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Do you collect known fakes?

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mouschi

Featured Contributor, Bridging the Gap, Senior Mem
May 18, 2012
3,105
170
I've been reading a bit online about some variations - particularly those that occur in 1991 Topps, and I happened upon an article that talked about the 3 known Desert Shield fakes. It made me think: I wonder if people collected them since they are fairly mainstream fakes. So, let's say you are presented with all 4 (or maybe 3?) "variations" (1 real and the rest fakes) of your player you collect for 1991 Desert Shield: Do you buy the real and fakes or just the real?

This reminds me of the panini stickers that are stamped "venezuela" on the back. It is speculated that someone may have done this on their own, but know one knows. I can see how some people may see this as a collectible even though it could be a "fake".
 

RStadlerASU22

Active member
Jan 2, 2013
8,881
11
Depends on the price. I haven't read up on DS lately, got a short break down of the fakes?

Ryan
 

Lancemountain

Active member
Apr 11, 2009
8,313
5
Philadelphia
I was trying to acquire all of the Utley triple threads of a certain card and came very close. One of the /18 had obvious fake patches in it. I refused to purchase said card even knowing it was fake so I didn't encourage the behavior.
 

mouschi

Featured Contributor, Bridging the Gap, Senior Mem
May 18, 2012
3,105
170
Why would you wanna buy something thats not real?

For the Desert Shields, there is almost some sort of an allure with the fakes ... so they are part of the story. I seem to recall something like this with Pete Rose rookie cards. A bunch of them were being sold as real but they weren't. They ended up having to stamp "counterfeit" on the fronts of them ... and they still sold for $20 each for a while!
 

mouschi

Featured Contributor, Bridging the Gap, Senior Mem
May 18, 2012
3,105
170
I was trying to acquire all of the Utley triple threads of a certain card and came very close. One of the /18 had obvious fake patches in it. I refused to purchase said card even knowing it was fake so I didn't encourage the behavior.

I guess I should clarify. ...I don't mean fakes like that. ...I man those that have almost been catalogued or have a story to them.
 

Yanks2151

Active member
Nov 9, 2013
3,231
8
Well here is story. I was in the service during the Desert Shield time but I never heard of these until I was home already. When I started in the Dept of Corrections and got to my first facility I met a guy who was given a full box of these cards. He gave all new cadets that came in a sealed pack. It was a real cool gesture to me because I had started up my collection again and when I opened my pack I was lucky enough to pull a Yankee (Roberto Kelly) and a Ken Griffey Jr AS card. A few years later the Griffey was one of the first things I sold on eBay. I used the money to start building my Desert Shield Yankees team set.

Fast forward a bunch of years later I started player collecting Paul O'neill. I eventually made the decision to collect his earlier Reds cards as well. This would make me have to seek his Desert Shield card. After buying a few different collections I ended up with a few different copies of the card. One was a PSA 9 which I am hoping is legit seeing they slabbed it. One has been a mystery since I obtained it. The front looked normal but the back had the word "copy" on it. I got this card in a giant collection from a rival O'neill collector. Long story short. I love this card in my collection whether I found out the real story on it or not.
oneilldesert.jpg
 

AnthonyCorona

Well-known member
Oct 6, 2014
9,600
68
Modesto, CA
Well here is story. I was in the service during the Desert Shield time but I never heard of these until I was home already. When I started in the Dept of Corrections and got to my first facility I met a guy who was given a full box of these cards. He gave all new cadets that came in a sealed pack. It was a real cool gesture to me because I had started up my collection again and when I opened my pack I was lucky enough to pull a Yankee (Roberto Kelly) and a Ken Griffey Jr AS card. A few years later the Griffey was one of the first things I sold on eBay. I used the money to start building my Desert Shield Yankees team set.

