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Feb 2, 2012, 7:55am

Message Board :: Fake Cards :: Fake Cards We have Found :: Fake Press Plates

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Topic: Fake Press Plates (Read 91 times)

leadefoote
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Fake Press Plates
« Thread Started on Feb 25, 2010, 5:57pm »

Beware of non-insert Press Plates
(originally written 10-24-07, added her with updates 2-25-10)

Be wary of any press plates that were not part of an insert set.

I picked up a couple of the 1995 Assets press plates that have been listed on eBay, the front and back plates of card #23 of Ted Musgrave. Upon closer inspection, and comparison to some pack-inserted plates ('97 Pinnacle and an '07 Press Pass) that I have, I now believe these '95 Assets plates to be fakes.
I believe these plates are fake for two reasons:

1) The pictures on these plates are enlarged compared to the actual card. On the pack-inserted plates that I have, the picture is the same size as the one on the card.

2) The foil imprint is visible in the picture on the plate. While some cards do have a printed feature that matches the overlying foil design, this particular set should not.

Here is a picture of the cards I have; At the top is the "press plate", next is the base card with Gold Foil imprint, third is the Gold Signature insert version with gold holofoil facsimile signature imprint, and at the bottom is the Speed Street parallel version with Red foil imprint.

[image]

Here is a picture of the backs, "press plate" on top, the backs of the three cards are all the same:

[image]

As you can see, all three versions start with the same basic printing. The printed sheets for all of these cards were exactly the same until the foil was added in a secondary process.

What first caught my eye was just how much of the picture was missing from the right side of the "plate", the brim of Ted's hat is touching the edge. Noticing that, I looked to the left edge of the card to see what extra details were included there, after all, if the card were simply cut differently the image would just be shifted. Much to my dismay, there was part of the picture missing on the left, too. This suposed "press plate" was cut the same size as the card, but the picture was cropped at every edge, shown by the pink rectangle below:

[image]

The image on the "plate" is actually enlarged about 5% compared to the original. Looking at the back plate, the same enlargement

is visible:

[image]

These plates could not have printed the actual cards because the offset printing process transfers the inked image from the plate to the print at the exact same size. Then I noticed another detail on the front:

[image]

As you can see from the Gold Sig and Speed Street versions, there is no "GR" on the front of Ted's firesuit in the picture. If this were actually the press plate that printed these cards, all versions would say "Ted Musgrave" across the bottom. Since they don't, I think it's safe to say that this plate is fake.

Here's the bottom line: Before buying any "press plates" that were not manufacturer authenicated inserts, carefully compare the plate to ALL versions of the cards it would have printed. If there is a feature visible on the plate that only exists as a foil imprint on one version of the card, it is not a genuine article. If the image on the plate is not identical to the one on the card, if it is enlarged or otherwise distorted, it is not genuine.

Trading cards, like many other products, are made using an Offset Printing process. It seems to me that anyone who works at a

print shop with this type of equipment would have the ability to make these. There are some good explanations of the printing

process at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offset_printing

and how press plates themselves are made at How-Stuff-Works:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/offset-printing3.htm

Hope this helps!

-Tom

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