The ole....now that it's over....St. Paul Colored Gophers postcard

[Leon]

I was watching this postcard. With all of the talk around Negro League cards and postcards....and other things related to black ballplayers in the early history of the game, does anyone know if anyone famous was in this one? It apparently got shut down early.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-RPPC...p2047675.l2557





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[ullmandds]

that's really cool!

[Jaybird]

Fake.

[tnfoto]

It's the 1909 St. Paul Gophers. I have a larger, clearer version of this image but haven't started ID-ing it yet. If anyone else wants to give it a shot send me a PM and I'll forward the higher-res version to you.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Jaybird

Fake.

Except a few pics of corners were squared, and some less than perfect registration in spots, how did you know? Just curious....and nice nab too.

[D. Bergin]

Well, the San Diego, California publisher on the back seems like a giveaway. Also the back looks like it's from a "Printed" postcard and not a Real Photo Postcard. Doesn't make much sense for a Minnesota team from that period to be published by a San Diego publisher during that time period.

I'm assuming a modern repro was glued on the front of another postcard.

[Jaybird]

I am a little wary of disclosing the tell tale signs. The people that are making them take the tips and make them better. There have been a few fakes lately on eBay labeled as such but these were labeled as original and I'm sure some people would have been fooled and would have been burnt by them. I contacted eBay to take them down. The seller also may not have known and responded as such. He agreed to take them down.

[Jaybird]

Dave basically told the story. I think in hand these would be easily spotted. But in scans it is difficult. The backs are very important to a postcard collector even when there is no writing on them.

Also, airmail wasn't even in use until 1918.

[D. Bergin]

Leon, based on Jaybirds response, feel free to delete my post if you feel it necessary.

I guess it's a two edged sword, do you let others know how to tell the fakes on a public forum, or are you letting the people doing them know how to spruce up their work better?

I don't really have the answer, I guess.

[mannybb24]

Thanks for the info guys, I too was watching the PC and when I saw it end early, my first thought was that the seller took an offer off EBay.
I'm no expert on postcards so i'm glad no one got burned on this one.

By the way, a few years ago Heritage had the "real" one of these and it sold for around 1600.

[Leon]

Tough call guys...at the end of the day I think I fall on the side, of mostly, putting info out. Not all info, but most. It probably needs to be decided case by case. I do think that with this card in hand it might be much more obvious. I know I am rarely unable to tell a fake in person, but for many of us, most of our buying is over the net.

[Hankphenom]

This is a copy of the one sold in Heritage. And here's another copy on eBay recently:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Real-Photo-P...vip=true&rt=nc

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

This is a copy of the one sold in Heritage. And here's another copy on eBay recently:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Real-Photo-P...vip=true&rt=nc

Wonderful! I see from this guys completed auctions, they are making fake tintypes now. I wasn't aware of this until just now.

[bcbgcbrcb]

This is pretty scary stuff, Negro League photos and panoramas have been faked for a while now but it looks like the defrauders are moving to postcards now. How long before it moves on to Punch & Cabanas cards, etc.?