How fakes will effect the hobby...

I was thinking about this last night. How do you think fakes will effect the hobby 10-20 years down the road? Will patch cards become a joke of collecting? When my kids inherit my collection, will they be offered $1 for a card like this because people will think it was faked...



For every faker nailed, it seems like five more pop up in their place. Will all of our insane patches and autos be in boxes with Pro Set and Collector's Edge stuff???

Zombies will probably cover the earth within 10-20 years, so there will be an abundance of unopened wax for the survivors. It will largely be worthless except to a couple of us.

dinicon said:

Zombies will probably cover the earth within 10-20 years, so there will be an abundance of unopened wax for the survivors. It will largely be worthless except to a couple of us.

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:lol: I'll give you a Beanie Wells Exquisite for a can of Spam and a box of shotgun shells.

Well it has been 8 yrs since I can remember fakes starting to come into the hobby. I ma pretty sure nothing will change down the road. The uninformed will always remain. The hobby will be fine

I think that as long as there are message boards like these and blogs like SCU, there won't be a problem with the perception of patch cards......BUT, I would hope within the next 10 years that the card companies smarten up and start to play a more pro-active role in stopping people from being able to take the 1 color jersey out of the card and relacing it with a 4 color patch.

I've said it for quite some time now, IT ALL STARTS AT THE TOP.

While I think that patches from reputable sellers will always go for decent cash, I think that any really sick patches that are videotaped being broken will pull a premium. I'm honestly surprised that we don't see more YouTube links in eBay auctions.

Card makers need to do what was done with last year's Cup hockey - individually photograph every card before they are packed out - then maintain a database of said cards. This is the only way to ensure the integrity of the cards for future generations. Disk space, digital photography, etc. all being what they are today - there's NO excuse for this not happening across the board.

Otherwise, unless its a single color patch - people will continue to be skeptical.

wheeler281 said:

Well it has been 8 yrs since I can remember fakes starting to come into the hobby. I ma pretty sure nothing will change down the road. The uninformed will always remain. The hobby will be fine

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^ He beat me to it.

Bottom line is that whereever/whenever there is money to be made, there WILL be scams and forgeries to follow. There's just no getting around it. It's literally in every hobby, not just this one.

*affect

Sorry, it's a habit from my job where grammar is king.

I don't think that patches will become a joke down the road. You'll certainly always have those out there who doubt, just as you'll have the ones who make smart choices and the ones who can't tell a fake patch from their own pair of jeans and will pay big money.

I'm pretty sure when my kids (assuming I one day have them) inherit my collection, they will bitch slap me and ask me why the heck I spent all that I did on guys like Sinorice Moss. Damn kids.

Stopping patch faking can be as easy as this. In The Game (a Canadian card company) puts all their cards from their high-end Superlative set in a soft sleeve/top loader and then seals the top loader with a company seal, then packs the cards out. As easy as that? Just make a tamper proof seal like ITG and problem solved?? Its a cheap way to do it.


No questions if these amazing patches are real or not and they sell for very high premiums for that very reason

But in those scans, you can't see the top of the seal. Someone can easily use a razor blade and cut the seal open, take the card out, swap out the swatches, and put it back in the toploader and scan it. I doubt paypal will favor the buyer because of a broken seal, there's no way to prove it unless you video tape yourself opening the bubble mailer.

The #1 way to stop fake patches is to put a thin clear plastic layer on top of the swatch to trap the swatch inside....PLAIN AND SIMPLE!!!!

Perfect example is the card below. The jersey is under the thin clear plastic layer and the auto is on top of the plastic layer.

mstng99tim said:

But in those scans, you can't see the top of the seal. Someone can easily use a razor blade and cut the seal open, take the card out, swap out the swatches, and put it back in the toploader and scan it. I doubt paypal will favor the buyer because of a broken seal, there's no way to prove it unless you video tape yourself opening the bubble mailer.

The #1 way to stop fake patches is to put a thin clear plastic layer on top of the swatch to trap the swatch inside....PLAIN AND SIMPLE!!!!

Perfect example is the card below. The jersey is under the thin clear plastic layer and the auto is on top of the plastic layer.

