Some guys will do anything to make a buck in the hobby.
During the 2000’s Topps released a set dubbed Topps 206. Randomly inserted into packs were buybacks of original T206 tobacco cards.
The scam centers around putting an authentic or counterfeit T206 card into a holder of a common card from the Topps 206 set.
Generally, collectors will pay a slight premium for the T206 buybacks over a regular T206.
So, in theory you would take a card like this:
Cut it up – as described in this process.
Buy a real T206 or come up with a fake one.
And then end up with this:
One scammer admitted to faking at least 75-80 cards dating back to 2009. His come to Jesus moment sparked a lengthy discussion on Net 54. The scammer goes by lharri3600 on eBay and has sold at least 12 T206 “Buybacks” from May-August.
Lharri3600 probably isn’t the only one involved in the scam. BGS card grader Andy Broome has identified several T206 buybacks that feature fake T206 cards. Broome wrote about the scam in 2014 and also tweeted about a fake Ty Cobb card shown below.
Good Lord there is so much nope here.
Fake #T206 Cobb in a @toppscards frame.#collect #thehobby pic.twitter.com/Sv6f10eRX4— Andy Broome (@broomewithaview) November 21, 2014
According to a former editor at Topps, the company did not keep track of which original T206 cards were used as buybacks.
