m101 fakes on ebay

[nolemmings]

Lately the quality and number of m101 subjects sold on Ebay as reprints has increased, with many second-level HOFers and even Joe Wood and Black Sox Buck Weaver making the list. More troubling is that the card reverses now include many of the major advertising backs and these are both oriented correctly and show the proper fonts and graphics. They also are “toned”and thus appear similar to many advertising backs that are also associated with toning. There remain some impossible front-back combinations, and for now, the fabricator has marked almost all of these with a noticeable black ink dot(s) on the reverse or front. Still, it doesn’t take much imagination to see where this is going or at least could go. Here is an example of a fake Mack that I bought for $3.50 shipped.
Not bad, at least from the scans. While the photo looks slightly faded or not sharp, most are better. In this case there is no telltale ink spot. However, TSN cards almost never are toned like this (but others are). Still, I assume the stock tone/color can be adjusted, to fix that “tell”. Other signs of these being fakes are just as subtle and subjective. First, they almost always are incredibly well centered, which is somewhat atypical. Also, while within specs, they also all seem to have fairly full borders–m101s routinely have slight variances. When you blow up the scans, you see on some of these that the coloring in the small space between the frame and the photo is either white or lighter than the remaining “tone” of the card–this should not be. Moreover, these otherwise nearmint- looking cards sometimes will show slight wrinkles or flaws from the original photo that can be seen but are not textural. Finally, now that I have one in hand, I note that the dot pattern is different under a loupe, and both the gloss and texture are a little different, as well as the cardstock back coloring/toning, at least to someone familiar with the set. The card thickness is right, though. All and all a cause for some concern, as these may only get more real looking.