With the stakes rising, how worried should we be about high quality counterfeit cards

I'll guarantee you I can build artwork that will look exactly like the original. Down to the dot pattern, dot size and off registrations. All one needs from that is vintage card stock that can easily be found and on offset printer still using the old pre press techniques. A few paper companies are also making some vintage style stocks these days due to the demand for more and more vintage looking materials. As for pre-war cards those unique printing processes are also still practiced by smaller companies and individuals albeit not a ton of them. Like I said earlier cost has always been the biggest factor but with prices getting crazy someone might be dumb enough to try it. If money can be counterfeited cards can be. Look at the lengths the government has had to go to prevent that.

[drcy]

It depends on which cards. Allen & Ginters and T206s, for example, simply cannot be exactly duplicated. For some modern card, it may be different.

[bnorth]

Here is a link that gives some insight on counterfeiting. https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=289753

[tkd]

The numbered cards of today aren't such a bad thing for modern. It would be strange to see multiple # 2/5 of the same Jordan on ebay.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by tkd

The numbered cards of today aren't such a bad thing for modern. It would be strange to see multiple # 2/5 of the same Jordan on ebay.

There is a 1/1 where two copies are known.

Fleer kept a file copy that got into the hobby when Fleers files were sold.

I believe both are slabbed, and yes, the confusion was "interesting"

[drcy]

One's probably the equivalent of a proof or prototype.

[Exhibitman]

IMO the bigger threat is someone knocking off the PSA holders and then encapsulating genuine cards, especially modern where the PSA grade blessing means thousands of dollars over minute or imperceptible differences. You can buy a beautiful raw 1996 Fleer Metal Kobe RC for $50-$100. A PSA 10 is a $3,000 card. A raw Ultra LeBron RC is also a $50-$100 raw card; PSA 10 $8,000. I would expect that the counterfeiters, who are likely going to be from China with access to the factories that make the card holders and components are located, will make what they know first. Run a third shift at the plastics factory making PSA holders, spend the $$ duplicating the flip in a high end print shop, get some raw cards and mint money. There are over 4,000 Kobe RCs in the PSA database, including over 900 nines; just take your pick of cert #s and go to work.

[TedWill1939]

Originally Posted by bnorth

Here is a link that gives some insight on counterfeiting. https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=289753

If old masters paintings can fool experts in the art world so can anything else. Create a good fake get it passed a TPG and you probably have a large segment that just relie on the TPG, equals money in hand