Where are the 1000s of Vintage Card Reprints on ebay coming from??

[daveiola]

Hi Everyone,

I've been out of the hobby for 20+years and have a partial set of 53 Topps and 54 Bowman in VG or worse that I would like to get closer to finishing. Strictly raw cards that I keep in a binder and look through it from time to time. I haven't been on ebay in quite a while and what I saw was shocking. Many, many sellers have 100s of cards in their inventory and they are all what look like high quality reprints. All years even into the 1990s. All the big name players but also many semi-stars and high #s. A 1963 Topps #496 Steve Dalkowski reprint?? That was listed by seller jackscollectibles2 in New Jersey. He has 428 listings and everyone is a vintage card reprint. They sell for $2-3 each and he and many other sellers have sold 1000s upon 1000s. Now they are all out there in the public with more being sold everyday. Some sellers plead ignorance and state they found them in an attic and don't know what they are, while others simple describe them as great looking reprints. Some look NM while some are beat up and aged. The feedback I see from customers is mostly very positive. I remember years ago when someone was caught printing Rose rookies, the card community was very upset, people went to jail and cards were stamped forgery. Now there are quality Rose rookies on ebay 24/7.
My questions; whos printing all these reprints-commercial printing facilities in the US? or overseas? How are these small time ebay sellers getting their hands on bulk vintage card reprints? why is nothing being done to stop it? and finally how does this affect the vintage raw card market in the future?
Thanks in advance for your responses.
Dave