Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

Results 1 to 3 of 3
  1. #1




    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Age
    57
    Posts
    720
    SCF Rewards
    1,647
    Country
    See sweetg1's Items on eBay

    Beware of the New Type of Printing - CONTEST ENTRY

    New Type of Printing - Beware – Contest Entry

    The technology continues to improve. We went from rotary dial phones to push button phones. From there, the technology went to cell phones to where the smart phone is today. Technology is great, right? It’s what pays the bills in my household, as I work for a technology company in innovation. For the card hobby, we’ve seen the technology, as the industry went from the old, thin cardboard stock in the 40’s and 50’s to Upper Deck changing the game in 1989. From there, the industry went to the ultra-super-glossy refractoid cards (although it’s been documented that I’m not necessarily a fan of these cards, I do appreciate that it can be done). The changes to the industry made opening a pack of cards seem like Charlie finding the golden ticket in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

    It’s been well documented that there are a lot of scam artists in the collectibles industry. The FBI was called when fake autographs appeared on the market. Did Ty Cobb really sign 100 Bill White baseballs? I think not. It hit the card industry too, as many counterfeit cards appeared in the market. You remember all of the counterfeit Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky rookie cards? It took the fun out of genuinely finding one of these gems, and it burned a lot of people, costing them lots of money. What made the counterfeits “easy” to spot was a few facts: 1.) the picture quality was fuzzy or otherwise poor and 2.) the card stock was different enough to the veteran that it felt different in their hands. However, to the novice collector, lots of innocent people were fooled. Given that the newer cards were drawing in lots of new collectors, the counterfeits came in droves to newer cards, as collectors didn’t have to pay much for a newer pack, hoping to strike gold. Not as many counterfeits were seen on older cards.

    Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the world of 3D printing. For those not familiar with 3D printing, it is a way to print items in three dimensional space. For instance, a wrench, as shown in this youtube video could be recreated by using 3D printing:
    .
    It has caused some controversy because the concept of printing a weapon became real.

    So what does this mean to the collectibles hobby. The picture quality and color could no longer become an issue for counterfeiting a Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. Can you imagine capturing the color (as well as properly capturing the coloring of the borders) of a Mickey Mantle rookie? What about some of the newer cards? Your Game Used card or worse yet, your 1/1 printing plate of Yasiel Puig that is on eBay for a price of $2,500 OR BEST OFFER. How easy would it be to create this with 3D print technology and sell it? And what about statues, like the Hartland Statues that sell for a pretty penny? Is the game changing?

    Obviously, there are copyright laws that protect from doing such a dispicable deed. However, it would seem that most criminals who prey on people (especially young collecors) with this kind of money don’t have morals or don’t care who they hurt. They’re not concerned about copyright laws. They care about printing up a bunch of these types of items and selling them cheap! Or, they will trade you their newly printed 1/1 printing plate for your real Jordan RC, where they can now trade or sell the Jordan RC. That’s how these people operate.
    The point of this article isn’t to cause unnecessary fear in the collecting hobby, but to make people aware that bad things sometimes come with the good of the new technology. Obviously, we have to be sure of what we’re purchasing. We have to continue to buy from reputable dealers and know exactly what we’re purchasing. We must ask questions. However, I ask this: How will reputable dealers always know the difference between a real and a 3D print? 3D printing can be a game changer in places like eBay, where people can find items for 10% cost and places like SCF where people make hundreds of trades each day.

    I’m curous about your thoughts on this. Is this as a genuine concern?

    Let’s keep trading fun. Happy Collecting Everyone!









    Baseball: Anything to do with the Negro Leagues (cards, memorabilia, etc), Clementes
    Football: Payton, E. Smith, Sayers, J. Brown
    Tickets: All sports, but love Baseball and Football
    Others: Vintage is always welcome, anything tradeable.
    My bucket: Hidden Content

  2. #2






    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Age
    44
    Posts
    25,355
    SCF Rewards
    36,527
    Blog Entries
    35
    Country
    Montreal Canadiens Toronto Blue Jays New England Patriots
    Twitter: @KarineHains See Pheebs8882's Items on eBay

    Thanks for the entry Guy! Published here: https://www.sportscardforum.com/artic...e-of-printing/

    Sorry for the delay with editing and publishing!

  3. #3




    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Age
    57
    Posts
    720
    SCF Rewards
    1,647
    Country
    See sweetg1's Items on eBay

    With the printing plates, I'd recommend to Topps and Upper Deck a way to distinguish against what could be a copy.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
SCF Sponsors


About SCF

    Sports Card Forum provides sports and non-sports card collectors a safe place to discuss, buy, sell and trade.

    SCF maintains tools that will allow collectors to manage their collections online, information about what is happening with the hobby, as well as providing robust data to send out for Autographs through the mail.

Follow SCF on