The Card Collecting Con

Sports trading card collecting can be a great hobby.  I know.  I’ve been involved with it since I was born.  Literally.  There’s a photo of me, a mere one month old, under the Christmas tree with a couple of packs of early ‘70s football cards courtesy of Santa Claus spread out around me.

But since those idyllic collecting days back in the ‘70s, baseball cards (and football and hockey and basketball) have gone from being a mere hobby to a multi-million dollar business.  It has become a sporting stock market where one buys shares of Reggie Bush or LeBron James or Sidney Crosby in hopes that their future on-the-field glory translates into dollars in the card collector’s pocket.

The Inserts

How’d this happen?  I blame the birth of the so-called “insert” card as the beginning of the end.  For those of you unfamiliar with the modern incarnation of the insert card, allow me to explain.  An “insert” card is a card not part of the normal set of cards released by a company, but from a special smaller and supposedly rarer subset of cards released along with the “normal” cards.  These cards would be randomly inserted into packs at rates sometimes as low as 1 in every 2 packs up to only 1 in every 100 or more.  The only problem with these dandies was that they weren’t that special.  Different, sure, but that didn’t always mean better.  That is, until 1996.

Through its 1996 football and hockey releases, Upper Deck introduced the hobby to the jersey card.  This wasn’t just another insert card.  This was Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket, and nearly as impossible to find.  Issued just 1 in every 2500 packs (or approximately 1 in every 100 boxes), the jersey card featured a 1-inch square swatch of a game-worn jersey embedded right in the card.  This meant the jersey Dan Marino wore on Sunday wound up in that card you were holding, bringing you, as Upper Deck liked to claim “closer to the game.”

The response from the hobby was enormous.  So were the price tags.  These first jersey cards sold for upwards of $500 a piece (even today, these original jersey cards fetch in the neighborhood of $100-$300).  Within a few short years, all of the major card companies offered up their version of the jersey card.  But that wasn’t enough for collectors.  Soon demand came for jersey cards with a multi-colored swatch of jersey on them.  Or even better, patch cards – thick cards with hunks of jersey patches taken from the uniform’s lettering or numbers or team logo.  And it didn’t stop there.  The hobby was suddenly flooded with memorabilia cards including everything from pieces of bats to sticks to game balls to helmets to gloves to shoes.  Even pieces of stadiums (floor boards, walls, seats, and Astroturf) could be found mounted in a card.  Anything a player touched turned into the card companies’ gold.

But it didn’t end there.  The always collectible autograph was added to the mix.  Some autographs were signed on the cards themselves with others on stickers or smaller cards that were then embedded into the card in a similar fashion as the memorabilia.  From this, the autographed jersey (or patch or shoe or whatever) card was born.  Cards with not only a piece of a player’s game-used equipment on it, but with that player’s autograph as well.

Then, taking a page straight out of the art world, card companies began to serial number cards as proof of their rareness and therefore their collectibility (such as 069/100, or number 69 of 100 copies produced).  So what you get isn’t just another autographed patch card, it’s an autographed patch card of which “only” 100 or 50 or 25 or 5 exist.

The mayhem spiraled out of control from there to the present where a card serial numbered to 25 is nothing unusual.  What’s really sought after now are the “1 of 1s” – a card that is completely unique where no other card like it exists (it is serial numbered 1/1).  A one of a kind treasure.

Truth Be Told

Of course, if one were to use their common sense (of which some collectors are truly lacking), serial numbering a card doesn’t prove it’s rare.  In fact, most of today’s cards are not rare at all when you step back and look at things rationally.  Take the so-called “parallel” card.  This is a card that is nowadays always serial numbered, yet is merely a different version of the player’s normal or “base” card.  For example, the regularly issued card may be white, but the card company will produce an “emerald” version of the card serial numbered to 500, a “blue” version numbered to 250, a “silver” version to 100, a “gold” version to 50, a “black” version to 25, and then the 1 of 1 version that’s a “rainbow” or “refractor” or whatever funky color they want to make it.

The same goes for memorabilia and autograph cards.  Variations of these act the same as they do for base cards, adding different color printing and serial numbers to the card in question.  But the problem is this seemingly low serial number on the card leads collectors to believe they’ve got something special when in reality, the serial numbering is a simple deception.

