Seeking some advice...
 

I'm still very new at this but have been reading up on spotting fakes. Seeking an opinion here... beyond the fact its "listed as a reproduction" from what my newbie eyes can tell the Mathewson was looking good, or a VERY good fake until I looked at the corners....not the usual "rounded corners" shape, like they were cut then not very well roughed up....then I got to looking at his other items, all desirable cards, all with the same strange corners, and the same weird staining pattern on the backs....opinions from you eagle eyed veterans of the hobby very much welcomed

https://www.ebay.com/sch/aalt206/m.h...p2047675.l2562

See all those little brown lines that make the card look old. I have never seen those on a real card. Any time I see those I run away.

+1 There are lots of fakes on eBay with those lines on the back and sometimes the front.

The printing on the back of the T206 Matty is a little bit blurry, it should be sharper. Some of the other cards also have creases where the paper showing in the crease is lighter than it probably should be.

It’s a good fake. The color of the blue is wrong — too brightly hued. You’ve got to see the dot matrix pattern in the blue and Matty’s face before buying that card raw.

This article I wrote last year might help you get a bit more comfortable with raw T206s:

http://www.thatt206life.com/2017/02/...it-t206-cards/

If you look at "Item specifics" in the listings, all four cards aie stated to be reprints. Always read EVERYTHING in a listing.

It is instructive though to compare these aged reprints to authentic cards. I worry that the purchaser will attempt to resell them without listing them as reprints.

As mentioned, they are good reprints-- but with abnormal corners sometimes and those brown lines.

One essential aid in these issues is common sense-- such as the guy is offering an ungraded Joe Jackson rookie card worth, what?, a few thousand dollars? You can often identify reprints and fakes being offered by just reading the title and descriptions and no even having to look at the pictures. If you're buying online a Goudey Ruth or Jackson RC from a guy doesn't even say they're real, that's half your problem. My old saying is "If you go into a Three Stooges movie expecting Orson Welles, that's your fault not the movie's."

If you're buying raw cards such as the ones the guy is offering, I'd make sure the seller is a well known expert or veteran dealer or collector. To start off, they will guarantee the authenticity and you'll know they know what they're talking about.

They are NOT reprints, they are counterfeits.

The guy that bought the 1952 Mantle for $13.49 was shocked it was a fake.

+1

I hate it when that happens LOL - That's Classic

Well, it DID have RP in the title. Which is another pet peeve of mine. Some sellers use it to designate "Reprint", yet it's hard to 'neg' it out of the search (hmmm... maybe -" RP " would help). But in this example there was plenty of room for reprint instead of RP in the title. Bottom line though, the buyer failed on 2 accounts. Expecting to get a real Mantle for under 20 bucks and complaining about a 'reprint' listed as a reprint.

1983 Topps '52 Mantle is a reprint. These are counterfeits and the buyer has a legit gripe.

I consider counterfeits to be reprints. I also think reprints should be significantly different than the original. For example, the Topps official 1952 reprints say reprint with modern date and different size.

As noted earlier, a way to go after unauthorized reprints and counterfeits is copyright/trademark infringement. That would be up to Topps, but eBay could make the simple rule to remove all other than Topps authorized reprints.