Fast forward a bunch of years later I started player collecting Paul O'neill. I eventually made the decision to collect his earlier Reds cards as well. This would make me have to seek his Desert Shield card. After buying a few different collections I ended up with a few different copies of the card. One was a PSA 9 which I am hoping is legit seeing they slabbed it. One has been a mystery since I obtained it. The front looked normal but the back had the word "copy" on it. I got this card in a giant collection from a rival O'neill collector. Long story short. I love this card in my collection whether I found out the real story on it or not.
oneilldesert.jpg

Good story and thank you for your service. Best part was a "rival" O'Neill collector. It can get very personal in this hobby
 

BBCgalaxee

Well-known member
Sep 9, 2011
6,475
59
When I was collecting Mattingly cards, one of my most exciting finds was the 84 donruss counterfeit stamped as such the back.

Sent from my HTCONE using Freedom Card Board mobile app
 

Hawk8

Well-known member
Jul 13, 2013
8,376
229
Louisiana
I have always heard there were fakes but never really took the time to research them even though it is one of my favorite Andre Dawson cards, but now I want all four variations. These don't come up too often wether real or fake so this might be a little challenging finding all the variations but I will go through my doubles when I get home to see what I have already.
 

RStadlerASU22

Active member
Jan 2, 2013
8,881
11
I guess I should clarify. ...I don't mean fakes like that. ...I man those that have almost been catalogued or have a story to them.

Yes, I was stating this too in my response. Something that was older with a story not a card with a fake patch etc. A fake with "hobby history" would have some intrigue to me.

Ryan
 

mouschi

Featured Contributor, Bridging the Gap, Senior Mem
May 18, 2012
3,105
170
Yes, I was stating this too in my response. Something that was older with a story not a card with a fake patch etc. A fake with "hobby history" would have some intrigue to me.

Ryan

Exactly ... hobby history / documentation, etc. Spot on!
 

mouschi

Featured Contributor, Bridging the Gap, Senior Mem
May 18, 2012
3,105
170
Well here is story. I was in the service during the Desert Shield time but I never heard of these until I was home already. When I started in the Dept of Corrections and got to my first facility I met a guy who was given a full box of these cards. He gave all new cadets that came in a sealed pack. It was a real cool gesture to me because I had started up my collection again and when I opened my pack I was lucky enough to pull a Yankee (Roberto Kelly) and a Ken Griffey Jr AS card. A few years later the Griffey was one of the first things I sold on eBay. I used the money to start building my Desert Shield Yankees team set.

Fast forward a bunch of years later I started player collecting Paul O'neill. I eventually made the decision to collect his earlier Reds cards as well. This would make me have to seek his Desert Shield card. After buying a few different collections I ended up with a few different copies of the card. One was a PSA 9 which I am hoping is legit seeing they slabbed it. One has been a mystery since I obtained it. The front looked normal but the back had the word "copy" on it. I got this card in a giant collection from a rival O'neill collector. Long story short. I love this card in my collection whether I found out the real story on it or not.
oneilldesert.jpg

That's great! I'd love a Canseco with a copy on the back like that. :)
 

Yanks2151

Active member
Nov 9, 2013
3,231
8
One more thing, my Desert Shield team set has some of the brighter Topps logos on the back. Are these just variations or could some be fake?
 

mouschi

Featured Contributor, Bridging the Gap, Senior Mem
May 18, 2012
3,105
170
One more thing, my Desert Shield team set has some of the brighter Topps logos on the back. Are these just variations or could some be fake?

The Desert Shield fakes seem to be limited to the stamping. In other words, if it is fake, they would take a real topps card and just stamp it. The back bright reds happened every now and then on A & B sheets (as denoted on the bottom of each card) - and even sometimes apparently fairly rarely on C sheets. 1991 Topps has a BOAT LOAD of variations and errors ... that is one variation type that collectors collect. I could be wrong, but I do not believe that Desert Shield cards have different variations ... I think it is either one or the other.
 

rsmath

Active member
Nov 8, 2008
6,086
1
Why would you wanna buy something thats not real?

It's done all the time. I own reprint sets of some pre-war issues because I can't afford to make a set of the real cards.

Topps inserted look-alikes of their cards (reprinted select cards) in recent years and for some parallels, other than the printing technology, card stock and copyright notice on the reprint, the fake was very faithful to the original.
 

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