When it comes to fakes, I consider myself to be a connoisseur of fine card art. Although it seems as though there are many more people like me out there who are aware of the rampant infection of fake patches and autos, I still think many of them are far below where they need to be. So many people understand that fakes exist, but so few actually understand the trends in what makes said examples easy to identify.

That is where something like prevention and education is going to be hard to implement. Many people say that a national free and readily accessible database of scans will lead to more accurate representation of the real cards versus the fakes, but I think that doing only a database is stitching up a small leg gash on a guy who has his arm blown off. Despite giving access to new products that are released, it does absolutely nothing to fix all of the existing problems with sets that have huge problems.

Take Ufjumper7, now corbinxz, a guy that has single handedly destroyed a good 15% of the total print run of Percy Harvin SP Authentic Patch Autos. Because the people who buy refuse to believe that someone would fake cards the way he does, they dont take the 5 seconds to do a google search and see that every card he sells is fake. Although he sells a lot of cards that even some of the dumbest and most clueless people wouldnt touch, he also sells fakes like this and like this, where most people wouldnt put a thought into it’s authenticity because of the lack of a logo patch.

Check out a few others that he has sold, and then tell me that the photo database is the only thing needed to prevent further fakes:

Dan Marino 3 Color Platinum Patch Auto

Brett Favre 3 Color Patch

Ray Rice Ravens Logo SP Authentic Patch Auto

Tom Brady 4 Color Bowman Sterling Patch Auto

Joe Flacco Ravens Logo SP Authentic Patch Auto

Adrian Peterson 3 Color SP Authentic Patch Auto

Reggie Wayne NFL Logo SP Authentic Patch

After seeing fucktards like this, I would say that there is a three pronged approach that needs to be done for scam situations, with necessary cooperation from the card companies being an essential part. However, due to cost, it becomes highly unlikely that something like this will ever come to plan.

1. National Photo Database

Each card that features a patch would be scanned into a program that would display the cards for everyone to see. This would obviously be the toughest of the three prongs to accomplish because of the time cost and the financial cost of getting it up and running. Think about how many different things would need to be done before this could even be considered a pipe dream. You would need to buy the site, the servers, design the programming for uploading, get the permission of all the companies, and find a way to market this in a way that everyone would know to reference the site before buying.

2. Patch/Auto card “Quick Opinion” Button On Ebay

There needs to be a service provided by eBay that would allow collectors to get a quick opinion of an expert on any particular item they would like to buy. I would love for this to be free, but we know that for it to be implemented it would need to make money. You would also need someone to run it who would be willing to do all the research. Im not sure there are many people qualified to do so, and the ones that are qualified have time constraints that prevent proper time spent.

3. Faker/Scammer taskforce dedicated to spreading the word

A lot of the people who have been to a few rodeos are well familiar with guys like Ufjumper, Kevin Burge, and even Wolverine24, among others. Even though they are familiar, those same people have no idea how to combat these people at the source. Local and federal law enforcement have better things to do, if not just bigger fish to fry, and people who make a few thousand a month on eBay are not worth the time to pursue because they dont affect things the way others like the targets of Operation Bullpen did. Because the source is pretty much protected, there needs to be a task force created with marketing all the things needed to become an expert. Materials need to be at every shop, webpages need to be linked to all the manufacturer’s sites, and this task force needs to be responsible for doing it. The problem is that time and cost will be the limiting factor, and eBay partnership will obviously be limited due to the way the fakes are sold. Ebay makes a lot of money off of their users, and though these douches detract from overall positive experience on their site, they still wont give the access to banning scammers that needs to be given.

All in all, many of the fake problems come from the sets and situations I have listed in the SCAM SCHOOL tab at the top of the page. Education is always the best weapon, but when you are talking about a hobby, many people dont want to have to learn to have fun. It may be something that we spend hard earned money on, but it is still just for fun, and that prevents dedication to eliminating safety issues. In all reality, this will ultimately come down to the manufacturers taking a hard line, and its become the understanding that fakes and scams are not at the top of their list of things to fix. The bottom line remains that no one is going to watch your ass for you, so do everything you can to avoid being that guy.