In 1984, John Elway had one rookie card – the 1984 Topps card.  Twenty years later, Ben Roethlisberger had well over 30, but only if you don’t count the some 200 other insert card sets featuring his likeness also produced in his rookie year.  Now let’s say you don’t want just a Big Ben rookie card, but you’re a big wheel and want one of his autographed rookie cards.  Well, you’d have in the neighborhood of 50 different autographed card choices.  Within those 50 some odd choices are cards that are serial numbered anywhere from 1 to 250 copies or more.  Now, in many cases, the autographed card serial numbered to 25 is considered more valuable than the one numbered to 100.  Which makes sense, except for the fact that the drawing point to either card is supposed to be Big Ben’s autograph - which is identical regardless of whatever card you buy.  So even if you own a Big Ben autograph card numbered to 10, in reality there’s at least 5000 Roethlisberger autographed “rookie” cards out there.  So is it really that limited?  Or does that foil stamped number on the back of the card simply hold too much sway over your sensibilities?

Today’s jersey cards are even more ridiculous.  Serial numbered or not, the jersey card has flooded the market to the point of over saturation.  A star player’s jersey card can be had for under $5 (what their “normal” card would’ve been worth had the insert craze never happened), miles away from the $500 price tag the original jersey cards commanded.  Now let’s say you wanted a Brett Favre jersey card.  If you look through your handy football Beckett price guide, you’d see most Favre jersey cards list from $15 to $50 (again, dependant on the ever present serial number).  But in 2004 alone, there were over 12,500 Favre jersey cards produced in over 70 different insert sets (in 2006, the total numbers were quite similar).  But no matter which card you went after, you’d wind up with the same thing – a swatch from Brett Favre’s game-worn jersey.

Or would you?

Authenticity - Jerseys

I seriously question the authenticity of today’s jersey cards.  Why?  Well, let’s do a little math.  Most jersey cards contain about a ½ to 1 inch square swatch of jersey.  Clay Luraschi, a spokesman for Topps Cards, told me he estimated that a typical jersey yields 800 to 1000 jersey cards.  But by my figuring, a typical jersey has about 2000 square inches of fabric.  Going with my figure (a higher figure) it would mean with the 12,500 plus Favre jersey cards produced, at least 6 game-worn jerseys were needed to make all those cards.  No big deal, right?  Except that most players do not receive that many jerseys in a year.

Between 2005 and 2006, I contacted over half of all the professional sports franchises by phone or email.  All of them - every single franchise - stated that players had one main and one back-up jersey in both home and away styles (and alternate if the team had such a 3rd jersey) for a season.  That’s it - no matter if it was football, baseball, or basketball (however, not the NHL.  It provides jerseys to companies via their own system).  Only if a player’s jersey was deemed to be “beyond repair” is a replacement issued.  So in Favre’s case, that meant he was issued 4 jerseys – 2 white and 2 green – a season.  Seeing as how Favre’s rarely sacked, his need for a replacement jersey was most likely minimal to non-existent throughout most of his career.  So in his 15 years with the Packers (up until the start of the 2007 season), we’re looking at a little over 70 jerseys issued since 1993.  Most teams went on to tell me that the players were allowed to keep half their jerseys, with the other half remaining with the team to be auctioned off, donated to charity, or kept by the team for numerous other reasons.  No team told me that they sold jerseys directly to card companies.  And in theory, those same card companies chopped up nearly 10% of Favre’s career total of game-worn jerseys in just one year to make cards.  Truly, how many Brett Favre game-worn jerseys are in existence?

So where do card companies come by the jerseys they use in cards?  Well, in some cases, what you get isn’t a true “game-worn” jersey.  For example, most jersey cards of rookies are made from jerseys used at photo shoots, meaning a player could’ve worn the jersey for merely 5 minutes before handing it off to a card company to be chopped to pieces.  But in the case of the real “game worn” jerseys, I was told by Clay Luraschi of Topps that they get their jerseys directly from the players, sometimes with the league’s assistance (Topps also gets jerseys from sponsoring events like the NFL’s Pro Bowl or the NHL’s rookie All-Star Game and MLB’s Home-Run Derby).  But a representative of Donruss at the Chicago National Card Convention told me that they get their jerseys not just from the leagues, but the players, too, and also from “trusted collectors.”

