Blue front 1958 Hank Aaron

[doug.goodman]

Adam -

I hadn't seen your post before we had lunch today, it was good to see you.

The blue Aaron that started this thread was once owned by me, I have held all of the variations in my hands at the same time and I believe it to be "real", not faded.

I agree that it seems that there should be other cards with similar issues, I occasionally run searches on those cards, but have never seen any of them.

I believe that other potential blue back cards should be - Burdette, Mantilla, Rice, Ernie Johnson, Tanner, Logan and Torre.

Doug

[glynparson]

But I have seen two in my life before they were considered a better card then the regular Aaron. Back in the late 1980s there was one every week at the leesport flea market. Priced at about 75% of Beckett which at the time was laughably high because people considered this a major defect. I saw another in a collection sometime in the mid1990s. Mostly mid to higher grade cards, lititz pa, man had multiples up to 20 of every topps card 1955 -1962. Bought some of collection, never could get ahold if him for the rest. I am not saying you can not create them but I am highly confident it is a legit card in some cases.

[ALR-bishop]

There is one of these in the current Heritage Auction , lot 80707, a BVG 6.5, MB $200

[bnorth]

After a little "testing" in my home lab I would say that at least 99.9% of the blue 1958 Aaron cards are fake. I would say all of them, but there is a slim chance 1 or 2 might be real. If it was just not the Aaron that shows up blue in this set I would give it a little more chance of being real. Since there are no other blue cards showing up I stick with most are fake/altered.

Not wanting to chance hurting a 58 Aaron card I picked card #451 Joe Taylor as my test subject from the 58 Topps set. I know it has a different shade of green background, but in science green is green.

Here are the before after pictures and before anyone asks no I will not tell you how it is done.

[glynparson]

Statement that there are probably real ones out there as I had seen the Aaron back when this would have been seen as a negative and not a positive, also cards don't look quite the same to me as an Aaron.

[sflayank]

of course the blue aarons are counterfeit...amazing to me it took this long for someone to say it

[ALR-bishop]

Originally Posted by sflayank

of course the blue aarons are counterfeit...amazing to me it took this long for someone to say it

Not sure about the rest Larry but I was waiting for your opinion before deciding which way to go

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by sflayank

of course the blue aarons are counterfeit...amazing to me it took this long for someone to say it

I have been saying it since post 8 in this thread. I just have proof now that they can be made.

Steve there is no chemical residue on the card and it reacts the same as any normal card from the 1958 Topps set under UV light.

Not all missing color cards are suspect. Some year/brand of cards are easy to remove colors and some are not.

This card is one of the few cards I 100% stand behind as leaving the factory missing the yellow ink. I have found a few other cards from this set also missing the yellow.

[steve B]

I'd say that's proof that some are fake. Thanks for doing the experiment.

I also understand not telling how. For what it's worth you might share that with the big three grading companies. fwiw I'd be very interested in knowing, from a technical standpoint. I was the sort of person to fake stuff I'd have done it long ago. Having the technical knowledge includes the responsibility of not using it the wrong way.

Did the process leave any clues behind? It looks like the cards logo didn't have the yellow entirely removed. But I'm wondering if whatever was done left chemical residue, or changed how the card reacts to UV. If there's a way to tell an actual missing color card from an altered one that would be the best outcome.

Without that, I'd have to say that any Topps card with missing yellow should be suspected of being altered.
Besides the cards that would be obvious like green backgrounds, there should be commons with less obvious missing yellow if it's actually missing. (And of course, they'd be just as easy to fake)

Steve B

Originally Posted by bnorth

After a little "testing" in my home lab I would say that at least 99.9% of the blue 1958 Aaron cards are fake. I would say all of them, but there is a slim chance 1 or 2 might be real. If it was just not the Aaron that shows up blue in this set I would give it a little more chance of being real. Since there are no other blue cards showing up I stick with most are fake/altered.

Not wanting to chance hurting a 58 Aaron card I picked card #451 Joe Taylor as my test subject from the 58 Topps set. I know it has a different shade of green background, but in science green is green.

Here are the before after pictures and before anyone asks no I will not tell you how it is done.