Category Archives: fake buyers are dumb people

The Real/Fake Line For Ultimate Baseball is GONE.

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The patch cards in Ultimate Baseball are one of the main reasons why the product was so successful. They are also to a point now where the line has been blurred past the point of where one can tell fake or real. Although there are people who have undoubtedly faked these cards, there are also so many real logo patches that its almost impossible to tell.

Check out these cards that have been posted and sold on eBay over the last couple of days. Some I can tell, some are way too hard to determine.

Carlton Fisk – The patch is weird on this, too weird to consider it to be fake. It still makes me uncomfortable.

Paul Konerko – I dont trust this guy at all. There is already speculation around the boards that all are fake, and this card definitely looks that way.

Brandon Webb – A great patch, but it does look real because the window looks good and has non-patch material in the window.

Tom Seaver – 100% fake, this guy has already been covered on this blog before and his cards arent even questionable. UD was meticulous in matching player pics with uni swatches, which disqualifies this card all the way.

Roy Ozwalt – Another questionable patch, but too tough to make a sure determination.
Brandon Phillips – A cool patch with too much detail to seem fake, but again, this is a cheap pickup to fake if needed. Im not sure.
Carlos Beltran – another patch from this seller that is almost 100% fake. Just look at the separation between the swatch and the patch. Like he slipped it in over the crappy swatch.
Basically, Ultimate was the one set that needed a database, and its too bad it wasnt done ahead of time. Its just too easy to fake these cards, and it brings back memories of the faker favorite set of the century – 2005 Donruss Prime Patches. The difference between Prime Patches and this, is that its easy to tell fakes from that set because of card labeling, but Ultimate is ALL patches so its almost impossible.
I would employ a few rules that should start becoming applicable soon:
1. Dont buy Ultimate Patch cards where the logo patch takes up the whole window. Its not worth the risk.
2. Look for window damage. Its tough to get a patch out of the card without nicking the edges of the swatch window.
3. Avoid NEW patches. The jerseys that UD used seem to be at least a few years old, and the new sleeve patches from last season are easy to come by on ebay.
4. Avoid World Series, Commemorative, and All Star Patches. Its too easy for scammers to sell you on your salivation over such a unique patch. Its almost unheard of for any of them to be real.
5. Avoid sellers who have a ton of logo patches for sale. This is pretty much the case for everyone regardless of the patch card, as scammers will sell a never ending stream of crap to make maximum dollars.
Let me know if you have any questions about authenticity and ill do my best to scope it out.

I Have Been Had By The Fake Twitter Account, As Much As I Hate To Say It

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Yesterday, the web was all abuzz with the promise of the UD Awards unveiling. One person, someone close to the program it seems, took the opportunity to capitalize on the event. This person created a fake Twitter account (@upperdeckawards), started tweeting, and we listened and responded quite intently. There are definitely some questions I have, especially considering that UD had nothing to say about it, even now.

First, the Upper deck account knew quite a bit about what was going to happen. How would they have that info? We could all guess, but they were pretty much on top of a lot of it.
Secondly, Upper Deck has more than one twitter account that was active, why didnt they tweet their followers to inform them it wasnt real? Its quite simple, just tell us. We could have avoided lots of confusion since almost all of us follow both accounts.
Lastly, I get that these awards are polarizing, as are some of the responses to it. However, I feel like someone is pulling strings that shouldnt be pulled. I guess when you offer free stuff, including elusive recognition, we all freak. We all want a piece of the action, and a lot of us throw caution to the wind (myself included) when we get a whiff of a cool opportunity.
I failed to follow my own rules about fakes, and I should have known better. My apologies to everyone. Be sure to voice your support for SCU on the awards, I guess I am now eligible again.

This? This is What I Come Back To?

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Thankfully, I am out of the hospital and home for the first time since thursday. It was a complete nightmare, but at least I have some time now to get some stuff done on the site while I recover.

While I was at the hospital, I got my usual daily ebay email updates, and one had this HORRID fake listed as a 1/1. I laughed so hard that I almost busted my stitches. How are people this fucking stupid?
Obviously, this is not a 1/1, but really a fake auto slapped on a normal 2007 Bowman box loader Peterson RC. In fact, the guy is SO bad at being a complete douche, that he didnt even use a non-serial numbered card. He actually just left the serial number on there and is advertising it as something completely unseen by the public…
…until now.
I am also loving that he randomly used card 968, probably the one he pulled out of his box of Chrome.
So, so, glad to be back folks. What a pleasure to see this shit sell for 400 bucks. At least the auto looks better than the normal fakes we see.

