Since the time I started collecting cards in the 1980s I learned that whenever large amounts of money are involved, there is a good chance someone is nearby looking to take advantage of someone with a fake.

We all know there are thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of fake (or modified legitimate reprints) t206 Honus Wagner cards on the market and almost no one in their right mind would touch a raw one outside of special circumstances.

In the 1980s we saw mass quantities of counterfeits of the 1963 Topps Pete Rose rookie, the 1968 Nolan Ryan rookie, the 1984 Fleer Update Kirby Puckett and Roger Clemens cards, the 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco, … the list goes on and on. Hell, we have even seen fake 2011 Topps Update Mike Trout rookie cards.

And it’s only a matter of time before today’s hobby darling, the Topps Project 2020 cards, start to see their own.

The newer releases are being produced in larger quantities so they may be less susceptible to counterfeits, but those early ones — the ones that have commanded major premiums on the secondary market and helped spark the current fervor surrounding the project — are the ones that concern me. No one truly expected to see a $20 On-Demand style card skyrocket to more than $400 in less than three months. With all of the technology in the world now — and the lack of security measures for the cards coming from Topps — it’s only a matter of time before the fakes start hitting the market.

The cards are printed on 130-point card stock and merely placed in a One-Touch (or snap case as we’ve seen recently) and then a Topps sticker is placed over the top. But we’ve already seen artists peeling stickers to sign and sell signed versions of their own card; and we’ve seen some folks re-holder their cards in premium magnetic cases and on occasion replace the stickers.

There are no security measures in place, and that is scary.

There are surely ways this issue could be handled, and all will likely increase cost on the production end. But perhaps the easiest and classiest way is to print the backs with the same technology used for the Topps Now cards. Those cards feature a holographic Topps logo on the rear — it wouldn’t detract from anything, yet would give collectors a sense of security.

As stated above the newer releases are less susceptible to fakes, but even for cards that draw at least $20 on the secondary market, there is some appeal for con-artists to ruin a good thing.

This entry was posted on May 21, 2020 at 9:11 am and is filed under Commentary with tags baseball, baseball cards, Project 2020, Topps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.