How to stop fake patches

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nybravest

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On the back of the card why dont they get rid of the "congrats youve got a signed card of....." that takes up the whole back of the card. Make it half the size and put a small picture of the patch thatst on the front onto the back of the card. Yes, no, opinions, ideas?
 
Michael

An interestin' idea.. However, I'm thinking that it will be cost prohibitive to the manufacturers...

Brian
 
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I like the idea. Not necessarily a photo on the card, but some type of certificate of authenticity that has a photo of the card on it. I think for the high-end patches that might become a necessity. It would be cool to post the certificate with photo along side the card when trying to sell it.

The bottom line is the solution lies with Upper Deck (or the card manufacturers). Until they come up with a solution the whole hobby is going to suffer a bit.
 
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Two things need to be done to stop fake patches. Cards need to be individually serial numbered on the front of the card, and they need to be recorded before they leave the manufacturer. That's the only way the nonsense will stop. Until all manufacturers do this, there will always be suspect patches, and unscrupulous individuals taking advantage of the situation.

Cost factors aside - what percentage of the Crosby Cup RC print run has been compromised in this way? That's not good for any company to have such suspicion circling around probably the biggest card they've printed in a long time.
 
langway05 said:
Michael

An interestin' idea.. However, I'm thinking that it will be cost prohibitive to the manufactor's...

Brian
Click to expand...

For a company that makes MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dollars from us,I'm sick of hearing how Gamers cost too much buy,how expensive it would be to "track" patch cards, how damaged base cards can't be replaced, how redemptions are still a good thing. Why are we making excuses for these people????At the end of the 5 year reign,this hobby is going to be in shambles.
I'm glad I "saw the light" this season and severely cutback on buying any and all product from this company.
 
Trish is right - the only way to do it is photo document every card before it leaves the manufacturer and have the scans readily available somewhere. I do like the idea of including a picture of the patch on the back of the card... that would be awesome, though extremely difficult to coordinate.

Cory
 
Does anyone actually possess a fake patch card?

I would love to see one in person. I would like to see how they can remove the original and place in a new peice without leaving major evidence that the card was altered.

For that matter, I would like to know how they can pry apart the card to remove the old, put in the new and make it look untouched....

I would love to see a card in person because I don't believe they can really be that proficient at it for it to pass the every day scrutiny most collectors have now (touched corner, press marks, etc...).

Please, someone show me one in person.
 
leafschik1967 said:
Two things need to be done to stop fake patches. Cards need to be individually serial numbered on the front of the card, and they need to be recorded before they leave the manufacturer. That's the only way the nonsense will stop. Until all manufacturers do this, there will always be suspect patches, and unscrupulous individuals taking advantage of the situation.

Cost factors aside - what percentage of the Crosby Cup RC print run has been compromised in this way? That's not good for any company to have such suspicion circling around probably the biggest card they've printed in a long time.
Click to expand...

EXCELLENT point.
 
The problem is (and has been mentioned before) that regardless of whatever measure could be taken by UD to authenticate the patches pre-packing, one mistake destroys the whole thing. Considering the number of patch cards they produce across all sports, I don't think it's fair for us to say they aren't allowed to make one mistake (although fewer than they do now would be nice.) With that, there is no way it's worth it for UD. One patch gets labeled wrong and put in the wrong card, all the money they would have spent implementing the authentication goes down the drain, and then there is still no trust in whether or not the patch is real.

The best way I think to combat patch faking would be to get away from paper cardstock. If all the cards were plastic/plexi based (like Ice) they could essentially "seal" the patch between two layers of the stuff, and then print the pics/numbering/etc. onto the plastic. I imagine it'd be expensive, but you'd have to destroy the card to get the patch out.
 
leafschik1967 said:
Two things need to be done to stop fake patches. Cards need to be individually serial numbered on the front of the card, and they need to be recorded before they leave the manufacturer. That's the only way the nonsense will stop. Until all manufacturers do this, there will always be suspect patches, and unscrupulous individuals taking advantage of the situation.

Cost factors aside - what percentage of the Crosby Cup RC print run has been compromised in this way? That's not good for any company to have such suspicion circling around probably the biggest card they've printed in a long time.
Click to expand...

good point but what happens when your at a card show with no way of contacting the company to see if the patch is real or not. if there is some kind of picture on the card or a certificate that has a picture etc then its right there in front of you.
 
I think putting a photo of the patch on the back of the card would be nearly impossible - you would need a different photo on every single card which, I can only imagine, would cost a fortune and drive up an already expensive cost for the consumers.

As mentioned a number of times before - all you would have to do is scan the cards and keep some sort of database of them - even if they limited it to the low print run patch rookie cards to start I think this would be feasible.
Gomaz does a nice job of tracking the Cup /99s and Golds but in the whole grand scheme of thing, how many collectors know about that and how many cards could potentially slide through anyway.

Upper Deck has most of the images of their cards on their website - I don't think it would take much to include this in the protocol...but remember - this will cost all of us money. They are not making nearly as much money as we seem to think they are and this is not an investment that they are going to eat, so if this were to happen we would incur the cost.
 
nybravest said:
good point but what happens when your at a card show with no way of contacting the company to see if the patch is real or not. if there is some kind of picture on the card or a certificate that has a picture etc then its right there in front of you.
Click to expand...

To make this work, they'd have to affix the patches to the card front, scan that and then print and attach the backs. That just isn't feasible. As for putting a Thrashers chest logo on the card, and saying 'the patch comes from here' - there can be 5 colour spots, and one colour spots on every patch. All that does is narrow down the options where a faker can take their patch from. It doesn't eliminate the problem.
 
How about stamping all the patches in the cards with some form of UV dye? A nice UD stamp that showed up under the lights would go some way of making sure you have the genine article.
 
Some elaborate ideas.

An online photo library of patch cards is the best idea. and it has been tossed around for quite some time so I am not sure why it hasn't been explored.

As for ruining the Crosby print run, thats fine, makes whats left worth more.
 
cards-gotta-go said:
trap them inside the cards, a la the UD Ice Signature Swatches...
Click to expand...

That's a turnoff, the same way that slabbed cards are a turnoff for some in ITG Ultimate. For some - myself included - being able to touch the swatch is important. The tactile experience gives you one more connection to the player who wore it.


Jamie Hunts....nearly forgot that one. ;)
 
quincy said:
That's a turnoff, the same way that slabbed cards are a turnoff for some in ITG Ultimate. For some - myself included - being able to touch the swatch is important. The tactile experience gives you one more connection to the player who wore it.


Jamie Hunts....nearly forgot that one. ;)
Click to expand...

Had to buy one of his cards as it was sitting on ebay making me laugh too much ;)
 
quincy said:
That's a turnoff, the same way that slabbed cards are a turnoff for some in ITG Ultimate. For some - myself included - being able to touch the swatch is important. The tactile experience gives you one more connection to the player who wore it.
Click to expand...

But if it comes at the expense of authenticity, then who cares what it feels like.

Having worked in the print industry for seven years, most of it printing money and passports, I know that there are things UD could do... but I guarantee you that none of them are cheap... it all comes down to that age old question:

What's it worth to ya? :D
 

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