Last week’s article was about a T206 Walter Johnson Portrait with a Broad Leaf 350 back. That card is an example of “re-backed” T206. The term “re-backed” refers to a card that has had it’s back removed and replaced with a more desirable back. In almost all cases these cards were created with nefarious intent. The scammers who create these cards are commonly referred to as “card doctors”. They are essentially paper conservators who are using their skills in an attempt to defraud collectors.
There are two type of re-backed T206s:
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“Frankenstein Cards”
This is an example of a re-backed card where the front of an authentic T206 was separated from its back and attached to a back from another authentic T206 which was separated from its front. The Walter Johnson Broad Leaf 350 is an example of a Frankenstein card in that the front and back came from two different authentic T206s.
Over ten years ago, a number of Frankenstein re-backs with rare backs appeared on the market. Some of them were very convincing forgeries. Some even got passed the graders, as you can see with the Mathewson Portrait at the top of the article.
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Fake Backs
The process used to create these is similar to Frankenstein cards, with one big difference: The back is fake.
Thankfully, the fake backs tend to be a lot easier to spot than the Frankenstein re-backs. It’s hard to create a fake T206 back that looks believable. With that being said, I have seen quite a few of these fake re-backs where the front and fake back were lined up very well. If it weren’t for the back being fake, it would be very hard to detect the alteration.
The Lenox back above is an example of fake back. I bought this card from a fellow collector who didn’t suspect anything was wrong with it. When it arrived in the mail I immediately knew the back was fake. The texture of the back was all wrong, and the way the ink sat on the paper was unlike any T206 I had ever seen. As you can see, the edges line up really well. Honestly, if the back had been real, I wouldn’t have noticed that they front and back were two different pieces of paper.
A couple years ago, there were a lot of these coming up for sale in raw form on eBay. It’s very difficult to re-create the paper that T206 cards are printed on, and it was obvious in all cases that the backs were not consistent with an authentic T206. The seller was doing a few different things to try and disguise the fact that the paper was not a very close match. Some of the cards were rubbed down with olive oil, while others had various different kinds of paper added to the back to partially cover up the back (but not enough to obscure the Carolina Brights or Lenox advertisement completely of course). I haven’t seen any new fakes on the market in the last six months or so, but you never know when they might pop up again.
If you are in the market for T206s with rare backs, please be careful and do your due diligence before making any purchases. Buying rare backs in raw form is not something I would recommend until you are very comfortable spotting fakes and alterations. If you stick to buying cards that have been graded by PSA or SGC you will greatly limit your chances of buying a fake or re-backed card.