How To Spot Fake Sports Cards
Sports card collecting is a very big hobby in today's world. When buying a card either online or in person it is a good thing to check whether the card is real or not. Below are some tips that should aid you while you are shopping for that special card.
- Check out the seller's feedback rating to see what their past customers have thought of their items
- Never buy from a seller that has private feedback. Why would an honest seller want to hide their feedback?
- Never bid on an auction where the current high bidder's ID is kept private. Most likely they will be shills. In other words, the seller will create multiple accounts where he/she will bid on their own items to raise the price.
- If you see a card up for sale that you are interested in buying do a little research and make sure that the company really did make that type of card
- Look to see if the auction you are looking at has its own picture. Sometimes people will steal photos from another auction and say they have a card just like it when they really don't.
- Be careful that the person didn't edit the photo of the card. People can easily use any photo editing software to make a card look better than it really is. For example, if a card really has bad corner wear a person could slightly crop the photo to make it look like the corners are sharp. People will also slightly cut off the edges of a card to get rid of the bad edges. Grading companies won't even touch these cards. Please make sure you compare the size of the card you plan to buy to other from that set, especially if the card looks too good to be true. This process is called trimming.
- Personally, I only trust five card grading companies: PSA, BGS, GAI, SCD and SGC. There are some others like Gem, AGS, Mint, and PGI. But a lot of these have been known not to be the best authenticators and graders.
- If the card you are planning to buy has a piece of material in it (jersey, patch, pants, etc) see if the colors match up with the colors of the team(s) the player has played with
- There are some companies that have specific cards for jerseys and specific cards for patches. The jersey cards will say jersey and the patch cards will say jersey - prime or patch.
- If you see a high #'ed card or a card that is not #'ed at all that contains a patch that is too good to be true, most likely it will be fake
- When looking at a material card see if the window that holds the piece of material is clean. By clean I mean there are no fringe cut marks from where the seller could have cut into the card to insert a piece of fake material. People can buy patches and other types of material and insert them into a card.
- If someone is selling an autographed card look and see if it has a hologram sticker on the back with a number. If you can't see the back of the card ask the seller to send you a picture of the back. Some card companies also may use a stamp or seal that overlaps the foil the autograph is on and the card. The stamp or seal is usually the logo of the company.
- If you are planning to buy a card that the seller says that they got it signed in person I would ask for a COA. Or you could look for an autographed card that is certified by Global, PSA, or any other certification company.
- If you are interested in buying a card see if you can find that exact same card up for sale by another seller and compare the two. Fake card makers can be good but sometimes they can make and error that sticks out when you compare it to the real thing.
- Some companies hand number their cards instead of machine stamp. Make sure the card you want to buy was hand numbered by the company. You can do this by checking to see if that company did hand number those particular cards.
- Believe it or not some people have found a way to stamp cards to look like a machine did it. Take a look at the size and shape of the stamped number and try and compare it to another card like it.
- People have found ways to counterfeit vintage cards too. A way to spot these fakes is to look at the condition of the card. If the card seems to good to be true it probably is. Take a look at the card and see if the color is rich and dark. Having rich dark color usually means its a fake. A common sign of counterfeit vintage cards is dots. Find an area of SOLID color and examine it with like a 16x magnification. If the solid area is comprised of fuzzy "dots" instead of "lines (or crosshatch)", then there is a good chance it's a fake. The best way to avoid buying a fake vintage card is to buy one that is graded/authenticated by PSA, Global, or any other certification company. By doing this you will decrease the chances of buying a fake vintage card. You could also get some comparison cards to compare your card to others from that same set.
- Get familiar to the set of cards your specific card comes from. That means get to know what the texture of the card feel like. Sometimes reprints will have a smooth glossy cover where vintage cards will have rough feeling backs.
- Use a ruler to compare sizes of cards. It is best to use a ruler that is broken down to 1/32 inches. Measure the height, width, and thickness.
- It was not until the mid 20th Century that paper and stock manufacturers began to add brighters to their products. These chemicals would make products seem brighter because the chemicals fluoresce when exposed to the UV light of the sun. A 1933 Goudey card will not fluoresce under a modern black light. A modern reprint will.
 |
Other Misc. Card Tips:
- If you are thinking about buying an older box of cards in search for a specific card, make sure that card was not only available through redemption. If it was a redemption it could be expired and you won't be able to obtain that card. For example, if you buy a box of 2001 Bowman Chrome Baseball in search for the Albert Pujols Autographed rookie card you will not find it. That card was only available through a redemption card which is now expired.
- When buying a box of cards make sure it is factory sealed. You don't want to buy a box of cards that has been tampered with. A good sign that the box of cards is factory sealed is the plastic seal over the box has the company logo all over it.
