I'm looking at a couple on ebay and have seen a few others.
My question is, there is one for sale with with the number on the back written in what looks to be a silver pen different to all the others which seem to be written in a black pen, I've only seen black before so I'm not sure what to make of this one.

Is it known that some were numbered in a different pen? and if it is possible could a few people check theirs to see what the # is written in please?

Mine is in black.

Thanks Cardaddict

Can anyone else check theirs.

I received an answer and they confirmed that it is written in silver not black, the handwriting looks the same but can't be sure.

Here's a picture that might help with the handwriting analysis:

Thank you so much Cardaddict, that's really helpful.
The photo they took is rather blurry and not very clear, what do you think of the writing.

Here's the front.

They have told me they didn't pull it themselves but bought a master set off of someone.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Juelle Lou,

Hello...

Mine is in Black Also...

I'm not an expert on fake cards by any stretch of the imagination, but it looks OK to me. I have no idea if it's possible to fake a card like that, but it probably is possible with today's technologies. So my advice is that I don't have any advice.

I'm not an expert on fakes either but doesn't anyone else think the hole for the piece of stake in the card in question is somewhat smaller than on the other two cards ? Or is it just that the first few cards were like that ?

Kefin F, good spotting! I didn't even notice that.

But I don't think that means it is a fake after looking on Inkworks site, here is a picture of their scan.

Here is the one I'm looking at again.

And here is another one I have a scan of, I don't own this one I just kept a picture of it for reference.

It seems that Inkworks must have made a few different styles depending on what size the piece of stake is.
We know for certain that Cardaddict's is legit and MarcGs but they do have a different front image than this one as you can tell by the middle scan.
If you notice the pictures and the Inkworks seal are in different places on the cards with bigger holes for the stake.

I so much wish InkWorks was still around so I could ask them if they know if when they hand numbered, they used a silver as well as a black pen.

Well, we all know it's not the size of the stake, but how you use it. (my apologies, I just couldn't resist that)

That is strange, the front of my card looks like the one on your reference picture.

Which is, as you pointed out, different from the picture they sent you. Now I would also like to know how many different variations of this card there are, and why they even exist in the first place.

It is strange isn't it?
And the Inkworks one is a little bit bigger than the one I'm looking at but alot smaller than the reference pic.

quote:

Originally posted by Kevin F:
I'm not an expert on fakes either but doesn't anyone else think the hole for the piece of stake in the card in question is somewhat smaller than on the other two cards ? Or is it just that the first few cards were like that ?

I believe I have seen some cards with smaller openings because of a smaller piece of the stake....

quote:

Originally posted by MarcG:
Hello...

Mine is in Black Also...

Here is the front of mine....

The size of the relic should be pretty easy to figure out. The stake is a tapered piece of resin. The center circles are where the resin cured at a different rate. The different diameters would occur as you sliced off pieces of stake, small on one end to large on the other.

Now, the numbering... I have NO facts to back this up, but I remember it was posted that at least one was sent back as defective and they received a new card. Is it possible that Inkworks kept a few unnumbered cards and replacements were numbered the same if needed? Sounds plausible, but without Allan around there's no way to be sure one way or another.

The card itself would be difficult but not impossible to re-create. A lot more trouble than it's worth, especially since you'd have to have an actual card to work off of.

Ed

Thanks Ed, what you say makes the most sense.
I was never really worried about the size of the hole, but the hand numbering in a different colour pen.
So it being a replacement I guess makes the most sense.

If they had ones set aside, I wonder what happened to them when Inkworks went bust?
I don't think I've ever seen the seller on ebay that bought out everything bar the Autos list any.

Looking at the guaranteed genuine cards posted by MarcG and cardaddict, I would be very, very concerned about the size of the hole in the eBay card. Their cards both appear to have identical sized holes to contain very different sized pieces of relic/stake. Specifically, look at cardaddict's tiny piece in a great big hole. I can't imagine Inkworks would have spent extra money punching custom holes for each piece of relic along with a customized image for the differing sized holes. It would be much more believable for them to have determined the hole size and design needed to contain the largest piece and run off a couple of hundred identical cards.

On all of the front images, except the one from the Inkworks site and from the suspect eBay card, there are small images of Xander and Buffy in the bottom left corner.

My personal approach would be to request full in-focus images of both sides of the card. If the seller would not or could not do this, I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.

One other thought would be that the Inkworks image was a prototype card and that the seller has also somehow come into possession of another one. However, if I were going to part with $500 for a card I would want more information about the card and better images. There really is no excuse for poor quality, blurry photos these days.

Good point Kevin F, I agree with you on every point.
All he could tell me is that he bought it as part of a master set. But guarantee's that it is authentic.

Here is another one I found just searching Google. It seems to have a smaller hole too.
Front

Back

Which happened to be pulled from one of our own members, Raj

It certainly has a distinctly different back to this one

The whole layout is different, including the "Propworks, Authentic Show Used Items" text written under the hole in the top one is not on the bottom one at all.
And we know both are authentic.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Juelle Lou,

If someone were to make a fake, it is unlikely that they would use a different color pen than the others as that would raise suspicion. There certainly are a lot of variables here!

Jon

Don't worry about the size of the hole. (lol) There were two different sizes used. I specifically remember an earlier discussion about how you would technically have to buy both sizes to achieve a true master set.