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I never really thought of that, but a broken seal would raise suspicions and honestly paypal will refund the buyer for ANY reason nowadays. Basically if you were selling cards with broken seals, it would nullify the "guarantee" of an untampered patch. It may not be the best long term solution, but it sure is a good one right now. People are paying big bucks for these nice Superlative patches as the seal is giving them more confidence that they are buying an original patch. It sucks when you pull a nice SP authentic or exquisite patch and people question the authenticity and it doesn't sell for what it should. At least with these ITG cards there is some comfort that these cards are untampered.

this is such an AMAZING product...



This is another reason this product is so amazing. This player (ilya Kovalchuk) was traded to New Jersey back in March. 2 freakin months ago and he is already pictured with his new team and the game used is a New Jersey patch!! How long does it take other card companies to get not only players pictured with their new teams, but get game used of their new teams? Sometimes it takes years!!!



As far as your idea Tim, would it still work for the patch fakers that split the card into two? If they are swapping the patches by taking the card in half, would still be effective?

hawkfandan said:

Card makers need to do what was done with last year's Cup hockey - individually photograph every card before they are packed out - then maintain a database of said cards. This is the only way to ensure the integrity of the cards for future generations. Disk space, digital photography, etc. all being what they are today - there's NO excuse for this not happening across the board.

Otherwise, unless its a single color patch - people will continue to be skeptical.

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Not a hockey person, butr that would work...do you have a link...I would like to see this.

mstng99tim said:

The #1 way to stop fake patches is to put a thin clear plastic layer on top of the swatch to trap the swatch inside....PLAIN AND SIMPLE!!!!

Perfect example is the card below. The jersey is under the thin clear plastic layer and the auto is on top of the plastic layer.

Click to expand...

Not even a new concept...Collector's Edge did this back in 1996/1997 with many of their Gameball cards...it works great! Every company should do it.

Yeah, I agree that the seal does help, but it's just a speed bump in the grand scheme of things. The scammers will eventually find a way to get around it. They're probably making prototype test stickers as I type this. :lol:

jaderock said:

hawkfandan said:

Card makers need to do what was done with last year's Cup hockey - individually photograph every card before they are packed out - then maintain a database of said cards. This is the only way to ensure the integrity of the cards for future generations. Disk space, digital photography, etc. all being what they are today - there's NO excuse for this not happening across the board.

Otherwise, unless its a single color patch - people will continue to be skeptical.

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Not a hockey person, butr that would work...do you have a link...I would like to see this.

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This is never going to happen. It's too costly to take a photo of every single jersey card.

I would stop buying f they did it like the ITG cards. I hate scratched up sleeves and always swapping them out as they come in from ebay or if they even I put a scratch or rub mark in one. Het the swirls and everything....I take it Gmoney once they are in they are in. I bet some cases are rough from certain guys

You would have to put every ITG card in a team bag to prevent the toploader from getting all scratched up. I have one ITG card and I took it out of the sealed toploader because I'll never sell it.

There's only one solution to this problem... make all swatches one color. :lol: Or wait, make them all one color except in SPA where they will ALL be 3 color! Logos only for Exquisite

mstng99tim said:

You would have to put every ITG card in a team bag to prevent the toploader from getting all scratched up. I have one ITG card and I took it out of the sealed toploader because I'll never sell it.

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Yeah that would suck. Would not like that product just for that reason

mstng99tim said:

jaderock said:

hawkfandan said:

Card makers need to do what was done with last year's Cup hockey - individually photograph every card before they are packed out - then maintain a database of said cards. This is the only way to ensure the integrity of the cards for future generations. Disk space, digital photography, etc. all being what they are today - there's NO excuse for this not happening across the board.

Otherwise, unless its a single color patch - people will continue to be skeptical.

Click to expand...

Not a hockey person, butr that would work...do you have a link...I would like to see this.

Click to expand...

This is never going to happen. It's too costly to take a photo of every single jersey card.

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Its actually already happened Tim. A collector from Calgary that i know publicly "called out" UD that he would pay for his own air fare and accomodations, he would supply his own camera and do all the work if they let him attend The Cups pack out last spring. UD took him up on his offer and the rest is history. The only thing is, is that the data base is not public.