This past weekend work took me out to the west coast for a few different reasons. While part of my time was spent at an event in Los Angeles, the rest of the time I was on the road to San Diego for a collection pickup. I must say, one perk of this job is definitely the amount of traveling I get to do!

The pickup was for a collection of 1980’s through early 2000’s basketball and football cards, amongst others. Some highlights included three different Tom Brady rookie cards, a nice LeBron James, and a grail of modern era sports cards: the 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie. A card of which even in grade 7 out of 10 (depending on the day) can sell between $3,000 and $5,000. Talk about an awesome consignment opportunity! Plus, the entire collection was only two 4-channel card boxes, which would fly back home easily in a carry-on bag. Seeing I would be in southern California anyway, it made the 5 hour round trip from Los Angeles worthwhile; I will say it was a beautiful drive along the coastline!

When I arrived at the consignors address in San Diego and initially saw the collection on the table, the presentation was perfect. Every card in the box within its own hard case; the Brady’s were beautiful, the LeBron, too… but then there was the Jordan alongside a Patrick Ewing rookie. Unfortunately, the Jordan was instantly recognizable as a fake/reproduction card, especially when compared with the real Patrick Ewing. I was devastated, and it was certainly not fun to break that news. It’s never fun to crush someone’s dreams, and I don’t want to be a dream crusher!

How did I know it was a fake as soon as I saw it? The print was pixelated with a consistent dotting throughout, and the Fleer logo and small print on the back was blurry. What sealed the deal was taking the Jordan and Ewing cards out of their cases to compare and show the differences, which were obvious. In about 9 minutes flat, a beautiful ride down the California coast ended in sadness, especially for the consignor.

Don’t get me wrong, the collection will still be a joy to handle; but a once potential $6,000 to $9,000 collection is now perhaps $1,000 to $1,500 before grading. The point of this story is you must be careful in this hobby. Whether it is comic books, trading cards, or toys, people are always creating fakes and trying to deceive. That is why when collecting at any level provenance is important!