Magnification Recommendations?
 

I've been using a black light and naked-eye comparisons to authenticate pre-war cards, but decided that it's time to get some magnification. Cycleback suggests something with 100x. How much do you need to pick out the distinctive ridges around lots of early printing? How much magnification do you need to distinguish modern color half-tone lithography from the kind that you'd find on T206s?

And, more to the point, any recommendations on what model/brand loupe or microscope to get?

Just get a peak
 

Buy a peak. You don't need more than a 10 unless you are buying Doyle and Magie errors than you may want a little stronger. Peak has the lines to measure centering and is used by both Psa and sgc graders at times.

EBay link please sir

I use 60x which has a bright light attached. Its small enough to carry in your pocket and when the magnifier slides out of the housing the light comes on. At 60x you can pretty much see all that you would need to in my opinion. I bought it on Ebay for less than $15 a few years ago. It's worth every penny.

I usually bring a magnifying glass of some type but don't really use it all that often. I have 3 different kinds in my arsenal :).

Peak
 

I purchased mine from levi Bleam at 707 sportscards you can call them and ask if he still sells them.

For serious authentication purposes, especially if you collect oddball items and ephemera (posters, booklets, signs, trade cards, prints etc), a microscope is important. I think I wrote 100X, but 60X likely is good too. You can buy inexpensive handheld ones with light one eBay and amazon for cheap. I'm not endorsing the seller, but the below link is to an example one. It's lightweight and portable, you can carry it with you wherever you go.

https://www.amazon.com/Carson-60X-10...ble+microscope

The below link is to a digital one that plugs into your laptop. It isn't portable (unless you count taking your laptop with you as portable), but you can see the microscopic images on your computer screen and take microscopic photos. I've had collectors take microscopic photos and send them to me via email which makes it easy on my for giving authenticity opinions. Plus it's pretty cool and fun to take microscopic images. If you have kids, it's great for them too.

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Micr...ble+microscope

But for normal collecting purposes that cheapo in the first link is fine and dandy.

If you get into old photography, such microscopes are great for authenticating 1800s photos.

You can't go wrong with a few different ones especially if they're inexpensive. I have a fairly nice 10X but it's small, so it doesn't always work well with my old eyes. I also have a cheap 40X that was $7 at an antique store. Larger optics, so I use it more. It has a light which failed after about a month, and the kids have been rather unkind to it.
I also have one of the USB microscopes, which can get to pretty decent magnification I think 450 or so, maybe more.
I also sometimes use the scanner and scan at 1200DPI, not a portable solution, but the best viewing of the entire card.

I also have access to an electron microscope. Unfortunately, it only accepts stuff up to about 3/8 inch diameter. But it will go to around 27000X :)

Oddly, I don't usually take a magnifier or anything to shows when I go. Years of looking at real stuff makes the stuff that looks "wrong" really stand out.

Steve B