Anatomy of a Scammer – 2009 SP Authentic Edition

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NOTE: I will be out starting today, but there should be a few new posts done by some of the people who graciously offered to help out in my absence. Here is the first one from my friend Voluntarheel, one of the more boring and not hilarious people that frequently comments on the site. He once entertained over at his own (now sadly defunct) blog, and this is his not-so-triumphant return to the blogging world.

-Gellman
Fakes in SP Authentic are nothing new. Gellman has written about it more times that I can count. However I wanted to look in depth at all the moving parts that go into being a Crowned Prince of Taintsburg. I found a good example in a current Matthew Stafford SP Authentic Patch Auto. So let’s elephant-walk through this together.

  1. Too-good-to-be-true Patch. This Stafford patch is crazy. It is supposed to be the middle of the nine on his sleeve. I have never seen a patch like this in any product with small patch windows. It doesn’t fit the typical SP Authentic patch style either.
  1. Bubbling on the too-good-to-be-true Patch. If you look close, you can see on the right side, some bubbling of the patch. This is a classic sign of patch manipulation.
  1. Private listing. I have a few simple rules about dealing with eBay sellers. One non-negotiable is that I NEVER deal with sellers who run private auctions. It is the #1 tool of shill bid artists. It also prohibits you from contacting the buyers after they leave feedback to tell them they probably have a fake on their hands. Why would you ever trust a seller who hides who is bidding? In other words, why would you trust this douche selling the Stafford.
  1. Price jumps well above other similar auctions quicker than usual. Yeah, this auction had that too.
  1. Hidden serial numbers. What really drove my attention on this auction is the crop job on the scan. Notice anything interesting? Yeah, they cropped out the serial number. And they also failed to mention the exact number in the description. This is interesting in that this year Jeff started the SP Authentic Project with the idea to log every patch auto in an effort to keep a record of accurate patches and serial numbers. This crop sidesteps this site and is a fairly new twist in the ever-adapting underworld of fakes. The Stafford isn’t the only one he has done it to. Pretty much any patch he has replaced, he has cropped the scan to eliminate the number, including the Sanchez he has up for sale right now.
  1. Seller has a history of crazy, Crazy, CRazy, CRAzy, CRAZY patches.
  1. The Seller is too stupid to cover his tracks in his feedback profile. This Marino he is selling now can be found HERE with a worse patch. He has also managed to snag an impressive amount of redemptions for Harvin and others while also picking up 1 color patch autos of some more. I would expect some otherworldly patches for his Harvin cards coming soon. Also, the 1 color Stafford he bought HERE, I’d expect to see an upgrade in a few weeks.

Any of these points taken separately, with the exception of #7, doesn’t mean that any card is an absolute forgery. However when things start to snowball like it does here, then alarms should start going off like Dwight Schrute’s Gaydar.

So hears to you ufjumper7. I hope one day this catches up to you in the form of Najeh Davenport mistaking your face for a laundry basket.

Stay Away From NSA: Part Two

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A few weeks ago I posted on NSA, the douchebag scammers that have infested the net. These are the guys who do the shitty fake jersey “1/1s” that get fed into eBay on a daily basis. Personally, I cant understand why someone would even consider buying the cards when they look like this, but there is a sucker born every minute. Remember, a Brett Favre gamer recently sold for $12,000 on NFL auctions, and the company who has the deal to buy the jerseys resells them at 20K. Do you think they could make these cards for that kind of dough? Not with the players that they have made into cards. Jordan gamers just cost WAY too much money.

Regardless, NSA does make money on their transactions, and there are a lot of people who are sick of them being able to operate. Despite the fact that the “cards” look like they were made in MS Paint, collectors buy them thinking that they are real. I just got back from a show where there were guys selling these at absurd prices. Yeah, its that bad.
My advice is to watch these videos, one of which was posted over on FCB. People are starting to realize they were had, and im fucking elated that they are FINALLY getting it. My favorite part is when they see that the website is “under construction.” My ass it is. NSA needs to be shut down.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjsh4ha2G3o&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqJV4c5UACU&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Yeah, thats some pretty damning shit. I hope the guys who started these get what is coming to them.