And that’s when a warning light went off.  Go to a big card convention.  Look around.  There are literally thousands of “authentic” jerseys and autographs in the room from players past and present.  But guess what?  They aren’t all authentic.  Yes, I hate to break it to you, but there are forgeries out there.  A lot of them. 

In an age where the companies that produce the on-the-field jerseys also sell the exact same item to fans, you wind up with a lot of “game-worn” jerseys out there.  A modern game-worn jersey is quite easy to fake.  In fact, it’s not just the unscrupulous collector that will fabricate one.  Bruce McNall, who once owned the Los Angeles Kings, ordered employees to fake game worn jerseys.  They would wash purchased jerseys with stones and purposefully stain them to make them look authentic and “game-worn.”  They weren’t.  McNall – prior to going to jail – offered up some $300,000 in “game-used jerseys” as collateral on a loan.  In actuality, the jerseys cost him $200 – then were faked to look authentic.  Where are these jerseys now?  And who else is doing likewise?

Just as a trusted car salesman will look you in the eye and sell you the biggest hunk-o’-junk on the lot, a card company offering more money than usual to a jersey collector for a specific piece can – and will - be hoodwinked just the same.  Does this mean all jersey dealers are crooks?  Of course not.  But I also believe the story goes that Pete Rose gave away the bat he used to break Ty Cobb’s all-time hit record to his friend…more than once.

To prove my point, check out the differences in the way card companies word their “certificate of authenticity” on the back of cards.  For Upper Deck, on its 2006 football cards, it reads in part “On the front of this card is a piece of memorabilia that has been certified to us as having been used in an official NFL game.”  Whereas on the back of a 2006 Upper Deck hockey card, the same “certificate” reads in part “On the front of this card is an authentic piece of a jersey worn by (player’s name) in an official NHL game.”  A subtle difference, to be sure, but a significant one in terms of meaning.  They seem a little more confident in the authenticity of the hockey jersey than the football jersey, don’t they?  I wonder why?

Donruss is a little more firm in their on-the-card certificates.  Most read in part, “The authentic game-worn jerseys were obtained and guaranteed by Donruss Playoff L.P.”  Many of their cards, however, do not make a specific claim about the exact jersey on/in the card in your hand.  It simply reads “game-worn jerseys,” not the jersey on the front of the card.  In the past, Donruss would often picture the jersey in question on the card along with such a claim, but sometimes the color of the jersey on the front didn’t match the photo on the back.  Subsequently, Donruss stopped this practice of “authentication.”

Then there’s times when a card collector really needs to read the fine print on a card.  Topps, in their 2007 Allen & Ginter baseball set, posted this on the back of its jersey cards:  “The relic contained on this card is not from any specific game or season.”  So where did it come from?  They claim it is an authentic swatch of jersey, but from where and when, Topps apparently cannot – and will not - say. 

And Upper Deck sometimes likes to substitute game-worn jerseys for “event-worn” jerseys.  In its 2007-08 Trilogy hockey set, many jersey swatches from retired players (I had cards of both Peter Stastny and Borje Salming – each Hall of Fame players) were not game-worn jersey swatches.  They were event worn.  What event, who can say?  In other words, much like the rookie jersey swatches, the player depicted on the front of the card may have had that jersey on for two minutes.  Wow.  How collectible is that?

Sometimes, a card company won't even offer any such claim on the authenticity of a jersey.  A card I recently had - a 2007-08 Upper Deck Ultimate dual jersey card of Stan Mikita and Martin Havlat (both pictured as Chicago Blackhawks) - claimed on the back of the card that Havlat's jersey was from when he was a member of the Ottawa Senators (luckily the black and red jersey could pass for either the Senators or the Blackhawks), yet there was no mention whatsoever as to where the Mikita jersey was from.  Nothing.  Did the card's jersey swatches seemingly representing both players come from the Havlat Senators' jersey?  Where was the Mikita jersey portion from? Who knows?

