Whenever there’s a market, there are cheaters. This piece was written by Rocky Landsverk and published in the April 1997 issue of Sports Card Magazine. It provides a fantastic 101 on spotting 1951/52 Parkhurst fakes that hit the market in the mid to late ’80s.
To reiterate, look for the creases in the illustration, dot patterns using a magnifying glass, and the smoothness of the cardboard backs.
Ryan Nolan’s book Spotting Fakes has a section on the 1951 Parkhurst Gordie Howe card; on the fakes, he says:
- the colon after born is missing
- equal thickness and color borders left and right
- red lettering at the bottom is thicker
- many reprints have this bottom red lettering as black text
- many reprints also have a really dark background
- don’t expect a perfect card, very few copies exist in a high grade
Unfortunately, Bob Lemke and Sally Grace’s Sportscard Counterfeit Detector doesn’t specifically include any vintage hockey cards printed before Gretzky’s 1979/80 OPC RC. However, it has so much other solid advice; it’s definitely worth buying.
