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How to Spot a Fake T206

T206 baseball cards refer to a specific, valuable series of baseball cards from 100 years ago. These cards have a recognizable white border that's easily identifiable even to inexperienced collectors -- if they know what they're looking for. The American Tobacco Trust printed the complete set of 520 T206 cards only from 1909 to 1911. The most famous card in the set, and the most valuable card of all time, features Pittsburgh Pirate slugger Honus Wagner. The Wagner card brought more than $2 million at auction. If you're considering investing in T206 cards, remember: fakes abound. Educating yourself is the best way to avoid buying a phoney T206.

Things You'll Need

Magnifying glass

Instructions

- 1
  Examine the lettering of the card at the bottom. The surname of the team player should be followed by a comma, then the city the player played for. The surname should be in slightly larger print than the city name. Fakes will often have the surname and the city name in the same size letters.
- 2
  Examine the first letter in the city name at the bottom of the card. This first letter should be slightly larger than the rest of the letters in the city name. Fakes won't have this distinction.
- 3
  Examine the black border between the picture on the card and the white border under a magnifying glass that has a magnification of at least 16 power (16 times larger than normal sight). A legitimate card will appear to have a solid black line. A fake card will show a range of tiny dots, making the line look pixelated.

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