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Posted By: Al Crisafulli

It's pretty easy to spot a 1938 Goudey reprint, as there are generally two kinds:

1) 1938 Goudeys are printed on off-white stock, with uniform coloring on both the inside and outside of the colored border that wraps around the card. The most common reprints I see are WHITE on the outside of the border, and off-white on the inside, as with this example.

2) Another common type of reprint looks right on the front, but the ink on the back of the card is black (it should be green).

There is no doubt in my mind that the 38 Goudey DiMaggio is a reprint.

An Ebay search for 1938 Goudey will usually give you examples of the real thing as well as the reprints, although there are not many 38 Goudeys listed right now.

Not accusing the seller of doing anything untoward; if the card made it into a slab, though, it's clearly a mistake.

There is, of course, the off-chance that the scan has been tweaked to make the borders look whiter, but I would never risk it on a card like this.

-Al