E121 Cobb and Ruth - Authentic?

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Bliggity

I agree. I have been watching these since they went up, and had concerns as soon as I saw them. The picture quality on the Ruth does look off, and having handled many e121s, I have never seen the type of wear these are showing, especially the corners on the Cobb. E121 cardstock is thin enough that any wear to the corners is almost always going to result in a rounding of the corners, rather than what is seen on the Cobb, which looks like paper pulling with sharp corners still intact. This suggests to me that the Probstein Cobb has a thicker cardstock than it should. They may well be okay, but there are enough red flags to keep me from bidding. Not sure why Rick would not have sent those in.

ETA: I took another quick glance at some other examples, and the picture quality on both of those seems bad compared to real E121s, especially the Ruth. I don't like them at all.

Having a bunch of e121's in hand right now I have to agree the Ruth photo looks very wonky and the Cobb corners look weird for the reasons mentioned above, but what struck me about them is that when my e121 weak corners don't have the discoloration that the Cobb shows. The wear is basically the same color as the unworn portions of the card.