. For whatever reason, they are not comfortable they can identify fakes from real ones. They even killed the registry for this particular set.

I am not sure, but I do think SGC won't grade the low quality ones. I hope you have luck with it, if they grade yours, that wouldn't bode well for mine.