Autographs
Fake Dominique Wilkins autographs, 1990s Fleer Basketball cards targeted in new forgery scandal
The Fleer trading card company liquidated its assets in 2005 and held a bankruptcy auction. Included in the items sold were Fleer authentication stamps.
Those stamps are now possibly being used to forge autographed cards that are being sold on eBay, according to a collector SCD spoke with who wanted to remain anonymous. This collector might have stumbled upon another counterfeiting ring.
Growing up, the collector was a huge Dominique Wilkins fan. When he got back into the hobby recently, he wanted to pick up a Wilkins autograph, something he couldn’t afford as a kid.
The collector discovered that Wilkins was featured in a 12-card set in the 1991-92 Fleer Limited Edition Autographs release. The set contains base cards—which look identical to the autographs besides not having a signature and an embossed Fleer stamp of authenticity—and autograph cards. The signed cards are not numbered, but only 2,000 were produced by Fleer.
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In July of last year, there were a number of eBay auctions taking place with those specific Wilkins cards, so the collector placed bids on a couple of auctions and won.
“I should have thought of it before, but it was only after I won and the prices were not that bad. I thought, ‘Huh, those are cheaper than I thought,’” the collector said. “So, I just did a search on eBay and I saw, wait a second, this guy had probably 100 really rare Fleer autographed stamped cards. I thought, ‘That’s kind of unusual.’ It’s possible, but it’s unusual.”
The collector dug into more eBay searches and within just five minutes found five other sellers with the same item description and in some cases used the same photos of the autographed Wilkins cards. He started to see a pattern; the descriptions for the auctions all prominently stated that each card has an “Autograph Card w/ Stamp” or “AUTOGRAPH FLEER STAMPED.” All the examples these sellers had were ungraded.
Taking an even deeper dive, searches of completed auctions produced more of the same results for the collector.
“I just found a ridiculous amount—just in the last few weeks—of the same cards, of the same autographed, limited-edition cards all stamped, all from a small group of sellers,” the collector said. “But then I started looking at those sellers’ accounts, and I started noticing some similarities.”
The collector found six eBay handles that share the exact same item descriptions, a number of them using the same photos and all of them selling the cards via auction—never with a set price. Along with those glaring similarities, the locations of each operation are based in the same two cities: three in Quezon City, Philippines and three in Chandler, Ariz.
“All of these sellers sell or have sold the same suspicious Fleer stamped autographed cards in unrealistically high quantities,” the collector said. “The cards come from these specific sets, all of which came with the authentication stamp.”
Through his research, the collector pinpointed which cards are most likely being forged: 1991-92 Fleer Wilkins Limited Edition Autographs; 1991-92 Fleer Dikembe Mutombo Limited Edition Autographs; 1992 Fleer Ultra Tony Gwynn Commemorative Series Autographs; 1992 Fleer Ultra Reggie White Career Highlights Autographed; 1992-93 Fleer Larry Johnson NBA Rookie of the Year Autographs; 1992-93 Fleer Ultra Scottie Pippen Career Highlights Autographs; 1993-94 Fleer Clyde Drexler Career Highlights Autographs; and 1993-94 NBA Hoops Magic Johnson/Larry Bird dual autograph exchange card.
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SCD also discovered the 1993 Fleer Tom Glavine Career Highlights Autographs and 1993 Fleer Ultra Dennis Eckersley Career Highlights Autographs possess all the same similarities being sold by the group of companies.
All these cards feature the Fleer authentication stamp. The Hoops Magic Johnson/Larry Bird card uses a Skybox authentication stamp. Back then, Fleer and Skybox were the same company.
“It's unclear if they made a facsimile stamp or if they acquired the original stamp when Fleer liquidated its assets in a 2005 bankruptcy auction,” the collector said. “These cards are the only cards these scammers can credibly use the Fleer stamp on, so these are the autographs they counterfeit the most.”
SUSPICIOUS FINDINGS
The collector purchased his Wilkins cards in July 2025 from the handles @mobil5333 and @marshall_flynn. The shipping label for the card sent by @mobil5333 had the address “2840 E Iris Dr, Chandler, AZ 85286.” For the other card purchased by the collector, @marshall_flynn was supposedly based in Quezon City, Philippines, according to the handle’s eBay information. However, the shipping label was generated by an account in Chula Vista, Calif., but USPS actually picked up the item in Chandler, Ariz.
