Zeenut reprints
 

I've been seeing these Zeenut reprints on eBay lately, by the scans alone they look super convincing. Nothing against this seller, he is upfront that they are reprints, but man, I had previously not seen Zeenut reprints, not like these, anyway. Has anyone seen these in years before, or are these something new?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Jim-Thorpe-...4AAOSwty5bvBqe

Ed,
Not counting the Metropolitan Museum Zeenut reprints from 1968, which are very easy to distinguish from the originals, Zeenuts have been reprinted / counterfeited since around 1971. The quality of the Thorpe Zeenut looks really high in the scan, but I have not seen these 'in hand'. Previous reprints are distinguishable by paper and print quality, and that is usually the case with most reprints. As in other cases , if you don't know the issue, know the dealer

Or buy them slabbed. Ain’t perfect but it does improve your odds of winning a genuine card. Other than from a stellar seller like Mark, who has sold me some of my better PCL pieces, I’d not touch a raw marquee card on Ebay. As for the eBay seller you flagged he has a major counterfeiting operation there. I say counterfeit because he’s ripping off copyrighted Topps and Leaf (Panini) products as well as old cards that may be public domain images from defunct companies. Not just cards but autos and wrappers. Scary good looking scans.

agree with adam

Adam,Unfortunately grading isn't perfect either. A few years back I bought a group of Zeenuts at auction and a few of the slabbed cards were actually counterfeit. I did not catch the problem initially, but once they were popped out they immediately jumped out to me. There wasn't a great deal of money involved in my case but I contacted a source at the grading company to notify them of the error and make them aware of the Zeenut counterfeits from the 70's. These counterfeits are now more than 40 years old and the paper stock has aged which masks some of the details.... Again, I haven't seen these latest counterfeits in hand, so I cannot elaborate on their quality ...or lack thereof...

I didn't say it was perfect, just that it made the odds better.

Wow, Mark - I'd love to hear more about some of those counterfeit Zeenuts that you had acquired slabbed.

Although I'd typically agree with Adam, in relying on TPG for pre-war cards, I have to admit that I've liberated about 80% of the tabbed Zeenuts I've purchased over the years. I just don't see the value proposition of having a card in Good, VG or worse condition in a heavy piece of slabbed plastic. They look so much better in my binders liberated, and I like to think that feeling the cards raw in my hands helps me understand if they're period pieces.

Although I have to suggest that Mark's note has me nervous, as I feel like I've perhaps handled a single Zeenut for every 1,000 Zeenuts that Mark has seen over the years.

Marc

Of course the real tell-tale part of these fakes are they are either too good or too rare to be real. The seller lists everything as a novelty piece or reprint, which is fine and dandy, but I'm sure someone buying the pieces for $15 may not be so upfront about what these are. I've seen the Met. Reprints, and I've seen some scary good t206/Goudey/t210 etc. reprints, but I never saw Zeenut reprints that, at least in the scan, looked this good. Even some of these are pretty obvious (like the Risberg or the Claxton), but some of the others are hard to find fault with, unless you have them in hand. But by then, you've already bought it. I just wanted to point these out as something we need to be aware of. Thanks for the replies, never hurts to share these types of things.