1933 Goudey Lou Gehrig Counterfeit Guide

The 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card is possibly the most commonly found counterfeited card. When making the decision to buy this card, especially in higher grade, it is highly recommended to buy the card graded by a reputable grading company, such as PSA or Beckett. Most of the counterfeits are fairly easy to find if you know what you’re looking for.

1. The top of the baseball bat will extend past the picture onto the border.
2. There will be a small gap between the top of Gehrig’s hat and the border.
3. The dirt will extend pass the picture onto the left border.
4. The red border will not perfectly align with the left and right borders. One side will be slightly offset.
5. The back of the card will show some red ink that has bled through. Some believe the ink has bled through from the front of the card, while others believe this is transferred from the stacking of wet sheets during production.
6. The text on the back of the card will be in solid green. Under magnification, the green text should not be made up of several dots or pixels.

Examples of 1933 Goudey Lou Gehrig Counterfeits

Example 1

1. There is no gap between Gehrig’s hat and top border
2. The top of the bat does not extend onto the top border
3. The dirt does not extend onto the left border
4. The red title block is perfectly aligned with the border
5. The back does not have the red ink bleeding through
6. The “reprint” text has been purposely rubbed off on the lower left corner

Example 2

This particular counterfeit was produced by opening an actual PSA case, inserting a fake and resealing the case again. The label or “flip” is not an authentic PSA label and actually utilizes slightly different fonts, which can also be used to identify the card as counterfeit. This is a good example to illustrate that simply because a card is in a well known grading companies holder does not mean the card is authentic.

1. The color and tone of Gehrig’s skin is different than the authentic
2. The dirt does not extend pass the left border
3. The red title block is perfectly aligned with the border

Detecting Counterfeit Cards in PSA Holders

As the hobby moves into the future, very seldom are high profile cards sold ungraded, but rather are sold entombed in a tamper-proof holder from a third party grader (TPG). The most well known TPGs are PSA, Beckett, and SGC. PSA is the most well known TGP and has a majority of the market share. In the past, one could feel relatively safe when buying a graded card that what they were buying was authentic and not altered. However, when it comes to high dollar cards, that is no longer the case. Counterfeiters have figured out how to compromise the holders by opening them, swapping out the cards or flips and resealing the holders again. The holders that are most commonly targeted are from PSA. In the past years, PSA has made changes to their holders to prevent or minimize the fraud, but the older holders are still at risk. I have written an extensive article to better understand this and steps you can take to prevent being a victim of fraud. Here is a link to the article.

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