Thoughts on this 53 topps mantle?

[xdrx]

As someone who has been out of the hobby for nearly 30 years the whole idea of fakes kind of blows my mind. Of course it makes sense that criminals would get involved given the dollars at stake, but it's just something I never thought of when buying cards.

When did fake cards become fairly commonplace? Should I be worried about purchases made in the early 80s?

[bobbyw8469]

Should I be worried about purchases made in the early 80s?

Yes!

[U240robert]

Originally Posted by xdrx

As someone who has been out of the hobby for nearly 30 years the whole idea of fakes kind of blows my mind. Of course it makes sense that criminals would get involved given the dollars at stake, but it's just something I never thought of when buying cards.

When did fake cards become fairly commonplace? Should I be worried about purchases made in the early 80s?

If you bought cards in the early 80's I don't think it was
very common in the hobby.
Other than the Pete Rose rookie I can't think of any big
frauds in the 70's - early 80's.
Now the card they were asking about the Mantle, it's obvious a reprint and many are easy to detect. I've seen some reprints being passed off as originals that are too obvious (for example a 1952 topps reprint that is standard card size from the modern era) that if someone gets taken then they are clueless about the hobby