I have always put 2005 Absolute Tools of the Trade jumbo swatch cards as one of the most faked patch sets of all time. The ease in which patch fakers could remove the swatches from the cards, in addition to the size of the swatches and the players on the checklist, made it an easy and profitable target for fakers. Now that the 2008 NFL rookie class has had a lot of success on the field, 2008 SP Authentic may be entering into a time where it may be reaching this level.
You may wonder why 2008 SP Authentic is a more widely scammed set than 2008 Exquisite, and the reason is availability and price. The top rookies out of 2008 SP had more examples of their cards than 2008 Exquisite, as the top rookies in Exquisite had only 99 copies of their RPAs. Exquisites also present more of an upfront investment in the product, which means that you can expect that fakers would much rather gravitate towards the cheaper cards with the bigger prospect of gain. Funny enough, there are SO MANY fakes, that many of them are now in the hands of their third or fourth buyer. Bad all around.
I want to go into the biggest targets and what to look for so you can avoid the worst.
Matt Ryan
Matty Ice, as he is affectionately known, has had some major exposure in the limelight this year. It was due to the Falcons being the top seed in the NFC, and Ryan being a large contributor to their great record. Last year was also a very good year for him, and his rookie season wasn’t too shabby either. If you see parts of the Falcons logo or other logos that don’t seem right, don’t waste your time. Ryan is a huge target because of his success, don’t expect that someone wouldn’t destroy a four hundred dollar card just to make a buck.
Questionable and Fake Cards Currently Up For Sale or Sold Recently:
Patch Auto – Falcons Chest Logo
Joe Flacco
Flacco had a very good rookie season and a better sophomore season for a popular and widely collected team. His team also has one of the most faked logo patches in hobby history, which makes him an easy target for people to take advantage of the clueless. Ravens logo patches are so common that there isnt even a good idea out there of which are real, and the three colors are more suspect than ever. Basically if it is more than two color for Flacco, I would stay away. Unfortunate isnt it?
Questionable and Fake Cards Currently Up For Sale or Sold Recently:
Patch Auto – Ravens Sleeve Logo
Patch Auto – Ravens Sleeve Logo 2
Patch Auto – Ravens Sleeve Logo 3
Patch Auto – Ravens Sleeve Logo 4
Patch Auto – Ravens Sleeve Logo 5
Patch Auto – Ravens Sleeve Logo 6
Ray Rice
Like Flacco, Rice plays for a very popular Ravens team, but his popularity is more recent due to overwhelming success during the season. Rice’s cards were cheap to begin with, so there are a lot of them that were purchased during the initial release solely to be faked. Now that they are worth a lot more, the fakes are surfacing like insects, and with the card numbered to 999, there sure is a lot of ammo.
Questionable and Fake Cards Currently Up For Sale or Sold Recently:
Patch Auto – Ravens Sleeve Logo
Patch Auto – Ravens Sleeve Logo 2
Patch Auto – Ravens Sleeve Logo 3
Chris Johnson
CJ2K has a shitty ass signature, but his card is still worth a lot, especially with an “OMG SIZCKZ MOJOZZZZZ!” patch on it. The Titan’s sword logo, like the Ravens’ sleeve patch is always the biggest target, so don’t fall for it. Johnson’s cards still are safe up to a three color, but no logo should ever be purchased. Its not worth the risk. Because Johnson has emerged as one of the top backs in the league, its safe to say that this card will always carry value as long as this is still the case. Watch out.
Questionable and Fake Cards Currently Up For Sale or Sold Recently:
Patch Auto – 10th Anniversary Logo
Patch Auto – Titans Chest Logo
Gold Patch Auto – Titans Sword Logo
Outside of these, you rarely see any problem, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Stay ahead of the pack, and only buy ones you know are real. If you educate yourself on what to look for, you will have a much better time avoiding bad situations. Again, I am always here to help, and many message boards have experts at your disposal.
Okay, I’m new to this. So, guys take patches out of cards, and do what with them? Do they take a nicer looking patch from a less-wanted card and put it in a better card? What’s the deal?
Thanks
They buy cheap jerseys (full size) on eBay and cut them up to get the nicer patches for the windows and insert them themselves.
This is why you got to try and get these cards as soon as you can when the product is new or pull it yourself to know its real. Hey Gellman- check out all the fake Mark Sanchez patches out there for sale. Its unreal.
Chumps. Thanks for the info. I always enjoy the blog.
The 2008 exquisite fb is getting flooded with fakes also.just the last month I’ve seen 6 Chris Johnson logo patches up for sale. It’s getting SO bad.I’ve stopped buying logo patches because of this and that’s all I use to buy.UGH
Question: Why don’t the companies publish a database of their auto/patch cards? It seems like the time investment would be minimal (hire some intern to scan the cards) and it would 100% eliminate patch swapping. I guess since they aren’t involved in the 2nd hand market, they don’t have a reason to care. As long as someone buys the product (even if it’s just to get cards to make fakes), their mission is accomplished.
The companies don’t maintain a database for 2 reasons, time and money. Personally, I don’t think they really care, but creating a database isn’t as simple as hiring an intern. If you’re creating an effictive database, all prime patch cards would have to be scanned. Take a look at the 2010 Absolute Football checklist, there would be thousands of patch cards to scan and add to a database, and that’s from one set. You would also need people to maintain that database year round as well, I don’t think companies want to spend the money.
I can’t speak to the authenticity of the Matt Ryan SPA reebok logo RC, but I can say the logo used in the card isn’t from a cheap knockoff, it is from a team issued uniform.
Adam … here’s another FAKER to be aware of:
http://shop.ebay.com/brees_tomlinson/m.html
Ebay ID – brees tomlinson
High #’d … logo’s and shields … yeah right!