1952 Wheaties Need Help Verifying Authenticity

[Volod]

Ok, scanned the Musial, along with a definitely genuine Williams for comparison. The scan doesn't really reflect the difference. The Musial has brilliant white borders, while Ted shows the typical off-white, slightly grayish tone of 60-year-old cardboard. Scanned the backs, but the images reveal no contrast. To the naked eye, the Musial back is about the same gray tone as the Ted. Thickness is indistinguishable. My smeller isn't what it used to be, but the Ted seems to have that funky ancient paper aroma that we all know, while the Musial is almost sterile - maybe somewhat new smelling. Like I said, however, if this Musial is a counterfeit, it sure fooled me. The real concern for me now is that it just looks like it was cut out of a Wheaties box yesterday.

[Chesapeake]

Hmmm... I am taking mine off auction until this gets figured out. Steve, look to the right of Stan's cap. The white area in between the background and the cap. Is that suppose to be there?

[steve B]

The white area is just the edge of the orange showing since it's a bit off register to the right.

Pretty interesting topic.

I think the more white backgrounds are probably from boxes with a white layer printed before the orange and blue. Or printed on a white rather than cream surfaced stock.

Here's a complete box from Legendary that looks very light.
http://legendaryauctions.com/LotDeta...and-Campanella

Maybe a late year change? I found pics of a couple 53 boxes that had the license plates and both of those looked white.

The white would add a bit of cost, but would also make the boxes look better on the shelf- brighter, cleaner, more modern.

I also comared it to my Musial, and while most fakes or reprints have a lack of detail and crispness, yours is printed a bit better than mine, with a bit more detail.

Steve B

[Volod]

Steve B: Thanks for your observations. I'm beginning to wonder about the website that Alex provided a link to. That is, I can't find an actual article that details a case of 1952 Wheaties counterfeiting. A poster on the website, Ross Chrissman, whoever that is, merely states that "there was a case a few years ago." And then someone commenting on his claim states that pure white borders and lack of old paper smell is a sure-fire tip-off. This is hardly conclusive evidence of anything in my opinion. As you noted, my Musial has dpi definition that seems to gainsay any likelihood of counterfeiting on a set as generally low-priced as this one. And I think you're right that the difference in toning probably dates back to 1952. You can see the same difference in cardboard stock quality in the Topps 1951 cards: pure white stock vs cream stock.

[Chesapeake]

Steve, Here is one from my batch scanned by itself.

[brett 75]

According to the Standard Catalog the set was extensively counterfeited around 2002. All of the ones I have ever seen look toned in color. The pure white looks to good to be true. Brett

[steve B]

Here's my Musial. Cream stock, and I've had it since well before 2002.

Side by side with the white one. You can see where the printing block was getting a little worn with mine, the white dots to the left of the STL on the hat are gone, the shoulder on the left side is slightly less detailed because all the lines are thicker. That's the sort of detail that's hard to add in if you're faking something.

There's a few details of the printing method that I could probably see in a bigger higher res scan. It shows on the Snead Alex scanned.

I wouldn't have any question about the ones Alex has shown. (I need all of those BTW)

Steve B