I am not really into modern sports cards. I would much rather stick my money into a nice autographed football or a vintage program. That said, I know quite a few people who still are obsessed with modern cards, especially those that are autographed and feature multi-colored patches.

It's been recently called to my attention that there is a major problem with crooks taking out pieces of jerseys from patch cards and are replacing them with more attractive swatches, to fraudulently increase value.

You would think the card companies would try to eliminate the possibility of jersey-card fraud by affixing a clear plastic covering over the swatch or something, but most jersey pieces are affixed in a manner that they can be removed and unethically replaced.

I stumbled upon this site recently, www.fakepatchreport.com, and it is pretty slick. Anybody who collects jersey cards should go there and check it out. The hobby needs more proactive collectors like founder Jeremy Lee. Props to Lee and his efforts to make the hobby a safer place.

Just an update on my card show that I am having on Dec. 29, in Green Bay.My experiment has gone very well so far. We sold all of our tables and have a bunch of dealers on a waiting list. I know of many collectors who are going to travel up to a couple hours to check it out, as well.
The Green Bay Press Gazette newspaper is doing a story about the show in this upcoming Monday’s paper. We also were able to secure some really good dealers, including SCD’s very own T.S. O’Connell and Troy Kinunen of MEARS.

I am very excited. Now all we need to do is keep our fingers crossed for good weather.

Happy Holidays everyone. Gavel Chat will be back starting January 2. I am heading to Chicago this week for the Packers/Bears game. Lots of sports this weekend between the NFL games Saturday and Sunday.