What collectible hobbies have been ruined by fakes and reproductions?

291fifth · July 7, 2008 8:29AM

...and what are the lessons the coin collecting hobby could learn from these situations?

charley · July 7, 2008 8:41AM

I'm going to go out on a limb here and offer Beanie Babies as an example- something had to have happened along those lines to completely destroy an educational, interesting and profitable hobby such as that....Respectfully, John Curlis

NHSBaseball · July 7, 2008 8:41AM

Sports memorabilia.

dizzyfoxx · July 7, 2008 8:44AM

<< Sports memorabilia. >>

IMO, specifically vintage baseball cards.

WTCG · July 7, 2008 8:45AM

Antiques and sports memorabilia markets come to mind, especially the latter. It's been said that the overwhelming majority of autographed items are fakes as are "game balls" and other displayable relics of sports.

notwilight · July 7, 2008 8:48AM

Designer handbag collection--very popular in some socioeconomic and properly chromosomed groups. --Jerry

sonoranmonsoon · July 7, 2008 9:02AM

<< Sports memorabilia. >>

I agree. Thinking mainly of autographed material. The fakes have completely destroyed the market.

PerryHall · July 7, 2008 9:05AM

I've heard that antique toys are now being heavily reproduced (counterfeited).

RedTiger · July 7, 2008 9:08AM

One of the most widely documented cases of Ebay fraud is a stamp seller with altered goods. Despite knowing who he is, where he is located, what he is selling, and public outing in the philatelic press, the fraudster has operated for nine years. When shut down, he just has to open a new Ebay ID to continue the dirty tricks, and find more people to fool.

MSNBC article on the case

<< ... uses a variety of techniques to make a stamp appear to be more valuable than it really is, including removing ink “cancels,” clipping or adding perforations and painting on design elements... >>

Putting real coins into fake slabs at a higher grade would be a similar, difficult to police scam.

Separately, in their lawsuit against Ebay, Tiffany claims that 90% of the items being sold on the bay with the Tiffany trademark are fakes.

SpaceMonkey · July 7, 2008 9:08AM

maybe grading and authentication companies should start Carbon Dating everthing!

-sm

Cam40 · July 7, 2008 9:30AM

Dali artwork

RWB · July 7, 2008 9:34AM

The low and medium-end of just about any collection hobby you can name: stamps, gems, geodes, dinosaur turds, paintings, sculpture, etchings, watercolors, books, autographs, sports cards….on and on and on. Coin collecting is close.

howards · July 7, 2008 9:35AM

All of them! Scammers are everywhere now.

ArizonaJack · July 7, 2008 9:37AM

There are " guitar doctors" as well. I have stopped collecting vintage Martins and Fenders.

OKbustchaser · July 7, 2008 9:38AM

No hobby has been ruined...no hobby ever will be ruined by fakes or reproductions. Now the market for a given collectable is a different question all together.

storm888 · July 7, 2008 9:42AM

"Designer handbag collection--very popular in some socioeconomic and properly chromosomed groups. --Jerry "

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

I sell mostly in designer fashion categories.
Severe limits have now been imposed on ALL
sellers in these cats.

What happens to the "alleged counterfeits?"

RICO

////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////////////////////////////////////

On the collectibles side, stamps have been hurt the worst by counterfeits/alterations.

AUandAG · July 7, 2008 9:52AM

Authentic signatures of famous and infamous people including sports figures and actors/actresses.

bob

RWB · July 7, 2008 9:56AM

No hobby has been ruined...no hobby ever will be ruined by fakes or reproductions. Now the market for a given collectable is a different question all together.

A hobby or colletion is ruined the moment a fake or altered item is purchased as real. The emphasis shifts from collection to protection. This is independent of any commercial value of the item.

MikeInFL · July 7, 2008 10:06AM

<< No hobby has been ruined...no hobby ever will be ruined by fakes or reproductions. Now the market for a given collectable is a different question all together.

A hobby or colletion is ruined the moment a fake or altered item is purchased as real. The emphasis shifts from collection to protection. This is independent of any commercial value of the item. >>

So are there ANY un-ruined hobbies?

adamlaneus · July 7, 2008 10:08AM

A disturbing thought.

Fake Kinkade paintings.

I feel very dirty now and will go home and take a hot shower.

RWB · July 7, 2008 10:11AM

Fake Kinkade paintings.

That is the bottom of the pit.....fake heaped upon fake upon tastelessness.

Mark · July 7, 2008 10:34AM

Re That is the bottom of the pit.....fake heaped upon fake upon tastelessness. That is SO true. One of my wife's best friends passed away a few years ago. My wife helped her a lot during her last months and her husband must have felt he owed us something. So for Christmas that year he gave us a Kinkade calendar. Man, 12 months of that schlok. And because I felt sorry for him and knew he might stop by for some conversation I couldn't relegate the calendar to the garbage can. If the Kinkade market can be ruined by fakes and reproductions I think society might well be better off!

OKbustchaser · July 7, 2008 10:38AM

<< No hobby has been ruined...no hobby ever will be ruined by fakes or reproductions. Now the market for a given collectable is a different question all together.

