How to Spot a Fake

[quaz95]

There is one on ebay now. i emailed the seller and said thanks, and let the auction countine, here is a link. there is no wilson circle patch but he says it says made in korea. THis glove had a buy it now price of 24 dollars. Was going to pull the trigger but lucky me i found out first.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nice-Wilson-used-br ... dZViewItem
John

[Bubdoggy]

John,
Just saw that glove as well. Kind of looking for an old A2000 for a father of a boy on my ball team. It looked like vinyl piping, that's what set me thinking "Hey, something doesn't look right". Also, the Made in Korea didn't ring true either.

Glad you guys are schooling me on this.
Scott

[rivets]

I just got a WilsonA2000 XLC and it is stamped Made In USA on the front under Wilson and the round black and yelow label has USA on it. However their is no Made In USA stamped on the back like my other Wilsons. The quality and leather is as good if not better then some of my other Wilsons. Does anyone know why the USA wasn't stamped on the back. Nothing else funny about the glove as Mike from Gloveworks just gave it the works and I'm sure he would have said something if it was a forgery. Just wanted to know if Wilson didn't stamp USA on the backs of all their gloves.

[opticsp]

Can anyone tell if this is real. Why would it not have USA on the circle patch?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... PIC&ih=012

[vintagebrett]

I don't think there is a chance someone could make that good of a fake - that 1B is a stunner - definitely real. Maybe at the time this glove as produced they were still making most, if not all, their gloves in the USA and didn't need to stamp "Made in the USA" more than once. Just a guess.

[spedrunr]

i heard that the way they train bank tellers in spotting a fake is to have them handle a bunch of the real ones. rather than try and show them all the different counterfeit possiblities (infinite)

it's like the old sesame street game they used to play: "one of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong"
(sing it if you remember)

perhaps the prolific collectors out there who have pics of all the different real deal model a2000's could post them.

as for the late 70's through 80's USA models there are a few simple rules (besides having the USA stamping and nickel patch stitching):

1) A2000 L - conventional back, double hinge web
2) A2000 XL - (same as L)
3) A2000 XLC - pro back (fastback TM), double hinge web, could have single or double finger hole (see previous 1b ebay posting)
4) A2000 XLO - conventional back, single post/double bar web
5) A2000 XXL - pro back, H-web

again if you've seen them, you know that any combinations of the above (unless pro issue, but i don't know all of these) that don't fall into this pattern, it's probably a fake (tartan web is a definite red flag)

i haven't seen any fakey 1b or catchers mitts (yet)