Fake cards

[mm1sub]

I went to an auction last week here in Ohio because there were some really nice cards (in my opinion) that were listed. There was a 1971 Topps Terry Bradshaw, a 1981 Topps Joe Montana, a 1968 Roberto Clemente, a 1969 Topps Mickey Mantle and a Joe Burrow card that said Kaboom on the front among others. The cards were all in holders so it was difficult to tell from the pictures what they really looked like. I was looking at cards before the auction and I told my wife that something does not look right with the Bradshaw. I took the Bradshaw out of the holder and it had a glossy finish on both sides. Another guy was standing next to me and I asked him if he knew a lot about cards. He said he did. I told him that I think some of these cards are fakes. He took the Montana out of the holder and you could see white around the edges on the back. I knew then that a bunch of this stuff was fake. This was the 2nd time in the last couple years that I have been to an auction that has fake cards.

I would just advise everyone to be careful when purchasing cards at these auctions. Or anywhere elsefor that matter. If the deal seems too good to be true it usually is.

I was also wondering if anybody else has run across fake cards recently. I would imagine with the boom in prices in the past couple years that it may be happening more often.

Looking forward to everyone's thoughts.

Thanks,

Bryon

 

[t.rooster]

I really hate that Topps has made reprints of older cards so identical, some with no reprint date, so you have to look at the paper closely and you can't do that if you're not acquiring it in person. Why do they do that?

 

[bblair_2002]

Wasn't cards but about 10 years ago,our former Chief of Police and card shop owner was having an estate auction at his home. His shop ran in the mid-90s,which was around the time that the culprits from Operation Bullpen were doing their thing. He had a ton of signed photos of all the big players of the time and I avoided bidding on those like the plague. He had a few signed things with legit COAs but most of the COAs he had were generic which was an automatic red flag for me.

 

[SymphonicMetal]

Wasn't cards but about 10 years ago,our former Chief of Police and card shop owner was having an estate auction at his home. His shop ran in the mid-90s,which was around the time that the culprits from Operation Bullpen were doing their thing. He had a ton of signed photos of all the big players of the time and I avoided bidding on those like the plague. He had a few signed things with legit COAs but most of the COAs he had were generic which was an automatic red flag for me.

Since we live in the same general region, I'm sure you know about all the fake autos floating around Cooperstown in the 90s and eary 2000s. 20/20 or 48 hours did a 20 minute segment on all the fake autos sometime in the 1990s. They went to Cooperstown with Tony Gwynn and showed him "autographs" by him that were being sold for big money. He looked at them and said all were fakes. I've had several dealer friends that told me of at least three people who were forging autographs in the Cooperstown area and one was a fairly famous MLB player from the 50s and 60s.

Speaking of fake cards I was with my friend who was our local LCS owner when he bought a Rose RC a few weeks ago. It was in a mish-mash of old and new cards and some things told me it is real and a few things told me it was not. I told him to take it out of the screw down before buying but he declined to do so, It looked great in top loaders but so did other cards that ended up being in not so great condition. He ives 3 to 4 hours away so I've never seen it out of the screw down (due to lack of a handy screw driver and time constrains on his part) and I just hope the card is legt for his sake.

I'm leery of stand alone cards that are in the iconis category. For example, I will never buy an ungraded Gretzky or Jordsan RC without it being part of a very large collection with other like cards in it. Buying in large lots certainly gives you some protection from fraud...........and I do emphasize "some". That "Hey, I have a Jordan Rookie for sale!" is not anything I'm bothering with!

 

[SymphonicMetal]

Since we live in the same general region, I'm sure you know about all the fake autos floating around Cooperstown in the 90s and eary 2000s. 20/20 or 48 hours did a 20 minute segment on all the fake autos sometime in the 1990s. They went to Cooperstown with Tony Gwynn and showed him "autographs" by him that were being sold for big money. He looked at them and said all were fakes. I've had several dealer friends that told me of at least three people who were forging autographs in the Cooperstown area and one was a fairly famous MLB player from the 50s and 60s.

Speaking of fake cards I was with my friend who was our local LCS owner when he bought a Rose RC a few weeks ago. It was in a mish-mash of old and new cards and some things told me it is real and a few things told me it was not. I told him to take it out of the screw down before buying but he declined to do so, It looked great in top loaders but so did other cards that ended up being in not so great condition. He lives 3 to 4 hours away so I've never seen it out of the screw down (due to lack of a handy screw driver and time constrains on his part) and I just hope the card is legit for his sake.

I'm leery of stand alone cards that are in the iconic category. For example, I will never buy an ungraded Gretzky or Jordan RC without it being part of a very large collection with other like cards in it. Buying in large lots certainly gives you some protection from fraud...........and I do emphasize "SOME". That "Hey, I have a Jordan Rookie for sale!" is a fraud just waiting to happen!!!

 

[SymphonicMetal]

Sorry I double posted when I was trying to correct spelling errors on my first post. Not sure how to delete an unwanted post.

 

[bblair_2002]

Since we live in the same general region, I'm sure you know about all the fake autos floating around Cooperstown in the 90s and eary 2000s. 20/20 or 48 hours did a 20 minute segment on all the fake autos sometime in the 1990s. They went to Cooperstown with Tony Gwynn and showed him "autographs" by him that were being sold for big money. He looked at them and said all were fakes. I've had several dealer friends that told me of at least three people who were forging autographs in the Cooperstown area and one was a fairly famous MLB player from the 50s and 60s.

Speaking of fake cards I was with my friend who was our local LCS owner when he bought a Rose RC a few weeks ago. It was in a mish-mash of old and new cards and some things told me it is real and a few things told me it was not. I told him to take it out of the screw down before buying but he declined to do so, It looked great in top loaders but so did other cards that ended up being in not so great condition. He ives 3 to 4 hours away so I've never seen it out of the screw down (due to lack of a handy screw driver and time constrains on his part) and I just hope the card is legt for his sake.

I'm leery of stand alone cards that are in the iconis category. For example, I will never buy an ungraded Gretzky or Jordsan RC without it being part of a very large collection with other like cards in it. Buying in large lots certainly gives you some protection from fraud...........and I do emphasize "some". That "Hey, I have a Jordan Rookie for sale!" is not anything I'm bothering with!

Yeah,that was Operation Bullpen and I personally knew of a few Cooperstown dealers from that time who were hawking these fake autographs and making their own COAs,2 of which have passed away. I've never really gotten into autographed memorabilia unless I do it in person.

For your friend's sake,I hope the Rose RC is legit. I also need one for my PC because it has Al Weis on it (a '69 Met) lol. I remember when I first started collecting in the late 80s,it was one of the most counterfeited cards out there. Seems strange that an iconic card like that was in a mish mash of other stuff and not on it's own behind a glass showcase.