Posted By:
Brad Green
Fortunately, I haven't been badly burned by not requesting a scan of the back. On one occasion, a seller had a W517 listed on eBay with a picture of the front of the card. I emailed the seller and asked if the back was clean. He said "Yes." So, I bid on the card and won it. When it showed up in my mailbox, I saw that the bottom 1/4 of the back of the card had paper loss. So, I guess the definition of "clean" varies from dealer to dealer. Now I ask specifically if there are any marks, writing, paper loss, etc on the back of the card.
Seeing a scan of the back of the card can also show you that the card is a fake. I can't always tell by just looking at the front of the card whether it is real or not.