And lastly, there is the new practice of issuing cards with "manufacturer" patches.  Since companies cannot meet the demand for the highly collectible patch cards, they simply go around using authentic game-worn jersey patches for their cards and substitute patches that have never even seen a jersey let alone a true game-worn jersey.  Most the the top-of-the-line patch cards out there today fall into this category.  Donruss's "Lettermen" patches are an excellent example of this (the real "Lettermen" patches, using the letters from the back of a game-worn jersey are usually only found in upper end products like Leaf Limited), but Upper Deck is using more and more of these with each passing year.

Authenticity – Autographs

Autographs are an even more easily forged item on the collectables market.  Why a buddy of mine as a joke once signed Jim Palmer’s name to a new pair of Jockey underwear his Mom bought him and sold it as an “authentic autograph” to some poor sap for $20.  And that was over nearly 25 years ago.  Things have not improved. 

With card companies now offering up authentic player autographs on their cards, they are forced to print a certificate of authenticity right on the back of each card.  Most rookies are corralled at the same photo shoots where their jerseys are taken and sign hundreds if not thousands of cards for the card companies right in their presence.  However, for veteran or retired players, what the card companies do in most cases is to send the player a stack of cards (or more recently, a sheet of stickers) for the athlete to sign.  The player signs the cards and sends them back to the company to issue into their product.  But the problem here lies in the fact that no one – NO ONE - witnesses the players actually sign the cards (with the exception of Topps, who has a company representative present at all signing sessions).  The companies simply receive the cards back from the player – which is exactly what the certificate of authenticity on the back of the autographed cards state (For example, Upper Deck’s autograph cards usually read something like “This signature was sent to Upper Deck directly from the player…”). 

What this means is, the player’s agent, or wife, or son, or who-knows-what really could have signed that card you hold so near and dear to your heart.  It’s not out of the realm of possibility.  “Auto-pens,” automatic pens created to sign numerous documents, exist and have been used for decades.  I have two “autographs” from Cal Ripken Jr. which I mailed to him as a kid and received back which I know (now) were signed by an auto-pen, and not Ripken himself.  Hollywood for years has employed numerous underlings to sign stars’ names on 8 x 10s and send them off to adoring fans.  To think an athlete or two hasn’t done the same is naïve to say the least.

But there are more than just autographed cards out there these days.  And just as “game-used” equipment can be faked, so too, can autographs.  Of course, there is plenty of truly autographed player memorabilia out there.  I once watched Natrone Means (hey, remember him?) sign a 4 foot high box filled with a couple hundred mini San Diego football helmets over the course of an afternoon.  I know an owner of one of the biggest card shops in the nation who regularly gets athletes into his shop for autograph sessions in which the player can sign hundreds of autographs in a very short period of time.  And if you go to enough card shows, you’ve seen athletes show up and sign a couple hundred autographs in an afternoon.  In fact, I witnessed Peyton Manning sign some 500 autographs in about 3 hours at a Chicago card show (and pocket some $100,000 in the process) after he won Super Bowl XLI. But truth be told, unless you watch the athlete sign his name on your piece of memorabilia, there’s no real way to authenticate most of what’s out there. 

A “certificate of authenticity” printed on laser jet paper by some collector doesn’t mean Michael Jordan’s autograph is on that basketball you own.  And even an “authentication” company such as PSA (Pro Sports Authentication – more on these guys in a minute) that claims they can look at a signature and say if it is real or not is lying to you in my opinion.  I can sign my own name 10 times and not have it look the same in any 2 of those signatures.  And doing it quickly, on a round surface such as a baseball or basketball, while mobbed by adoring fans, you’re telling me that that signature’s going to look the same as the one signed at the bottom of a bank check?  Please.

I highly question any “authentication” service.  Why?  Just think of it this way: there are paintings hanging in most every art museum in the world that are forgeries.  Even the NY Metropolitan art museum has admitted in the past to being duped by a fake.  So if those people with their masters’ degrees in art can be fooled, some fat guy who’s collected baseball jerseys for some 20 years can be fooled just as quick – if not quicker.  While some authorities can make honest mistakes and misrepresentations, in the world of sports memorabilia, such deception is an active and intentional pursuit.

