Depending on what year the card you’re looking at is from, you can tell the date usually from 1 of 2 ways:
- On the back look for a copyright date (this will typically be in small writing somewhere around the bottom or edges.)
- Look at the most recent date the statistics on the back are from and forward it by 1 year. If your card shows stats from the 1986 season, it means the card was made in 1987.
**Please keep in mind that cards of old players like Babe Ruth are still made even today. We are only buying cards that were MADE in the 1960’s and back.
In one word, EXTREMELY. We always caution our customers to only purchase autographed memorabilia from a known/established source. Literally anyone with a printer can produce a COA but only a few companies out there are nationally recognized as legitimate.
All items that we sell come with a 1st or 3rd person certificate so you can take comfort in knowing that if you purchase through us that your item is authentic. We do not issue our own certificates!
Buying
Depending on whose autograph is on your item, we may require a certificate of authenticity from a current 3rd party we recognize. For bigger name stars such as Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Muhammad Ali and so on, it is required. For lesser or more common names it may not be necessary, however we then would need to undertake the cost of paying for authentication which cuts into what we could potentially purchase it for.
Many factors come into play when determining value such as condition, authenticity, provenance and many more. For items we are potentially interested in, we would need to physically examine them to determine a solid market value. Unfortunately, sending us pictures doesn’t work here.