A hobby or colletion is ruined the moment a fake or altered item is purchased as real. The emphasis shifts from collection to protection. This is independent of any commercial value of the item. >>

Not at all. I don't care how many fake Gidget dolls are available. There are still people collecting them. Same with sports cards...coins, stamps, art, rubber bands. The only thing ruined is the "hobby" of investing in collectable items.

fc · July 7, 2008 11:02AM

i have followed comic books for 20+ years now and this is one hobby
that has not been ruined by fakes and reproductions.

oh sure, comic covers are repaired, old superman issues have the
cover repainted... but outright fakes are rare.

only a few things come to mind, like Cerebus #1, but even that fake
was poorly done. The only reason it could be done in my mind was
due to the black and white craze during the 80s and the low bar
to recreate such poor quality books.

otherwise... comic books are rather safe!

291fifth · July 7, 2008 11:07AM

<< A disturbing thought.

Fake Kinkade paintings.

I feel very dirty now and will go home and take a hot shower. >>

Nooooooooooooooooo!

percyb · July 7, 2008 1:09PM

<< Fake Kinkade paintings.

That is the bottom of the pit.....fake heaped upon fake upon tastelessness. >>

You see the light!!

notwilight · July 7, 2008 1:10PM

<< 

<< Fake Kinkade paintings. That is the bottom of the pit.....fake heaped upon fake upon tastelessness. >>

You see the light!!

>>

YES!!! But where is is coming from?

DMWJR · July 7, 2008 1:49PM

<< 

<< Sports memorabilia. >>

IMO, specifically vintage baseball cards. >>

... and OJ. The losers who worked sports memorabilia around him over the last decade are truly pond scum.

firstmint · July 7, 2008 1:52PM

An interesting thing about reproductions, is that in some cases, the replica helps to create a wider interest in the items.

For example, the 1855 Kellogg gold coin replica's (made from transfer dies and a melted ingot) done for the SS Central America promotion didn't negatively affect the marketplace. The deluxe California Gold Rush book by Bowers was a nice touch also, as it wasn't sold to the public in that format unless you purchased the package offered for $5K.

Plyaboy magazine recently re-issued the first issue that Hugh Heffner put out in December 1953, in an edition of 20,000 copies. That will certainly help with the interest with that collectible series.

The 500 reprinted copies of The Numismatist, Vols 1-6, done in 1963, helped many to complete their sets.

If all concerned realize that something is a replica, such as the Gallery Mint numismatic products, it can be a benefit to everyone.

It's the attempted selling of this material as being genuine that creates the problems.

COALPORTER · July 7, 2008 2:25PM

I'm surprised only one person has mentioned guitars.
I"d only buy a Les Paul from an authorized dealer.
Way too many "law suit" copies on the vintage market.

COALPORTER · July 7, 2008 2:27PM

<< Fake Kinkade paintings.

That is the bottom of the pit.....fake heaped upon fake upon tastelessness. >>

Isn't a real Kinkade still a fake ?

SirAnthonyAC · July 7, 2008 2:40PM

<< No hobby has been ruined...no hobby ever will be ruined by fakes or reproductions. Now the market for a given collectible is a different question all together. >>

I have to agree with you.

Think about Trade Dollars... the whole hobby has not been ruined but, there's not nearly a soul alive that would say it's okay to buy them raw, counterfeits really hurt the market for Raw Trade Dollars. Sucks actually to have to pay slabbing fees for any Trade Dollar just to buy or sell one.

acsb · July 7, 2008 4:54PM

How about kids series books in the "not ruined yet" column? Fake dust jackets (usually 80-90% of the value,) are still easy enough to spot, there's a committed collector base, guides to various series, and depending on what series you collect, they're rather affordable.
Of course, with the advent of fleabay and such, there tends to be more supply than demand, but that in itself isn't necessarily a bad thing (unless, of course, you happened to own a used book store in the past ten years...)

BillyKingsley · July 7, 2008 8:25PM

Scale cars of any sort. I have three main hobbys-1/64 diecast NASCAR, 1/24 plastic models, and now, as of the last few months, coins.

While you will occasionally see a reissued model in an original box being passed off as the original (the plastic quality was better back then, and not the blah gray of current) but but importantly the originals often had customizing parts that no longer are on the tool.

I saw the comic book reference above. I've only ever seen one attempt at a fake that was so poorly done I can't imagine it ever fooled anyone. It was, of cource, Action #1, but it was current sized, not Golden Age sized, and the seller's description of it being "trimmed" didn't hold as the entire cover was there, none of the art was missing=clearly a fake. It was not the reissue done in the late 80s either that only had the Superman story. He wanted over $1000 for it but would not let anyone look at it unless they bought it.

As far as I know no one did.

My brother has done DC only since 1975

Boom · July 7, 2008 8:39PM

Without benefit of having read anything other than the OP's Question/ no other posts at all, my answer is - most ALL other "Hobbies" involving collectibles and potential to make large profit by deceit, have been tainted/ ruined by fakes & reproductions.

Fake paintings, substituting rot gut whiskey for the Good stuff (pouring cheap booze in a top name brand's bottle really IS a Federal Offense. Etc, etc yada-yada!

Pitiful!

DDR · July 8, 2008 5:55AM

There's an interesting book out now entitled, "The Billionaire's Vinegar." It's about the very old bottles of wine that supposedly came from Thomas Jefferson's wine cellar. When eventually exposed as fakes, along with a number of other rare vintage bottles, the market for old, rare wine tanked.

What collectible hobbies have been ruined by fakes and reproductions?

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