The "swatch card" industry is seriously flawed

[34swtns]

Further proof that this practice is not policed very well, (not to mention a travesty to GU collectors in general).
This is currently being offered on ebay.
The problem is Wilson didn't start applying the 'W' to the sleeves of Bears jerseys until well after Walter retired, thus he never wore a jersey with a 'W' on the sleeve.
It's amazing to think how many people are paying big bucks for this crap who have no knowledge of jersey timelines. There are potentially guys out there with huge "swatch card" collections that are mostly bogus and they have no idea.

[MJB14]

Re: The "swatch card" industry is seriously flawed

The problem is that people are taking these cards and replacing the original swatches with their own cut swatches from other jerseys to create a premium swatch that is much nicer to the eye and will command more $ on the market. Here's an example of a 2001 SP Authentic Tomlinson rookie thats currently on ebay. The card itself books for like $400-$500 but with a nice piece of the bolt like this it would surely sell for more. The only thing is that look closely at the swatch and you'll notice the fabric is not the heavyweight mesh of the authentic Chargers jerseys but the ribbed dazzle material found on replica jerseys. So someone took a Chargers replica jersey, cut out a pristine sample of the bolt, pulled out the original piece of jersey and replaced it with this. I agree its a shame what is being done with fraudulant GU stuff on the market from cards to full pieces. All I know is that you better do your research thoroughly before pulling the trigger on a major purcahse these days.

[MJB14]

Re: The "swatch card" industry is seriously flawed

Here's a link to a thread on a card site about a Marino NFL logo patch a guy thought was real from a 1999 set but the NFL equipment shield didn't appear until like the mid 00s. Has some insight from Beckett and others about this epidemic and how they go about doing it.

http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=11&threadid=653937&highlight_key=y&keyword1=dan%20marino

[gnishiyama]

Re: The "swatch card" industry is seriously flawed

I don't collect swatch cards at all but this is an interesting blog. I think this
guy used to have a website "fake patch report." Good to see someone try
and do something about it.

http://fakepatchcards.blogspot.com/

Goh Nishiyama

[David]

Re: The "swatch card" industry is seriously flawed

As mj mentioned, I think altering the cards is not uncommon. For example, a stipe of multicolor or multi color patch is worth more than plain white, so some collectors/sellers switch the pieces.

[David]

Re: The "swatch card" industry is seriously flawed

I mangled a sentence in the previous post, but I think you guys figure out what I was talking about.