A Card Recipe For Rip-Offs - Fake Jersey Cards

Like everything that is deemed valuable, someone comes along and tries to ruin the joy for others. Well, I will do my best to put a hammer blow into those plans that attempt to destroy this great hobby.

It is not difficult to take advantage of the naive and uneducated soccer collector. This seems to be more prevalent as the hobby of collecting soccer memorabilia is ramping up. (see my article in the latest issue of SCG Collector Magazine) 

 Here is proof that with a few purchases anyone can bake a rip-off recipe:
- buy one unlicensed retro New York Cosmos jersey (ebay) like this

- copy one of a thousand Pele photos avialable on the internet
- puchase  a few dozen cheap plastic card holders
- cut and paste - print
- advertise liberally (ebay recommended)

What you have is the making of the "evilbay jersey card". You will notice that Pele, who played in the 1970's Cosmos team has the same swatch as Ronaldo who never played for the Cosmos, but was active from the 1990s to the present.

The culprit for this sickly meal is ebay seller kvadteck.

I have also noticed a recent abundance of the 1958 REKORD rookie card of Pele. The Swedish magazine Rekord had a paper insert in a 1958 issue. Considering the high asking price, it seems that either someone is clearing out the old magazine offices or someone's scanner is working overtime. BUYER BEWARE !

There are so many better choices for Pele cards out there with reliable sellers who have collected for a long time. Get to know your sellers and the items you want to acquire. I don't think that chasing a rookie card is neccessarily always a good investment for soccer collectors. If you look at the above card, Pele' real name ( Edison "Edson" Arantes do Nascimento) is not even correct. Secondly, it is on low quality thin paper - making it ripe for counterfitting.

Ironically, some of the modern cards of Pele are as expensive as his earliest ones - namely the FUTERA Legends cards and the WCCF cards from Japan. however, these are quality cards with excellent company backing.

Eat, drink and collect !

What Could Have Been, But Never Was ... Topps NASL

You know you have been on this planet long enough when things come full circle. Back when the (NASL) North American Soccer League was at its heyday - there was only one trading card company that produced sports cards. That was Topps Chewing Gum.

At some point, one Topps executive made the call whether or not to market soccer cards. Personally, I think the guy was a bonehead. Looking back at the international stars that were playing in the United States at the time - he looks like a real baffoon.

No league up to that point had 4 of the 5 greatest names of soccer in playing one country - except America. It is pretty close to what the English Premier League has now but even bigger.

Instead of putting the best faces on cardboard, Topps ran with a cheesy sticker set that had only the logos of the 24 NASL teams. What they could have made were cool cards of George Best, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cryuff and Carlos Alberto.

For the benefit of fantasy - these are what might have been the 1979 Topps NASL cards. This year the NASL will return in 2010 to playing in the USSF Division 2 - included will be the Tampa Bay Rowdies, Vancouver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers - three original names from the league. Two teams from MLS already have original NASL names as well - Seattle Sounders and the San Jose Earthquakes.