posted 09-06-2023 03:28 PM
I bought a group of Apollo-era Manned Flight Awareness posters recently on eBay. Described as original 60s vintage items online and in direct messages with the seller.Once received, it was immediately clear to me these were recent digital prints. The image quality was generally good, but the image pattern indicated a digital print rather than a lithograph.
The paper was high quality, but thicker than any Flight Awareness posters I own, including the exact same styles where I was hoping to upgrade condition. Another strong give-away about problems was the paper size did not match. The colors of some posters were also very different from the originals.
I have not come across this problem before, so I'm not sure how widespread this prints are. I bought some other posters within the past year from someone who had a fairly large supply of some styles, but all of those matched the characteristics of other posters about which I'm confident.
Anyone buying posters should pay close attention to anything they receive. If some of the posters in this group weren't so terribly done, I might have overlooked the others in a a quick glance. Sometimes I receive items and only do a cursory review.
I got a refund in the end, and I'm not even convinced the seller knows they have fakes. People sometimes receive items from others in good faith and don't realize their full history. The seller rejected my conclusion they were fakes, though, so I assume they will come back on the market again. Possibly through a different seller.