Topp: Not So Security Labels

Some time ago I was involved in a conversation on the Non Sports Update forum about Topps “security label” autographs. It was a simple exchange of posts in an otherwise much larger thread the topic of which was the proliferation counterfeit autograph cards hitting the market recently. My view? Security labels make the market safer, high quality labels are designed to come apart if you try and removed them from the surface they have been applied to and thus they are difficult to lift and copy. Topps in particular have there owns logo embedded within the holographic label. I said at the time that I was willing to put this to the teats, and that’s exactly what I have done in this article.

Security Labels are used in/on a variety of products inside and out of the card market, including credit cards charity collection boxes and really anything else that needs to be tamper evident.  In the card market it has the added bonus for the manufacture of being much much cheaper than on card autographs. You can apply the stickers to ANY card potently even after the death of your subject, these sheets of autographs will let you be flexible with your products.  No more lost or damaged cards, no fakes which are just high quality scans.. It sounds like a win all over scenario!

Sure there is a contingent of collectors who HATE “sticker autographs” a very vocal minority (based on sales figures) but you know what, it makes the industry safer so tough.

Er except as I will show in this article, Topps at least, are not doing that at all….

Don’t get me wrong I think sticker autographs can look good, if done right and incorporated into the style of the card, (often they are not) but to say they are there to prevent fraud, at least in this case,  is just untrue.

We have all been told often by manufacturers that stickers were for card security, but now you can see  that some “security labels” are no more secure than on card autographs. The label’s bought by Topps are low quality, and as I will demonstrate they are extremely easy to remove clean and reapply. I didn’t think they would be. They are,  and I am very disappointed and wrong.

I started this off with a very very battered Tarfful autograph card from Star Wars Evolution Update, I chose this card because it was in such bad shape. Why wreck a good card? You can see the card right hear. It’s scratched up already, before I have done anything to it as I said, it’s in very poor condition.   So my hypothesis was simple I would start trying to peal the sticker off and it would rip leave parts behind and deform, as they are meant to do.  As you can see in the second photo I started pealing the corner, and hey why be gentle, I just grabbed it and started to pull.  Wow this was really coming off no problem… in seconds I was halfway there and then it was off…

Now hang on what about the label destroying itself and not working and Bla Bla Bla… well to be fair it left some residue on the card… several small circles were left as you can see, BUT the sticker when re-stuck to plastic Penny Sleeve looked OK, and when a card is placed behind it it looks just fine.The sticker is placed on a penny sleeve for several reasons, it sticks, but not fully so you can remove it as and when you need to, and it gives you a way to hold and work with the sticker without having to constantly touch it. It makes what I am about to do much much easier as well. I need the name off that sticker, because the sticker is worth more than the ink…  I will let the next few photos  speak for themselves.

To achieve this I used my super secret chemical which many of you probably know nothing of…. It’s not something many comic and card collectors will have access to, but if you are one of the uncommon few, a geek with a girl, a girl geek or a gothgeek  you might just be able to obtain a sample of this rare chemical, otherwise come out of the basement and ask your mom for some of this:

Needless to say all I needed was a tissue a penny sleeve and this magic fluid to over come Topps supper security label. It was quick and nasty but I could easily add some adhesive and make this look like someone else’s autograph.

This all took less than 5 min. Now imagine if I had a mint card thus a label with no scratches and flaws, and I took my time instead of just pulling it off.  I could make whatever certified Topps autograph I like… I have looked at several other Topps cards and I have no doubt at all that I can remove the labels and resign them in such a way as no one would really be able to tell.  That’s very very worrying. I am so pleased the use these forgery proof stickers now… Who wants to buy a high end Topps autograph card? Anyone? Priced to sell…

In all honesty the only thing holding forgers back would be the cards themselves, and as we have seen recently cards are being copied with alarming frequency. I guess the real question is for Topps, why are you using cheap low speck labels on your cards?

Security Labels ARE a good thing, even if you don’t personally like them they can provide an extra layer of authentication to a card, but only if you use the right ones. Topps need tamper evident labels that destroy themselves if they are removed.. Not these cheap poor quality labels that are very obviously not fit for the job.