Fro Joy Babe Ruth Cards

[Leon]

Very recently (read in the last month or two) I have been the lucky collector to get involved with a few scenarios on quite a few different Fro Joys and their close cousins, the 1928 Babe Ruth Candy cards. While my good friend FKW (hey Frank) says he feels the fakes are easy to spot, I will politely disagree a bit. I have had 3-4 of these types of cards in my collection for years. A month or so ago a good friend, and very large ebay seller, asked me to take a look at some Babe Ruth Candy cards for him as one of the grading companies thought they weren't good and he had just bought them from a major auction. When I got them I thought they were a little suspicious feeling, not looking. I took them with me to have them looked at by my good friends at BVG and they agreed with the other grading company, not good. Now, they couldn't say 100% but they did say that they were not comfortable enough with them to slab them. At the same time 2 of my 3 cards that were looked at, that had been in my collection for many years, were deemed not good also. The Fro Joys and 1928 Babe Ruth Candy cards are extremely difficult to tell fakes from real ones, on many occasions. There are all sorts of levels of "correctness" to them. Some look really bad *(even colored, which no real ones are) and some are really good looking fakes. These 2 series really should be dealt with extremely carefully by anyone in the hobby, experienced or novice. If I have some time I will do some scans later and do a show and tell...One thing to point out...when all else fails in the id'ing of these, the paper quality is usually the deciding factor. However, that being said, I now believe there is a possibility that each series was printed, from date of origin, on different types of paper. In thinking a bit more, I would probably advise against very new hobbyists collecting them unless they are pedigreed somehow. Buying either series raw would be a set up for a let down ......just my 3 cents on the subject.

[Oldtix]

Originally Posted by Leon

Very recently (read in the last month or two) I have been the lucky collector to get involved with a few scenarios on quite a few different Fro Joys and their close cousins, the 1928 Babe Ruth Candy cards. While my good friend FKW (hey Frank) says he feels the fakes are easy to spot, I will politely disagree a bit. I have had 3-4 of these types of cards in my collection for years. A month or so ago a good friend, and very large ebay seller, asked me to take a look at some Babe Ruth Candy cards for him as one of the grading companies thought they weren't good and he had just bought them from a major auction. When I got them I thought they were a little suspicious feeling, not looking. I took them with me to have them looked at by my good friends at BVG and they agreed with the other grading company, not good. Now, they couldn't say 100% but they did say that they were not comfortable enough with them to slab them. At the same time 2 of my 3 cards that were looked at, that had been in my collection for many years, were deemed not good also. The Fro Joys and 1928 Babe Ruth Candy cards are extremely difficult to tell fakes from real ones, on many occasions. There are all sorts of levels of "correctness" to them. Some look really bad *(even colored, which no real ones are) and some are really good looking fakes. These 2 series really should be dealt with extremely carefully by anyone in the hobby, experienced or novice. If I have some time I will do some scans later and do a show and tell...One thing to point out...when all else fails in the id'ing of these, the paper quality is usually the deciding factor. However, that being said, I now believe there is a possibility that each series was printed, from date of origin, on different types of paper. In thinking a bit more, I would probably advise against very new hobbyists collecting them unless they are pedigreed somehow. Buying either series raw would be a set up for a let down ......just my 3 cents on the subject.

Does anyone know the back story on when and who produced the Fro-Joy fakes? Were they done for some purpose other than to defraud?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Oldtix

Does anyone know the back story on when and who produced the Fro-Joy fakes? Were they done for some purpose other than to defraud?

I think many of the early 1980's reprints, especially color ones, were NOT meant to defraud but just to be nice, inexpensive display pieces. Many, or most, of the black and white type reprints were probably meant to defraud.

One other hobby myth (maybe) is that there was an actual Fro Joy printing plate(s) found, much later in the hobby, and some cards were printed from it/them. Those were supposedly almost impossible to tell from the originals and that is the (supposed) reason grading companies wouldn't slab any of them. I have never seen that story be verified but the story has been around for years. Collectors need to be wary of all of these type cards even though some will be good. I do have some good ones but to say ALL of the fakes/reprints are easy to tell, would be a misnomer in my opinion. Actually, according to the head graders at 2 of the top 3 grading companies, they can be difficult to discern. best regards