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Thoughts on the authenticity? (Ungraded T206 Cobb Portrait)

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homerun28aa

Active member
Jun 8, 2011
19,072
8
As a disclaimer, historically when there’s any authenticity doubt whatsoever I’ve proven to be a terrible judge at these things. Whether it’s prime patches, autos, or ungraded vintage now I’m on the wrong end every time without fail.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1909-Sweet...735336?hash=item1a87dfb768:g:b88AAOSwc5xdtB3q

I’m sure this will be another embarrassment, but I thought there was a serious chance (maybe even >50%) it could be legit. Thoughts?
 

Therion

Well-known member
Nov 19, 2008
5,779
387
Looooooosiana!
I have no idea, but this made me laugh: "****Please Clear It With Your Spouse/Significant Other Before Purchasing Item.****"
 

homerun28aa

Active member
Jun 8, 2011
19,072
8

mrmopar

Member
Jan 19, 2010
6,169
4,058
I suppose we all value things differently. Makes me glad for the most part that I have always been a low end collector. Sure, I would love to boast owning some big name cards, but if I didn't buy them decades ago, I would never feel comfortable buying them now. I also can't see how ANYONE would want to pay $300 for that POS card you linked 2nd. There is no eye appeal what so ever and it is just too much for a filler card, if it is even real. I hate to say it, as I have spent a lot of time and energy in the card hobby, but it is turning more and more into a cesspool. Fakes and reprints seem to be more and more commalong with trimming, recoloring, etc. Seems we can't truly trust grading companies as well.

The thing that bothers me most are the reprints that are being sold in masses. I have to believe this is illegal at some level, perhaps just a copyright infringement, but nobody is watching. A lot of them are being sold honestly as reprints, but they are not marked as such in any way. I remember in the 80s, where CCC was selling reprint sets that were obviously reprints and made so that someone who couldn't afford 4 or 5 figure cards/sets could have them. Now they are much more well done and have reprint nowhere on them and nothing to tell a future buyer otherwise that this is not the real thing. Eventually some, perhaps many of these fakes, will be altered to look authentic and resold as originals to unsuspecting buyers and more crap will enter the market.

I did not look any deeper than the auctions you posted, but first thing I would do if I had interest was look at other auctions the seller has sold and bought. It may happen occassionally, but most high dollar cards are not sold this way. The real sign is the seller who says they have to list these as reprints due to ebays rules, but want you to believe that they just might be real, because they got them from Uncle Tony, who was a life long collector who just died recently. Hidden in plain sight, in old thick holders with labels...(never graded) and suckers bite every time!

Both Cobb cards seem very much fake to me from a guy who's opinion of the hobby is turning sour fast after 40 years.
 

homerun28aa

Active member
Jun 8, 2011
19,072
8
I suppose we all value things differently. Makes me glad for the most part that I have always been a low end collector. Sure, I would love to boast owning some big name cards, but if I didn't buy them decades ago, I would never feel comfortable buying them now. I also can't see how ANYONE would want to pay $300 for that POS card you linked 2nd. There is no eye appeal what so ever and it is just too much for a filler card, if it is even real. I hate to say it, as I have spent a lot of time and energy in the card hobby, but it is turning more and more into a cesspool. Fakes and reprints seem to be more and more commalong with trimming, recoloring, etc. Seems we can't truly trust grading companies as well.

The thing that bothers me most are the reprints that are being sold in masses. I have to believe this is illegal at some level, perhaps just a copyright infringement, but nobody is watching. A lot of them are being sold honestly as reprints, but they are not marked as such in any way. I remember in the 80s, where CCC was selling reprint sets that were obviously reprints and made so that someone who couldn't afford 4 or 5 figure cards/sets could have them. Now they are much more well done and have reprint nowhere on them and nothing to tell a future buyer otherwise that this is not the real thing. Eventually some, perhaps many of these fakes, will be altered to look authentic and resold as originals to unsuspecting buyers and more crap will enter the market.

I did not look any deeper than the auctions you posted, but first thing I would do if I had interest was look at other auctions the seller has sold and bought. It may happen occassionally, but most high dollar cards are not sold this way. The real sign is the seller who says they have to list these as reprints due to ebays rules, but want you to believe that they just might be real, because they got them from Uncle Tony, who was a life long collector who just died recently. Hidden in plain sight, in old thick holders with labels...(never graded) and suckers bite every time!

Both Cobb cards seem very much fake to me from a guy who's opinion of the hobby is turning sour fast after 40 years.

Completely agree with 99% of this post, you really hit the nail on the head, except I personally don't collect to boast about any pickups. I really enjoyed HOF game used and autos for awhile, then that turned into the high end prime patches (that's where the 'embarrassing' amount of money on cardboard started to kick in). That turned boring after I had completed the MLB HOF game used relic collection and MLB HOF prime patch collection (minus Ruth) and that was all coincidentally right at about the same time I started to dramatically lose faith in game used products. Piggybacking off of what you were saying, by the end of my time seriously collecting HOF game used you had to have a new skill-set of being able to weave out fake prime patches. More and more "human error" cards started popping up where the card manufacturer inserted a jersey of a team the player never even played for. I got lucky when I sold most of my stuff I took a loss, but recovered the majority of what I put into it...my understanding is most people who collected HOF GU for that amount of time didn't get that lucky.

After that I figured there were only two exciting avenues to go...prospecting or vintage. With prospecting I'll never be as up-to-date (or knowledgeable) as people who have already been in it many years. I got really drawn to vintage after I had a 2-3 hour conversation with a guy at one of the nationals...huge vintage collector. He had 6 t206 Ty Cobb Red Portraits all graded PSA 3-5 and that was just the start. He knew so much about where all the different cards from that time period came from, maybe I'm a nerd but I found it super interesting. I bought a big lot from him and kept adding to it after that...it's also nice not having to be on eBay the night of new product like National Treasures coming out trying to win the newest MLB HOF relic against 100 other people just as crazy as you haha.

The card's definitely fake...his disclaimer in the completed listings gave it away. Looks like he realized eBay doesn't employ 100,000 people to enforce their policy on every listing and he's changed them all to authentic rather than unknown. He would have definitely gotten them slabbed if they were and that was my biggest hesitation I couldn't get past even before seeing the completed listings. This seller is a great example of the worst of the worst...looks like he's one of the people who has a few accounts, buys a lot to build up his feedback, then dumps a bunch of fake ungraded cards for a few grand and hits the road. It sucks but I assume since you've been around in the hobby awhile, you'd agree it's generally true that whenever there's an opportunity to rip off an honest person for a quick buck, someone will undoubtedly fill that void.
 

smapdi

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
4,397
221
Nah, neither of these are even close to real. Aside from the non-206 like printing quality, how can a card get so beat up and still have such square corners? Completely inauthentic wear. You can imagine someone pulling out these cards out of a reprint set, rubbing them on the ground front and back, smearing dirt on them, ripping off a corner and folding them in half, exposing curiously white card stock that stayed white, apparently the last damage done.
 

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