- Don't buy Fleer redemption cards that are from 2005 or before. Those redemption cards were issued by Fleer who is not in business anymore. Upper Deck bought Fleer's assets and can use the Fleer name. Fleer redemption cards that were made from 2006 or later you can send in to redeem your item.
- If you plan on selling a card of a player from overseas such as someone from Japan or Taiwan it would be a good idea to set your auction so that you ship to that part of the world. If you just have it set that you ship to the U.S. only you will be losing out on bids. There are big baseball fans over there that would love to get their hands on those cards, especially the big dollar ones.
Brett Lewis | Jan 6, 2010 | Reply
Great article! There will be a day when the “shady” portion of the hobby has no one to fool thanks to pieces like this. When that happens, they will move on to the next industry to scam. We’ve been dealing with these “white collar criminals” for far to long, it’s high time they moved on to another industry! Another good idea is to look at what else the E-Bay seller has for sale. Personally, if I see them selling “Hot Packs”, I refuse to do business with them at all. Wherever there’s a “hot pack”, there most certainly is a fire. Another thing that is always suspicious is when a seller Immediately Re-Lists a card despite it having been sold to someone. That usually means one of the “shill” accounts mentioned above out-bid the highest bidder because it the card didn’t sell for the amount they wanted. It’s also a great idea to not put your early bids sky high. The same “Bogus” accounts will bid you up until your paying way more than you should have.
JerseyGirl | Feb 14, 2012 | Reply
One of the statements in this article is incorrect and misleading. The statement, “There are some companies that have specific cards for jerseys and specific cards for patches. The jersey cards will say jersey and the patch cards will say jersey – prime or patch.”
The term ‘Prime’ does not neccesarily imply that there is a patch on a card. Many eBay sellers are incorrectly describing that ‘Prime’ cards as ‘Patch’ cards. The term ‘Prime’ is an arbitrary term used by the manufacture and printed on the card to describe any premium piece of the jersey. This may coincidentally be a portion of the jersey which includes an actual patch, however it may also be a jersey crease or seam [where 2 pieces of material are sewn together]. The term patch is a term that is not specific to the card industry and is used to describe items that are have been sewn onto a player’s jersey after the jersey pieces have been sewn together. Examples include player’s numbers, letters [nameplate], team logos, ‘C’ ‘A’ [hockey] and occasionaly other items sewn onto the jersey. When a jersey swatch present on a card contains a portion of one of these sewn on items, that card is a patch card. In more recent years, this is identified by the manufacturer with the term ‘Patch’, however the card doesn’t neccesarily need to specify the term patch. The term refers to the presence of an acutal pacth being present on the jersey swatch on the card regardless of any terms the manufacturer may or may not include. Some ‘Prime’ cards may happen to include a premium portion of the jersey which happens to have a swatch from an actual patch, however the term Prime can also be used to describe any portion of the jersey which the manufacturer fees is premium and therefore chooses to include the term ‘Prime’. A card is only ‘Prime’ if the term is printed on the card by the manufacturer. A card is only a ‘patch’ if it contains an actual patch [like a number, letter, logo etc] that was sewn ontop of the jersey. Many ‘Prime’ cards are only jersey creases or joints where two pieces of material are sewn together to form the jersey or create the cuffs and/or hem of the jersey. Since the joint is present it is usually a thicker swatch then a piece of jersey that was not cut from the joint. The stripes present on most jerseys are multiple pieces of different color material sewn together. These are often also used on ‘Prime’ cards however most jersey stripes are not actual patches sewn ontop of the jersey, they are different color materials used to create the jersey itself. The information I am providing is further evidenced by some new releases including 3 tiers of jersey swatch cards in different production runs with a base version, a prime version AND an additional patch varient. If the word ‘prime’ meant the same thing as ‘patch’, there would not be a distinction in these cases. Not all cards have 3 tiers however even the limited presence of these 3 tiers shows that there is a distinction between the terms prime and patch and they should not be used interchangeably.
I’ve seen too many people on eBay calling ‘Prime’ jersey cards ‘Patches’ even when there is a separate ‘Patch’ varient of that particular card. It is misleading and in attempting to contact some sellers to ask if the card contains an actual patch, their response is that the term ‘Prime’ means that the swatch contains a ‘Patch’ which is not true. When writing articles like this a clear distinction should be made such as to not miseducate sellers into using terms like ‘patch’ to describe cards deemed as ‘prime’ by the manufacturer. Although some ‘Prime’ cards may contain an actual patch, this is not always the case and the two terms should not be used interchangeably.
Mike Smeth | Feb 14, 2012 | Reply
Thanks for the great addition to the article, JerseyGirl. I’m sure folks will appreciate you clarifying that.