Posted By:
Scott LevyI agree with Leon. However, there are some tell tale signs of many of the common fakes....here are a few:
1) The name of the player and team should be brown ink. Many fakes simply print the name/team in black and this is an easy way to tell a reprint immediately.
2) The paper has a certain look/feel to it. Thicker or glossier issues are almost certainly fake.
3) There are known back variations and ones that do not meet these known variations are 99.99% likely to be fake. For example, the Old Mill back never has "Old Mill" printed in red (but several fakes do). Piedmont always has a factory number (some fakes don't). Also some cards aren't found with certain backs....Demmitt and O'Hara St. Louis are only printed with Polar Bear for instance.
4) In addition to looking for fakes, you should keep your eye our for trimmed cards. These are much harder to detect in scans, but in person the edges will look a certain way...showing the natural 'roll' of the paper from a machine cut.
My best recommendation is to purchase 5-10 low grade raw cards from someone on the board (or a local card dealer you trust). For %50-$100 you can start to learn first hand how they feel, look and sometimes even smell.
Regards,
Scott