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The craigslist scam

bsfastballbsfastball Posts: 455 ✭
in Trading Cards & Memorabilia Forum
I've posted the links below which discuss the craigslist scam before within other discussions, but I think it might be a good idea to give it it's own thread to have as a reference. Basically the scam involves a fake "flip", which is the paper insert within the PSA holder. The holder itself generally comes from a legit PSA card that has been cracked, the real card and flip taken out, and a different card with a fake flip put in its place. THE GIVEAWAY IS THE FONT AND ALIGNMENT OF THE TEXT ON THE FLIP! THE CARD WILL GENERALLY BE AUTHENTIC, BUT OF A LOWER GRADE OR TRIMMED. The forgers who run this scam have not been able to replicate the PSA font. Less often, the card will be a reprint as well.

Here's an example of one of these craigslist fakes (taken from another thread). Someone who's more gifted than I might want to line this flip up with a real flip - it would really accentuate the difference in the font.

image


This issue has been discussed on the Net 54 boards - they can explain it better than I can. Basically, any PSA flip that looks like the gehrig in this thread is a fake flip - the card might be authentic, but likely trimmed and/or a lower grade.

The first link demonstrates the fake flips and the second link is the entire thread.

Link 1

Link 2

Comments

  • NickMNickM Posts: 4,895 ✭✭✭
    It's much safer to assume the card is a fake entirely. There are a lot of these floating around, and '33 Goudey Gehrigs that can pass for NM are not easy to come by.

    Nick
    image
    Reap the whirlwind.

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  • fandangofandango Posts: 2,622 ✭
    great post!
    i think its important we all know what to look for to end this scam...

    i know a few people smarter than me are working on this...
  • zep33zep33 Posts: 6,897 ✭✭✭
    Like I said in the other thread, the bar code look horrible

    One look at the bar code is more than enough to stay away.

    Lets just hope they don't acquire better printers
  • stevekstevek Posts: 30,317 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Anyone who thinks they're gonna "steal" a popular collectible like this off of Craig's list from some sucker who doesn't know the value, is actually a sucker themselves. In this day & age it can be presumed basically 100% that a card like this would have been offered to a number of local baseball card shops already, and the seller would certainly rather just dump the card there from a dealer and get cash or a legit check, than dealing with some buyer on Craig's list who could potentially be a scammer in some way.
  • thunderdanthunderdan Posts: 3,036 ✭✭✭
    The other thing to watch out for is that they don't just show up on Craigslist. Rest assured some eBay sellers have them as well and may try to either solicit you offline or sell them on eBay.

    image


  • thunderdanthunderdan Posts: 3,036 ✭✭✭


    << <i>It's much safer to assume the card is a fake entirely. There are a lot of these floating around, and '33 Goudey Gehrigs that can pass for NM are not easy to come by.

    Nick >>



    I suspect this one is a fake. I compared this upclose to another Goudey I own and the print is fuzzy on this one. The thing that ended the transaction for me, though, was the breached holder. After that, I didn't bother to scrutinize the bar code and rest of the flip.
    image


  • stevekstevek Posts: 30,317 ✭✭✭✭✭
    No Craig's list scammer is gonna open the slab and put back in a real card which in itself is still valuable - come on now...they're without a doubt gonna put in a reprint.
  • zep33zep33 Posts: 6,897 ✭✭✭
    with a fake flip, there never was a real card to begin with
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