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Fake Amazing Fantasy 15?

Started by genrlzod,

46 posts in this topic

Hibou

Hibou

Posted
Posted

Just to expand a little on my comment...

 

The whole book looks too perfect.

 

Even trimmed.

 

I'd like to see the staples on the centerfold.

 

Not related but related, ( :ohnoez: ) I started getting very discouraged with eBay and coin collecting in general with the saturation of Chinese fakes in the hobby.

 

This book gives me the exact same feeling. :(

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genrlzod

genrlzod

Posted
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Posted

I'll get a pic of the staples soon, but I can say they look perfect. Also I am sure it's trimmed.

 

Just a little history on the book. I was at an auction today and this book was listed. It was listed with the cover being reproduced, but most people felt the inside looked odd. I figured if it stayed under $20.00 I would bid, and I got it for $17.00. My main concern was to make sure no one got the book and placed it on ebay as the real thing. I am about 95% sure that this is fake all around, but I wanted other opinions for I have never seen the inside of an AF15.

 

More pics soon.

 

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mackenzie999

mackenzie999

Posted
Posted

Physical evidence such as the staple holes are already pretty damning, but I would suggest taking this to a commercial printer (not A Kinkos or anything like that) and asking them to look at the pages and tell you if they are offset printed or xeroxed.

 

The really troubling thing here would be that if it is indeed fake and offset printed...because then they would probably have to print at least a few of these to break even, as that is no cheap thing to do (plates, press time, etc). Caveat: I'm a few years removed from intimate knowledge of the printing industry, maybe it is cheaper to offset print things now, but that might be an even worse scenario...

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oakman29

oakman29

Posted
Posted
A coverless AF15 goes for what, about $500 or so? Maybe a bit more with a decent repro cover? You can't really flood the market with these all at once, but if you can make one, why not make more?

 

I looked at mine and it would seem that the book itself is original,but trimmed to fit the repro cover.Just another reason to use CGC for big books such as these.Then again the staple area just looks too nice.scary really. doh!

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Dbrewer75

Dbrewer75

Posted
Posted

What is scary is that someone like me who has never really had dealings with old books would snatch this up thinking I ran across the deal of the century. I mean I know enough that I would never get this book for less than a few hundred but if I saw it for a little more I might snatch it up just in case.

 

Thank God for this forum though because I have really learned quite a few money saving lessons already!

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Hero Restoration

Hero Restoration

Posted
Posted

It's been a while but when I was surfing eBay for books a lot I remember seeing complete reproduction of key books advertised so someone is doing them in quantities much like repro covers.

 

It's hard to tell from the photo's but the page paper looks just like the type of paper used.

 

I would be curious how the book feels and look at the cover under a magnifier to see if the dots are where they are suppose to be and if there are dots in the off-white area where they shouldn't be.

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mackenzie999

mackenzie999

Posted
Posted
would snatch this up thinking I ran across the deal of the century.

 

That's me. I discovered this board, or rather this board discovered me, when I purchased an AF15 with an undisclosed repro cover on eBay and someone here contacted me letting me know. Thought I got a great deal (it was about $1500 and probably in 4.5-ish shape).

 

After that I purchased a ToS39 in Fine condition, or so it said, and when I opened the saran wrap it arrived in (!) it was like a ticker tape parade of brittle confetti. Lesson: there are enough buyers for desirable keys like AF15 in all grades that there is no incentive for anyone to give them away at big discounts.

 

PS in both cases I got my money back, but making that happen was tedious, stressful and took a while.

 

Good luck with your book, even a 100% fake AF15 has got to be worth $20. it's one you can display on your wall and not worry about fading!

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Dr. Balls

Dr. Balls

Posted
Posted
The really troubling thing here would be that if it is indeed fake and offset printed...because then they would probably have to print at least a few of these to break even, as that is no cheap thing to do (plates, press time, etc). Caveat: I'm a few years removed from intimate knowledge of the printing industry, maybe it is cheaper to offset print things now, but that might be an even worse scenario...

 

Digital printing resembles offset very closely now - the dot pattern is super tight under the loop, but there is still a pattern. We use this process quite a bit for short run and proofing (I work at an ad agency) and it's quite amazing, especially when you compare it to offset.

 

If you were going to replicate an old comic (as a one-off, not mass produced), you could feasibly run newsprint through a large format laser printer, adjusting the dot pattern to an 85 line screen and give it the same feel. You would not be able to do that with an inkjet printer because of the bleed-through.

 

In the terms of this book being a "fake", it's actually quite interesting to figure out the process - you'd have to have some advanced knowledge to make this and pull it off.

 

It's too bad that the builder of this book didn't figure out a way to fade out the ink saturation to give it that 50-year-old-book look. That could have been the major step from fake to counterfeit.

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mackenzie999

mackenzie999

Posted
Posted
It's too bad that the builder of this book didn't figure out a way to fade out the ink saturation to give it that 50-year-old-book look. That could have been the major step from fake to counterfeit.

 

They use a bath in weak tea to create an aged look to forged old documents, followed by a mild pressing I'd imagine.

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genrlzod

genrlzod

Posted
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The really troubling thing here would be that if it is indeed fake and offset printed...because then they would probably have to print at least a few of these to break even, as that is no cheap thing to do (plates, press time, etc). Caveat: I'm a few years removed from intimate knowledge of the printing industry, maybe it is cheaper to offset print things now, but that might be an even worse scenario...

 

Digital printing resembles offset very closely now - the dot pattern is super tight under the loop, but there is still a pattern. We use this process quite a bit for short run and proofing (I work at an ad agency) and it's quite amazing, especially when you compare it to offset.

 

If you were going to replicate an old comic (as a one-off, not mass produced), you could feasibly run newsprint through a large format laser printer, adjusting the dot pattern to an 85 line screen and give it the same feel. You would not be able to do that with an inkjet printer because of the bleed-through.

 

In the terms of this book being a "fake", it's actually quite interesting to figure out the process - you'd have to have some advanced knowledge to make this and pull it off.

 

It's too bad that the builder of this book didn't figure out a way to fade out the ink saturation to give it that 50-year-old-book look. That could have been the major step from fake to counterfeit.

 

How much would it cost to produce one comic with this setup?

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