t206 spotting fakes ... any tips?

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Posted By: quasirob

I would guess that this subject has come up many times in a forum such as this, but I just registered today and after searching through the first 5 or 6 pages I figured I'd just ask. After a long break from card collecting (since the early 90's), I registered with ebay in May of last year and have been faithfully checking out the 'pre 1930's singles' and '1930's singles' daily for at least the last 5 months. I have bought a fair amount of t206 and 33 goudey cards (11 and 10, respectively), but given all the hype about t206 forgeries have gotten a little concerned that some of my cards may be fakes.

The 10 I own all measure up to one another (so far I've bought 2 'trimmed' cards but returned them), which I expect is common even among forgeries. I had read somewhere that checking the registration is a common means of spotting fakes .. in particular, that it is brown lettering, all caps on name, cap then small letters on team location. Question: is it fairly light brown lettering on ALL authentics? does anyone else have trouble differentiating darker brown shades from black (almost went cross-eyed last night scrutinizing the letters under a bare lightbulb)? One of my cards appears authentic in every way except that the lettering color is either REALLY dark brown or grey/black.

Are there other tips anyone can provide about trying to authenticate your own T206 cards? PSA is great I'm sure, but last time I checked it's somewhat expensive .. plus I kind of like having cards that aren't slabbed for eternity under a thick coat of plastic. Any help or tips that fellow users could provide me with would be appreciated. I love collecting the ungraded cards (for the better deals, and the reason described above), but I'm shooting for all VG-EX or better and these days even the commons in this condition are in the $20-30 range so I'd hate to be collecting fakes. Thanks, all.

Rob