WATCH OUT- Faked Special Offer Snowspeeder Stickers- Most Likely More Out There

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djlackore

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To All,

I regret to have to write this as I didn’t think we would see this kind of fake infiltrate the hobby even though there are some bad apples out there. I recently purchased a Special Offer Snowspeeder (one I have been after for quite a while) and discovered that it was a fake. I waited patiently for it to arrive and once it did I took one look at it and knew something was off. Now I know these are very rare and there are not many examples to compare them to but there is one place I trust for reference more than any, The Star Wars Collector Archive. Also, I have used two other known examples (one unfortunately is not real).

Here is the image from the Archive:




1[SUP]st[/SUP] Glance

Upon the first glance this is what I notice was odd to me. The border that is around the perimeter should be yellow, red and black. This one was yellow, red and a blue black which was very odd to me. I started to look for other oddities. The rebel soldier looked too blurry compared to my other special offer stickers with figures on them.








Deeper Dive



Here are a few more issues after a deeper dive:

  • This sticker when compared to an example like the one on The Archive is barely smaller by about 7 cm in length. I will not expose the real size for obvious reasons.
  • The red lettering in Special Offer bleeds out of black letter borders





  • The transparency of the sticker is not as see through as original examples. Hard to see in picture but easier in person.
  • There is red bleeding around the right foot of the rebel soldier

  • The left foot of the rebel soldier is slightly off the red outside border





  • The ink printing shows signs of digital vs press printing
o Press printing is what you want to see in a vintage item. When comparing the ink printing to my other Special offer stickers and the actual snowspeeder box the fake sticker was on you could easily tell the differences in ink printing.

o For press printing you want to see the colors is a horizontal line and when all colors are present it should form what looks like a flowers pedals. This can be faked and looks like it was attempted to be faked in this but you can easily tell the differences.

Authentic


Reproduction




My initial thought was maybe there are two versions, but that's because i wanted it to be real. These were such a limited run i do not see why there would have been two versions. Also, all other types of special offer stickers do not exhibit these issues so thus i was lead to it being reproduction and confirmed with the printing and other factors.

All in all, I am concerned with this level of forgeries as 3 people have been faked out with this example and i know there are 2 fake examples out there. If I can share anything with the community it is that no matter who you are buying from or what price the item is do your homework. Know what you are buying and what an authentic vintage example should look and feel like. Buy yourself a high powered loupe and blacklight so you can check the ink printing for red flags. I am not saying we should question every item but if it is something new to you or you rely on grading, add these tools to your collection and become an expert so you do not get scammed or passed along a fake.

Thanks for your time guys!
 
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Corellia

Corellia

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Great, smart contribution. Thank you!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Corellia

Corellia

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Djlackore, may I please ask what power of loupe you recommend? Thank you.
 
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DarthCantu

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Hard to tell on the original sticker how good the printing is. The picture of the snowspeeder sticker that you have up is horrible and fake, sorry. Looks like they used a low res photo and looks like they did it on an ink jet printer from home. The samples of printing you have up there, are they of the sticker itself or just for show? I have samples of actual printing from a real printing press and a digital printing press.


This 1st picture is the sheet we printed on a printing press




This is a close up of pic #1 with a loop as you can see the rosettes you talk about. excellent register.



This Picture is the same spot on the sheet before registration was on. Not all vintage items that were printed on press will have perfect registration. As back in the 70's and 80's printing did not have the same quality control for registration and color like we do now. Thats why, for example, some vintage cardbacks look blacker than others and some cardbacks may look like the color is bleeding when all it is is the registration is way off.


This picture here was printed on a digital printer


This is what it looks like through the loop

damn close to a printing press. So just shows you a digital printer can come very close to real offset printing.

As for the second picture of the register and dots you have. Here is an example of a printing press that can print that bad. On the left is what a perfect printing dot should look like. On the right is what it looks when the temperature of the press rollers or the water to the printing plate is to warm, your dot starts printing full and look like crap.



Hope this helps everyone out there, I know its a lot to take in but this is what I do for a living and for the past 24 years.
 
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Plastikheld

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DarthCantu said:
Hard to tell on the original sticker how good the printing is. The picture of the snowspeeder sticker that you have up is horrible and fake, sorry. Looks like they used a low res photo and looks like they did it on an ink jet printer from home. The samples of printing you have up there, are they of the sticker itself or just for show? I have samples of actual printing from a real printing press and a digital printing press.
Click to expand...
Great explanation DarthCantu. I'm also educated as a printer in the late 90ies before I settled in front of the screen to work in graphics.
My first thought here was that the so called fake sticker was just out of registry. This would explain the differences in colour and the blurry print.
What seems no good is the difference in the sticker material itself. But the opacity of the sticker might change due to different storing conditions.
The "fake sticker" does not look like it's die cut, wich you can see on the crooked edges.
To judge, if it's at least fake or not, I think one needs to have it in hand, but there are many hints.
What frightens me the most is, what someone with a professional background might be able to do.
So explanations like yours are priceless. :)
 
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DarthCantu

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Yes, your right. I just hate when people try to sell fake or replica vintage items and say they are real.
 
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