Mantle reprints-the bane of card collecting
 

People are still and maybe always be, willing to pluck down good money for raw 1952 Mickey Mantle cards. They are like the old prospectors who when a mine has petered out still dig through hoping to find something everyone else missed.
I like raw cards, I come from the 50's where no one ever thought they'd have to have a card graded to prove it's originality.
Reprints are evil in my opinion. They have caused many a man to have his hopes dashed when he found the card he hoped was real to be fake.
I wish reprints had to say reprint so everyone would know what they were buying. I have not ventured into the fray nor do I intend to. The grading companies are making good money whether the card is real or not.....another over priced service.

Knowledge is the power to avoid becoming victim of a "reprint" card such as this.

Instead of calling these unauthorized cards "reprints", "counterfeit" is a more applicable term to apply to these cards.

Yeah, but most '52 Mantle reprints that I've ever seen are pretty bad ones. It's not fair and is potentially confusing sure, but I still believe that any collector worth their salt and who's been doing this for more than 5 minutes is foremost responsible themselves for not buying a reprint, and especially if it's one of the 2 or 3 most well known and expensive baseball cards in the entire hobby. If I had the money to buy even a really poor condition '52 #311 - you can bet that it would be graded and certified.

You say that grading companies make money "whether the card is real or not." Not sure I understand. Reputable grading companies (there are currently 3) are not known for slabbing and certifying reprints en masse. If they are, I missed that story.

Reprints in the hobby (including those which do not label themselves as such) are nothing new. They go back to at least the early 1970's if not earlier. I guess I just don't see what the huge deal is.

I had reprints of all the Bowman sets 48 to 55 until I decided to just do those sets. They were from Fritsch and all clearly labeled reprint. I am doing only one pre war set, 1923 Fleer, but have a T 206 reprint set from Fritsch. Clearly marked as reprint

I am keeping very good care of those 48-54 Bowman reprint sets Al.:) Never seen a 55 Bowman reprint set before.

I have easily 20 reprint sets and love them. I get to see a similar card to the original that I would never buy and probably couldn't afford.

Like savedfrommyspokes stated there is a BIG difference between real reprint sets and the counterfeit crap.

****TRIGGER ALERT: I haven't contacted the seller and I'm not casting aspersions if the card is in fact legitimate.****

Upon hearing about today's 15% off coupon code, I started scouring ebay for cards and this 1961 high number Mantle hit me square in the face. The offer was expiring within minutes, so there was no time to contact the seller (who has 100% feedback, BTW) and ask any questions. It just looks way off to me, with those unbelievably pure white (and completely unblemished and, therefore, unnatural) borders, the perfect corners, the overly pink/red skin tones and what not, all inside what looks to be an extremely old flip. Doesn't this card look like it came from the 1996 Topps insert set? Is this sucker legit? Am I wrong and just falling for a photoshop job reminiscent of Battlefield's work?? (I did check PSA's website, and the cert. number is/was real.) And, no, I didn't pull the trigger.

(Link to auction edited out.)

Attachment 322717

Here's a screenshot of a clearly legitimate one from ebay for comparison...

Attachment 322720

Edited to add: I guess I answered my own questions. Here's the above card after only about 3 seconds of photoshop work. Yowza...

Attachment 322722

So, I guess nevermind.

Yeah crappy cards can be made to look brilliant with a little photo editing work, and perfectly fine high grade cards can look like crap in a scan when people either don't know what they are doing or are careless. If the seller is reputable, and I don't have serious questions about the authenticity or integrity of the slab, I will usually ignore what I perceive as minor scan issues with color or tone. Never been burned by anything like that.