Card of the Day: Rafael Marchan 2018 Choice Williamsport Crosscutters #17

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Card of the Day: Shohei Ohtani 2018 Topps Heritage Real One Red Ink Auto

Panini’s 2018 Illusions Football Autograph COA Mistake Continues To Screw Unknowing Collectors

In 2018 Sports Card Info helped to shed some light on this issue.  Even though not much has changed since the initial story broke, I believe its important to remind people that this continues to be a MAJOR problem in the hobby.  Especially when a collector was recently screwed out of $400.

On February 28, 2020 a Tom Brady 2018 Panini Illusions Living Legends Autograph sold for $393.  Too bad the autograph is a complete fake.  Panini made the huge mistake of printing the message “THE AUTOGRAPH IS GUARANTEED BY PANINI AMERICA, INC.” on the back of a bunch of cards from 2018 Illusions that were never intended to be signed.  But yet these unsigned cards with the autograph COA on the back somehow found their way into the product.  We’ve seen this error popup on the Living Legends, Illusionists, and Mystique inserts.

Panini allowing cards to ship out with their autograph COA yet lacking the actual signature itself opens the door to all types of fraud.  And that’s exactly what we’re seeing here.  Loser scammers will sign the athlete’s signature themselves, and then attempt to pass it off as the real thing.  Because that COA is printed on the back people will believe its authentic.

As you can clearly see the autograph here is on-card.  MAJOR RED FLAG as the authentic cards use stickers.  Another indicator is the absence of a serial number.  It should be #’ed/10 or 1.

Panini simply stamped their autograph COA on too many cards here.  Some were meant for legitimate pack-inserted autographs.  Others received the autograph COA by mistake, and are just basic unsigned inserts.

Tom Brady 2018 Panini Illusions Living Legends insert with a fake autograph (front)

Tom Brady 2018 Panini Illusions Living Legends insert with a fake autograph (back)

This is what an authentic example should look like:

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Card of the Day: Roman Reigns 2018 Topps Heritage WWE #63

Card of the Day: Jesse Ventura 2018 Leaf Legends of Wrestling Auto

Wake Forest Demon Deacons ’18 Leaf Valiant Auto Contest! – NOW CLOSED

This contest is for a Cam Serigne 2018 Leaf Valiant Big Targets Orange Parallel Auto #’ed/35.  Good luck!!!

Contest Details:

• This contest will end Friday, February 8, 2019 @ 8:00 p.m. EST.
• To enter, please leave a comment in this post.
• You can enter once per day.
• The winner will be selected at random.
• Please provide a valid e-mail address when entering.
• The winner will receive an e-mail when the contest is over.
• The winner has one week to send me their contact information or the contest will be held again.
• Once the contest is over, I will need the winner’s mailing address so I can ship them this card for FREE!!!