Tell Tale Signs of Reproductions

[bswhiten]

I almost dropped a couple grand on this fake bazooka box 6 months ago or so...

[Sean]

With the T206 set, you can see under 10x magnification the dot matrix that was used by printers 100 years ago. Current print techniques produce a solid color rather than dots.

Also, one more give away one fakes is the artificial wear around the corners. On fakes the corners usually have similar rounding on all four corners, whereas on real cards the corner wear is uneven. Also if you look close at the real cards, the corners will usually show some fraying, whereas fake cards usually have corners that are round but smooth, as if they were sanded down rather than worn down over time.

[thescooper]

And REPRODUCTION printed on the back

[Huck]

Originally Posted by bswhiten

I almost dropped a couple grand on this fake bazooka box 6 months ago or so...

Wow, a fake Bazooka box. What was the tip off that the box was fake?

[drcy]

1) The language/rhetoric the seller uses. A good seller of a real card (and according to eBay's own rules) says in no nonsense terms what he is selling and that it is genuine. Sellers of counterfeits won't do that but will say stuff like "it looks real to me, but according to eBay rules I have to sell as unuathenticated reprint" (there is no such ebay rule), "I'm no expert, but it looks real to me. You be the judge," etc. Most sellers of fakes use a lot of words and serpentine, ambiguous and double sentences, but don't actually ever tell you that they are selling you a real card.

2) Compare to real cards from the issue. There will always be big differences: Article on the subject

3) Learn what genuine corner and edge wear looks like.

4) Ask collectors what the front/back gloss/texture to the card is. Gloss is hard to reproduce, and the backs and fronts of the real cards often have different glosses/textures. For example, the fronts of the T206s are smooth with a slight gloss, while the backs are fibery and have no gloss.

5) For Pre-WWII cards, get a black light, as blacklight can identify many Post-WWII cardstock. Article on blacklight:

[bswhiten]

Originally Posted by biohazard

Wow, a fake Bazooka box. What was the tip off that the box was fake?

I looked at my other bazooka's and noticed that all of them from that time period were on brown cardboard...not white. You can tell something is off with the printing/coloring at tabs, etc. I couldn't believe someone went through that much trouble.

[irv]

Originally Posted by bswhiten

I looked at my other bazooka's and noticed that all bazookas of that time period were on brown cardboard...not white. You can tell something is off with the printing/coloring at tabs, etc. I couldn't believe someone went through that much trouble.

I have no idea how hard it would be to make something like that, but that's exactly what I was thinking.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by bswhiten

I almost dropped a couple grand on this fake bazooka box 6 months ago or so...

Never would have thought about a whole fake box, crazy.

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