Fake or real?

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

If you've collected for a long time and handled lots of vintage cards, you just know.

Well that doesn't help me much .

[stlcardsfan]

That’s true Andrew. Experience is the best defense. And even there it is hard to detect in an electronic image.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by ASF123

Well that doesn't help me much .

If you want to take a crash course on identifying fakes from a particular issue, pick up a handful of commons from that set. For example, if you're hunting down a '65 Mantle, buy a small mixed lot of 1965 Topps cards. Make sure a couple of them are Yankees, so you become familiar with the way Topps printed that logo and team name.

After you get the cards, spend some time with them. Handle them raw and thoroughly check them out. You'll pick up on things a camera/photo cannot properly capture - qualities such as texture, fine print details, and the way light reflects off the surface.

You're also likely to begin developing an "eye" for spotting photos of fakes.

The best thing about this approach: the cheap common was printed using the same materials/equipment as the expensive HOFer. The experience and knowledge gained with the dollar cards will translate well when you go to make more expensive purchases.

[swarmee]

And, from what I hear, the smell. Vintage cards have a certain aroma that is also very hard to fake. Always give a look at Etsy or eBay to see what the available fakes look like, before making an expensive purchase. And definitely inspect cards you bought online when you get them, while the return window is still open.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by swarmee

And, from what I hear, the smell. Vintage cards have a certain aroma that is also very hard to fake. Always give a look at Etsy or eBay to see what the available fakes look like, before making an expensive purchase. And definitely inspect cards you bought online when you get them, while the return window is still open.

The opposite is also true, and often helpful. With more recently printed cards, there can be a "chemical" smell. This is difficult to describe; however, it is easy to recognize.

So, everyone should make sure their cards "pass the smell test" - literally.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by ASF123

Well that doesn't help me much .

Sorry, I wasn't trying to be condescending or anything with that response. I just think it's true. If you've handled a considerable amount of vintage cards, that's way better preparation to spot fakes and reprints in person than spending 10x that amount of time looking at real vintage cards online. There is a certain texture to them, and even a certain smell. 1950's cards are different from prewar cards, and 1970's cards are different from 1950's cards. In many cases with fakes, the gloss and color on the surface of the cards can be way off, and if you've spent a lot of time flipping through stacks of mid or lower grade commons from the era in question, you are going to notice that kid of thing in a couple of seconds. Another thing that's much easier to see in person with older cards is the halftone dots that make up the pictures, from the printing process of the day. If you compare that in many cases to reprints or modern cards, you will see that they don't have this.

These kinds of things are what I mean. Of course it's more difficult now, when I grew up collecting you could walk into any one of about 3 or 4 cards shops locally and handle vintage cards. These days you would probably have to start by buying some of them online.

Since we are talking about the '65 Mantle - some things I would look for with fakes there is the white borders being too white, the card overall being too glossy, and that magenta / pink inner border at the bottom. Legit copies of this card can have some variation with how bright this pink is, but based on how it was printed - a fake or reprint is almost always going to get that slightly wrong. As mentioned already, get some common '65 Yankees and see how this border looks. Once you've seen a few, a fake one is going to stick out like a sore thumb. To me another dead giveaway with this card is some combination of what I just mentioned with dead nuts perfect centering. You just don't see it that often. The real card was frequently cut to be off-center, often times with some degree of tilt to the picture. Perfectly centered copies exist, sure, but if you have a random otherwise midgrade card that someone is selling on Craig's List or eBay, the odds of it being perfectly centered are kinda low. Most fakers get this wrong, since modern cards are generally much better consistently centered than their vintage predecessors.

[ASF123]

Thanks much for the advice, everyone - it sounds like I was on the right track as far as comparing it to known commons, etc.

So, further update...get this: I was going through my HOF box just now to rearrange it alphabetically by player rather than by year, and I found another 65T Mays in about the same shape that I had completely forgotten I bought about a month ago. (This is what happens when you get a little overly enthusiastic about buying cards after a long layoff.)

Comparing the two directly, I'm now completely convinced that this one is legit. Either that, or they're both examples of the same incredibly good fake. I don't see any or feel any differences at all, even under the loupe.