In 2004, Collector’s Universe which owns Pro Sports Authentication (also known as PSA and now PSA/DNA) was sued for issuing “certificates of authenticity” featuring the signature of Bill Miller who was formerly the publisher of Autograph Collector magazine.  The problem was, Miller didn’t work for PSA, nor did he ever even look at the items certified as authentic with his signature – which itself was faked.  PSA did this on over 14,000 items.  Collector’s Universe lost that court case.

But it doesn’t stop there.  There are other reports out there of members of PSA/DNA authenticating signatures that they turn around and sell.  In other words, a piece may be certified by PSA/DNA as being real, however the guy selling it to you is the same one who “authenticated” it.  No conflict of interest there, right?  In fact, in a court case related to that incident which dealt with some 2000 autographed photos, it was determined that the 3 members of PSA that “authenticated” the photos did so in 16 hours.  Which means they spent just a few seconds reviewing – and authenticating – each autograph.  Makes you feel secure about their processes, doesn’t it?  And if that weren’t bad enough, PSA/DNA also hired a well known forger of signatures as one of their “authenticators.”  Was that because he knew how to spot a fake or because he has absolutely no credibility and was willing to sign his name to anything as long as a paycheck was attached to it?

Grading

As if this weren’t enough to question the cards stashed away in your collection, let’s dig a little deeper.

Counterfeit cards are nothing new.  There have always been reprints of cards, mainly the classic sets from before WWII, but these are often marked as such.  Counterfeits, on the other hand, are made for no other reason than to profit.  And several classic big money cards have their counterfeit versions out there.  Rookie cards of Pete Rose, Don Mattingly, Mario Lemieux, Dan Marino, Troy Aikman, Steve Young, and others have all appeared on the market and are likely sitting as a prized piece in someone’s collection.

Now, getting a card “graded” by one of the several companies offering this service (including the likes of PSA/DNA) would most likely prove that the card you have is indeed what you claim it to be.  And I think most grading companies can spot forgeries.  But then again….

There is the recent example of 2 men in Ohio who claim to have an authentic 1909 T-206 Honus Wagner card (the “holy grail” of the sports card world), and despite having both a printing expert with over 30 years experience and a paper expert who worked with the FBI on the Unabomber case (who tested the card’s paper which yielded a chemical component in it not seen in paper since before 1920 as well as lacking a component seen in nearly all modern paper) state that they believe the card is indeed authentic to the era, the card won’t be “authenticated” by any grading service.  PSA, on HBO’s Real Sports program, claimed it a fake without even seeing the card in person. 

Of course, PSA got its start by “authenticating” the T-206 Wagner once owned by Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall (the guy known for faking his own team’s game-worn jerseys).  That T-206 Wagner most likely had been cut by a collector from an original T-206 printing sheet, then later re-cut by another collector to better adjust the edges.  PSA gave the Wagner a grade of an “8” even though, by its own admission, PSA won’t grade cards that have been cut or shaved - as the Wagner card most likely was.  For more on this read Michael O’Keeffe and Teri Thompson’s excellent book “The Card.”

But all this leads me to question all grading services.  Grading was born out coin collecting.  Coins are often graded to determine how “mint” they are with those looking like they were just minted being the most desirable, hence the name of the “mint” grade.  So cards now can be submitted to grading companies (like the aforementioned PSA and Beckett) to see how “mint” they are.  In other words, you need someone to tell you that the card you have either looks really nice or really crappy.  Supposedly, the closer your card is to “mint” or “gem mint” or whatever their terminology makes it worth more.  Personally, I see the real profit here going straight to the grading companies who charge in the neighborhood of $10 a card for their service.

Without question, I know that all grades issued by these companies are completely subjective.  I’m sure each company has guidelines they follow to determine the grades they issue, but this process involves humans.  And, as if you didn’t know, humans can screw up.  So some card grader on his first day or after an all night bender or just dumped by his girlfriend (like he’d even have one) may give a card a different grade on a different day due to one of a myriad of possibilities.  The grading companies will deny it and offer up all sorts of reasons why this can’t happen, but it does.  In fact, many customers unsatisfied with the “grades” their cards received from these companies resubmit their cards and GET DIFFERENT GRADES.  Meaning a card graded an 8 out of 10 may only need to go back to be re-graded to become a 9.  So which is it?  An 8 or a 9?  Why does it even matter to you?

