Questionable Cards That Make You Go "Hmmm?"

We know that our hobby is not free of controversy, there are plenty of fakes out there. Sadly some hobby criminals have gotten so good that it is difficult to tell if a signature is real or if a patch is authentic. Then there are the cards that are so obviously bad there is no question about a card being fake.

 

This seller, who has 100% feedback with over 4200 ratings, is selling a 2009 Topps Unique Justin Morneau Solo Shot relic card. The card has a ticket stub in the cut out instead of a jersey piece and this seller is listing it as a “Factory Error”. There have been factory error relics before but I find this hard to believe, this would have required someone at Topps to knowingly insert the ticket stub on to the card during the construction phase. As you can see from Morneau’s other cards in the Solo Shot line Topps used the same orange/red jersey swatches for most likely all of the cards #/275 including the autographed versions, which are #/25.

 

OK, so now that we have gotten the logical argument out of the way lets dig deeper.

 

When you scan in a little closer (inside the red oval) you notice what appears to be an orange jersey relic on the right side of the die-cut window. You can also see at the edge of the ticket, the white border to the right of the SF logo, there is a shadow which would indicate a level change.

 

There also appears to be damage to the die-cut window on the right side (insider the red rectangle) near the jersey swatch. It is possible that this may be normal chipping but it just seems conspicuous.

 

What bothers me is that this person, who has been selling sports cards for 10 years now, is either oblivious to the card being altered or they are selling the card knowing it is a fake and is trying to profit from an unsuspecting collector.

 

I have to admit, I am completely lost by the addition of a Giants ticket stub on to Morneau’s card. The auction also says “POSTESEASON ticket?” in the description, the Giants did not make the playoffs from 2003-2009, why would they even make a reference to the playoffs?