What to check before you trust the photo.
Baseball
Vintage Topps
Stock, back quiz, and type are the whole game.
- Period cardboard has fiber and a warm tone — bright white stock is a reprint tell
- Check the exact green or yellow of the bio panel against a known copy
- Dot pattern under magnification should be era-correct, not inkjet
- Glossy modern coating on a 1950s card is almost always wrong
Basketball
1986–89 basketball
Border registration and copyright lines catch most reprints.
- Red Fleer borders must register with the photo — drift is common on fakes
- Confirm the 1986 Fleer copyright line, not a later Fleer logo
- Upper Deck holograms must show the diamond; flat silver stickers fail
- Centering on these issues is wild even on real copies — don't use it as a fake tell
Basketball
Chrome and Prizm
If it doesn't rainbow, it isn't silver.
- True Prizm silver refracts under a moving light — flat gray is a counterfeit
- Chrome stock has a specific snap; paper-backed 'chrome' is fake
- Print lines on chrome are a condition issue, not automatically a fake
- Confirm the exact card number — draft inserts are often sold as the flagship
Football
Patch autos
Ink, patch construction, and serial stamps must agree.
- On-card autos have ink soak; sticker autos sit on top
- Serial numbering stamp weight and placement are copied poorly
- Patch layers should match the known player/set construction
- Championship Ticket vs Rookie Ticket is a different card — check the gold parallel
Pokémon
Base Set Pokémon
Stamp, shadow, and holo pattern decide the market.
- 1st Edition stamp ink, size, and placement are the most faked marks in TCG
- Shadowless vs Unlimited is a back-and-border call, not just the stamp
- Holo should have the era swirl — modern holo sheets look wrong
- Unlimited, Shadowless, and 1st Edition are three different books
TCG
Other TCG ultras
Eye foils and texture are the first check.
- Yu-Gi-Oh eye hologram must sit in the correct corner with the right foil
- 1st Edition LOB ultras are a different card from later reprints
- Manga rares have line texture — flattened prints are the common fake
- Set codes (LOB-001, OP01-024) must match the illustration
Hockey
Young Guns
The hologram is the whole authenticity call.
- Upper Deck Young Guns hologram must show the correct diamond under tilt
- OPC vs Topps vs UD Young Guns are three different cards — read the back
- Canvas and Clear Cut extras get sold as the flagship RC
- 1979 OPC Gretzky is bilingual on the back; Topps is English-only
Soccer
European rookies
Sticker vs card vs album cut is the first question.
- Megacracks 71st is a specific 2004-05 Panini issue — later reprints flood the market
- Confirm whether you have a sticker, a card, or a cut-out from an album
- World Cup Prizm silvers must rainbow; flat gray is a fake
- Serial stamps on Panini autos are copied poorly — check ink soak
