1933 Goudey Babe Ruth Cards - Real or Reprints?

I am attaching scans that were sent to me. He also sent me some digital pics that are an abomination to photography.

Let me know what you guys think as to the validity of the cards. Some red flags are up but some aren't.

My vote is very well done reprints. Fronts are too grainy. Dan

OK... when I see these Goudey's the first thing I look at are the "bugs" in the corners, the Goudey Gum Co. 1933 insignia. If the card is real they should not be/look identical on the front and back of the card (as they do on the top and bottom card). Which makes me think the only real one in the group MAY be in the middle.

Yes, the middle one looks most original but if you are dealing with a seller who is selling those cards ungraded assume they are all reprints until SGC/PSA say they are real. I bet he is selling them at a discount to graded ones???

I'm not comfortable with the bottom one (#181) at all. The top one (#144) looks a little better, but I am still leary. The middle one has the best chance of authenticity, but the fact that it is with the other two makes me very suspicious of it. Personally, I would never buy a raw version of any of these cards from someone that I didn't trust implicitly. They are just faked way too often. That said, even if the middle one were sold by itself, I wouldn't bite.

My advice is to steer clear of any raw ones despite how good you think they may look... unless you know the issue very, very well and can hold the raw ones in your hand to evaluate them personally.

Here is my #181 for comparison.

I buy raw all of the time. I suggest educating yourself and don't be afraid to buy raw. Or.. you can always buy color Fro Joy Ruth cards that are in PSA slabs.

I trust me way over any grader in the hobby.

r337man wrote:I buy raw all of the time. I suggest educating yourself and don't be afraid to buy raw. Or.. you can always buy color Fro Joy Ruth cards that are in PSA slabs.

I trust me way over any grader in the hobby.

I'd trust you with raw cards too, but you are someone who has a ton of experience and knows card issues very, very well. I was just cautioning against buying raw if you don't know enough about the cards to be able to tell the difference between fake and legit. In that case, having SGC or PSA say they are legit is a pretty decent rule-of-thumb to know they are authentic - even with the blatant mistakes that have been slabbed.

Sadly, PSA has been known to slab color Fro-joys as real. That is something you should be learning in fake cards 101

My advice is to steer clear of any raw ones despite how good you think they may look... unless you know the issue very, very well and can hold the raw ones in your hand to evaluate them personally????