“I looked at other sellers again and they’re either based in the Philippines, shipping from Chandler, Ariz., or they’re just selling directly from Chandler, Ariz.,” the collector said. “There’s another guy selling the same stuff based in Phoenix, which is right next to Chandler, Ariz.
“I messaged the guy I bought the cards from [@mobil5333] and said, ‘Hey, this is great. What’s your story? How did you get so many of these cards?’ Obviously, I never got an answer. But then, interestingly enough, all of the other sellers blocked me on eBay. Like how would they know to even do that? Unless they are all somehow linked, right?”
Those other eBay handles are @gedu_21, @lastchancemonato, @signedingold168, and @goldeny_10. All these accounts have been opened in the last four years, with three starting in 2024.
All the eBay handles tend to stagger how they run their auctions and don’t list the cards all at the same time. One handle might have 20 autographed Wilkins cards up for sale and the next week switch to Drexler. A different handle might move Mutombo cards and post Gwynn cards a few days later.
“These are just the ones that I found through my quick lunchtime search,” the collector said. “I don’t know how many there actually are. If I can just easily in 10 minutes find an X-number of suspicious people, who knows how many more sellers there are.”
SCD conducted eBay searches and found consistency with what the collector was seeing. During a 90-day stretch—which is the maximum number of days sold items can be checked on eBay—from April 20, 2025 to July 18, 2025, that group of sellers sold 39 Wilkins’ cards from the 1991-92 Fleer Limited Edition Autographs and 37 Drexlers from 1993-94 Fleer Career Highlights Autographs. The other aforementioned players—Mutombo, Gwynn, White, Johnson and Pippen—all had sales of over a dozen of each limited-edition card during that time frame.
SCD also sent @mobile5333 multiple messages on eBay inquiring if the Wilkins stamp autograph cards come with a certificate of authenticity (COA). And if they do, which company authenticated the after-market autograph. @mobile5333 did not respond.
“Back then, if you just opened a pack, it’s fairly common to just get the regular, unsigned Wilkins card,” the collector said. “You can buy them easily. You can buy them for under a buck on eBay. Now the limited-edition signed versions that have the stamp, those are hard to find. So, what I think is happening is this guy or these guys are just going on eBay and buying in bulk all of the regular unsigned ones. They’re just forging the signatures and stamping them.”
The collector, realizing the autographed Wilkins cards were fake, messaged @mobile5333 asking to return the item. No questions asked, the collector was sent a prepaid shipping envelope to be mailed back to “[Name redacted] E Iris Dr, Chandler, AZ 85286.”
FAKE AUTOGRAPHS
SCD sent renowned autograph expert Steve Grad—who works for Beckett Authentication and can be seen on the hit TV show “Pawn Stars”—a photo of the collector’s Wilkins autographed card.
“It’s complete garbage,” Grad said. “He never signed like that. Those are amateur forgeries.”
Grad has a good idea who is behind the forgeries.
“A well-known card and autograph dealer at the time bought those embossing stamps from the bankruptcy sale and used it to his advantage,” said Grad, who formerly was an autograph authenticator at PSA. “We were seeing his stuff in massive submissions at PSA. The same forger was crying in front of the graders and PSA management. They brought me into a meeting in the grading room at The National in the 2006-08 range. I sat there and watched him cry.
“It’s most certainly him. He’s a forger; he’s a bad guy. … And he’s still active, as far as I know, in the business.”
SCD looked through other items that eBay handles @signedingold168 and @goldeny_10 were selling, and there were more forged items. A trading cards magazine with Bo Jackson on the cover was autographed by Jackson and up for auction from @signedingold168 in late July of last year. The opening bid price was $59.99 with no bids. During the same time, @goldeny_10 had an autographed Magic Johnson Skybox card starting at auction for $7.99. Both the Jackson and Johnson items were ungraded and include a COA from Ken Goldin, who was the president, chairman and CEO of The Score Board Inc. from 1987-1998.
SCD reached out to Goldin, who now runs the auction house Goldin, to see if the autographs and COAs are legitimate on these items.
“Fake autos with fake certs,” Goldin said. “It is completely impossible for any autograph by Jackson to be certified by Score Board.”
The collector wasn’t surprised when he found out two experts in the business deemed the autographs and COAs bogus.
“I don’t know how long this has been going on, but probably years,” the collector said. “I suspect that the vast majority of autographed and stamped cards on the market are fake.”