To make matters worse, cards can be physically altered to make them look better.  And many times, these altered cards get past graders.  Who can blame them?  In 2005 alone, PSA graded over 1 million cards, meaning PSA’s 13 graders spent a total of 90 seconds on each card they graded (and that time estimation may be an over estimation).  So a Mint 9 Mickey Mantle card may in fact be an Excellent 5 that’s been altered.  At least one document restoration company – which has worked for some of the countries biggest museums - has admitted to “restoring” vintage cards claiming that what the owner does with the cards after the company works on them is his own business.  Most likely, these “restored” cards were graded.  There are numerous ways to eliminate creases, fill pinholes, and restore card corners to make them sharp again.  Yet the grading companies don’t often look for these alterations, even though they claim to.  Personally, I’ve had a card denied service because of supposed “alterations” (which had NOT been done) only to re-submit it and have it ultimately graded by the same company that denied me service the first time through.

By the way, the best way to tell if a vintage card has been altered is with a blacklight.  The UV light can often show discolorations on the card that were created when the card was altered.

But it’s not just vintage cards that are altered.  Where there’s cash to be made, there’re suckers to be fleeced.  How bad can it get?  I’ve run across collectors who cut up store bought jerseys to use to alter jersey cards.  They will do things like cut the Bengal’s head off a store bought jersey and place it in a Carson Palmer “authentic” jersey card to make the card seem more like a 1/1 rarity.  And who can tell the difference?  There are cards out there that look like the forgery but are factory produced.  It can be very difficult to spot.  However, this is one time the serial number on a card can come in handy.  That number can serve a purpose and can track the card and what it looks like across the collecting world.  A highly useful website, , has sprung up in an effort to combat such subterfuge.  It catalogs true and fake patch cards, hopefully helping the collector get what he pays for.

Of course, it doesn’t help things when the card companies themselves begin to release cards of questionable origins.  Perhaps you’ve seen Upper Deck’s asterisk (*) Barry Bonds Sweet Spot baseball card.  Or the Michael “Buysner” card in the same set – mocking Topps’ new President, former Disney head honcho Michael Eisner.  Or maybe Topps own Derek Jeter with President Bush and Mickey Mantle in the background.  All these cards (and a few others) were “accidentally” released by the company in question.  And if you believe that, I’ve got a 6 color Babe Ruth autograph patch card for you (What?  The Yankees didn’t have 6 colors on their jerseys back then?). 

Yes, in an effort to boost sales and gain attention, the card companies have resorted to cheap gimmicks to lure collectors to their product.  But in my mind, these questionable cards just add further questions to the supposed legitimate cards they are supposed to be releasing.  Having a little fun with the asterisk ball card is one thing, but to claim the release of such a card is an “accident” is another.  Blatantly lie once, and for me, you’re always a liar.  And when you want me to believe all the cards you release contain the authentic autographs and jerseys you claim they do, perhaps lying in these instances about “accidental” releases isn’t the best move to make.

Pack Searchers

Then there’s the bottom of the barrel in my opinion – pack searchers.  These are people capable of feeling packs to determine if they do indeed contain a memorabilia or autograph card or not.  It’s not that much of a trick (I’m guessing even you’ve picked up a pack and instantly knew there was something different about it), but it’s stopped me from ever buying just a single pack of cards because I know a searched box offers me zero chance of pulling something worthwhile.  To save you the $5 or $10 on eBay, here’s some of the secrets to doing it:

The easiest thing to feel for is a memorabilia card.  I know 12 year olds who can do this.  The simplistic way is to feel the pack.  Certain packs are thicker and stiffer than others.  Now in a really weak effort to deter people, card companies have inserted decoy cards in their packs.  These are supposed to mimic jersey cards so you can’t feel for them.  “Supposed to” is right.  They forget one simple thing, jersey cards have a piece of jersey in them, decoy cards don’t.  You can feel this soft spot through the pack and the other cards inside.  How you do it is simple:  squeeze the pack really tight and pull your fingers down the length of the pack.  If there’s a jersey card inside, you should feel the soft spot in the pack.  It may feel like a lump or a hollow.  Either way, feel that difference and you’ve hit pay dirt.

