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runscottif you had the ability yourself to tell if a card was fake. I quit collecting '34 Goudeys because I never trusted anything I got in the mail. Now I'm more confident and might start collecting them again. It is really no fun whatsoever to get an item and have doubts as to its authenticity - I have had cards that I wasn't sure were real, so I sent them to a grading company and they were slabbed...I'm still not sure.
But I don't understand your buying an Anson, just because you had the money. If I became wealthy right now, I would definitely want a Mantle rookie. But I wouldn't buy one, the reason being that I have never collected '50s cards and wouldn't have a clue if it was legit or had been trimmed. Actually, I have enough contacts that I could buy a legitimate one easy enough, but if I was a newbie - no way. I'd buy some commons first - cheap, beat-up ones that a seller would have had no incentive to alter or fake. Then I'd buy some nicer condition ones, similar to what I was looking for in a Mantle. I'd loupe the hell out of them, then I'd ask some questions of other collectors, like: "Is this card commonly reprinted?" "Does this issue vary much in size?", etc.