Another more complex method of searching involves tin foil.  What for, you ask?  Well, with that tin foil, you can see through packs.  Well, not in the Superman or x-ray specs way, but close enough.  Thanks to serial numbering on cards, the lower the number on a card usually equates to a higher value in sales.  So you’re looking for cards with low serial numbers (or, with most rookie cards now being serial numbered as well, the rookies).  This type of searching requires more time, skill, and practice.  Most foil packs of cards have extra space inside the pack.  Much more than you’d think.  Enough to manipulate the cards inside the pack itself.  Now if you’ve done your homework, you should know everything about the cards – where the money card is placed within the pack (usually right in the middle) and where the serial number is stamped on the card.  If you do everything right, you should be able to slide the money card far enough down inside the pack to feel the serial number.  Put the tin foil over it and rub it with your finger nail – voila, the number appears on the tin foil.

You can even feel autographs.  How?  Most card companies don’t have the athletes autograph the card itself anymore, but instead sign a sticker.  They affix this signed sticker to the card later, but in doing so, a slight ridge is formed.  Not much of one, but to hands attuned to feel for it, it’s enough.  You can run the risk of nerve damage searching packs for autographs (you really have to squeeze to feel ‘em), but Topps makes it the simplest by putting a small, but surprisingly thick, square sticker on the back of all their autographed cards.  This sticker is part of their authenticating process, but in reality, it’s a dead giveaway for pack searchers because it’s very easy to feel through the packaging.

I don’t condone pack searching, but as a pack searcher once said to me:  “When you go to the grocery store, you don’t just grab the first apple because it’s on top do you?  No, you pick through all of them to find the one you want.  The same goes for cards.  I won’t take the top pack just because it’s on top.  I’ll search through them all – without opening a single one – to find just the right one.”  Can’t argue that, can you?

Hope?

So you’re asking yourself, does this guy still collect cards?  Sadly, the answer is yes.  The addiction that afflicted me so young is stuck in my gullet most likely for life.  Although my focus within the hobby has completely changed, I still want to continue to enjoy card collecting as a hobby.

As you can tell, I feel changes and attitudes need to be changed.  Pandora’s Box may have already been open and it may be too late to cap it, but I believe there is hope.  All of the professional sports leagues now hologram or in some noticeable and traceable way authenticate memorabilia and autographs in hopes of eliminating forgeries and scam artists.  But the leagues (in this case) aren’t the issue, it’s the card companies.

I am aware that modern cards produced by these companies are made under high security almost like diamond mines where employees can be searched and have their hands cut off should jersey swatches be found on them (okay, maybe they’d just be fired).  And I’ve seen photos of Donruss’s “vault” where they stash all their game-used equipment to later be hacked into little pieces for cards.  And all this does lend itself to making everything seem on the level, but it still doesn’t guarantee what they have is indeed the real deal.

I think each card company needs to limit production as well as brands across the board, making those memorabilia and autograph cards harder to come by like they originally were and therefore returning some faith in “authenticity” to the hobby.  Otherwise jersey cards are going to be about as valuable as any of the overproduced cards of the early ‘90s.  Focus needs to be adjusted back to getting kids into collecting in favor of pandering to those collectors with deep pockets, especially when packs can now fetch $500 or more – yet the value coming out of them often is 1/3 of that cost or less.  Eliminate pack searching with better decoy cards (a simple and strategically placed hole or ridge or bump would render most searches ineffective).  Simple changes could make this hobby better and stronger than it is, but I’m afraid that just like in every other good thing turned bad, greed and the need to make a quick buck will be its undoing.  And sooner than you think.

UPDATE: I received a '07 redemption card from Donruss/Panini in June of 2009. A year and a half late, sure, but that was not my beef. My problem came with this statement contained in the letter included with my redemption card. It read, "In exchange for your redemption request, we have included an autographed card of equal value...." Now considering that all card companies include some sort of disclaimer - often right on their boxes of cards - stating that their cards will not hold any specific value, how can they rightfully claim to replace one card with another of so-called "equal value?" If they hold no true monetary value from the card company's perspective as they themselves claim, then they can't really pick and choose what replacement card to send me based on some nonexistent value. Yet in the Donruss/Panini letter, they claimed to do just that. So clearly there is a contradiction within company policy, one that they are willing to use to screw over their customer when need arises.

--by Brian Tuohy

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