Need help and advice identifying Mad Men business cards—was I scammed?

SquidMan

Sr Member
I just received a batch of what was sold to me as production-used Sterling Cooper business cards from Mad Men, with a Screenbid COA, from eBay. However, all other Mad Men business cards currently on eBay, all sold with their own COAs, look different from the ones I received: those look like legit vintage cards with professionally embossed glossy type on matte cardstock, while mine are flat inkjet printed onto photo paper that's glossy on the printed side and matte on the other. Mine seem cheaply made and, frankly, seem fake—why would the production create business cards that are printed using two totally different methods?

The thing is, these came with a Screenbid COA, and was the reason I felt confident buying them in the first place. Here it is:

IMG_5693.jpg


I have no idea how to verify if it's legitimate, would anyone here be able to help? Could it be a fake reprint of a COA? Or maybe a real COA accompanying replicas of the business cards?

In either case, do I have any recourse through eBay if these are indeed fakes?
 
Supporting evidence of my suspicion—someone online posted the business cards they got directly through Screenbid, and the COA has the name of the props written on a sticker attached to it, rather than printed directly on the COA like mine:

dkh1su0vuki51.jpg



Could anyone who has had experience buying from Screenbid please let me know if they ever print the lot # and name of the prop onto their COAs, or if that's never their procedure?
 
I would mail Screenbid. Ask them both about the COA and the cards.
I did, and strangely enough, when I emailed the primary email address on their website for inquiries, I received an alert from my email service saying that my message could not be delivered to that address because “recipient server did not accept our requests to connect”. I then emailed their secondary address but have not yet gotten a response.
 
Word on the street is that screenbids is being a bit shady at the moment. I’ve sa few others having issues with them over items not be correct. Plus the store hasn’t been replying to them to help solve any disputes. Can’t say everything is true. Just they seem to be a bit of a hot ticket button at the moment.

personally I haven’t had any issues with them over the years.

Good luck and I hope it resolved for you swiftly.
 
Word on the street is that screenbids is being a bit shady at the moment. I’ve sa few others having issues with them over items not be correct. Plus the store hasn’t been replying to them to help solve any disputes. Can’t say everything is true. Just they seem to be a bit of a hot ticket button at the moment.

personally I haven’t had any issues with them over the years.

Good luck and I hope it resolved for you swiftly.
Interesting, I had not heard that. But yeah, I've gotten no response at all from either of their publicly available email addresses.

The plot thickens, though: I found some other people online who have received glossy, "fake" looking Mad Men business cards, except unlike me, they received them from Screenbid directly. It seems that all of the Mad Men cards that were sold through Screenbid before 2018 were embossed text on matte cards, and the ones sold since 2018 have been like the flat glossy ones I received. So if it is indeed a scam, it wasn't the eBay seller who is the scammer...

Any chance that Screenbid pulled some shady tactics and printed their own replicas of the cards to pass off as originals? :cautious:
 
I just received a batch of what was sold to me as production-used Sterling Cooper business cards from Mad Men, with a Screenbid COA, from eBay. However, all other Mad Men business cards currently on eBay, all sold with their own COAs, look different from the ones I received: those look like legit vintage cards with professionally embossed glossy type on matte cardstock, while mine are flat inkjet printed onto photo paper that's glossy on the printed side and matte on the other. Mine seem cheaply made and, frankly, seem fake—why would the production create business cards that are printed using two totally different methods?

The thing is, these came with a Screenbid COA, and was the reason I felt confident buying them in the first place. Here it is:

View attachment 1465632

I have no idea how to verify if it's legitimate, would anyone here be able to help? Could it be a fake reprint of a COA? Or maybe a real COA accompanying replicas of the business cards?

In either case, do I have any recourse through eBay if these are indeed fakes?
I never liked screenbid...It's a scam company for sure because these prop business cards are everywhere being sold by multiple sellers and the reason why they are everywhere being sold on the internet is because these cards can easily be replicated and be printed by anyone, even other props from screenbid never match to what you see on the screen or not be seen within the show at all...they just throw anything that look 50s or 60s accurate that you would see from mad men and they just sell it...and they also try their best to look for something that looks directly accurate to what you see within the show like an ash tray...it's easy for them to find things like this that match to what you see on the screen because they are common to buy...even the wardrobes. Anything that's being sold from screenbid is fake...so stay away. The only memorabilia company I trust is ''vipfanauctions''...what they have directly match to what you see on the screens...I purchased props that came from the show 'Vikings' from vipfanauctions...I have broaches and necklaces that was worn by Lagertha...and when I look at the small detail on the broaches like the patters and tiny scratches you see exactly what you see on the screen...they perfectly match and they come with an official COA from the actual studios like 'MGM' and they have a unique sticker attached to the COA saying it's from MGM.
 
I just received a batch of what was sold to me as production-used Sterling Cooper business cards from Mad Men, with a Screenbid COA, from eBay. However, all other Mad Men business cards currently on eBay, all sold with their own COAs, look different from the ones I received: those look like legit vintage cards with professionally embossed glossy type on matte cardstock, while mine are flat inkjet printed onto photo paper that's glossy on the printed side and matte on the other. Mine seem cheaply made and, frankly, seem fake—why would the production create business cards that are printed using two totally different methods?

The thing is, these came with a Screenbid COA, and was the reason I felt confident buying them in the first place. Here it is:

View attachment 1465632

I have no idea how to verify if it's legitimate, would anyone here be able to help? Could it be a fake reprint of a COA? Or maybe a real COA accompanying replicas of the business cards?

In either case, do I have any recourse through eBay if these are indeed fakes?
 
I highly recommend that you do not buy anything from screenbid whether it's on their site or on eBay, To me they 100% sell fakes, And just as somebody here already said all their items do not screen match at all which I could clearly see for myself on their site including on eBay, so that means all mad men business cards are most likely fake too and they can use any different styles of paper or paper cards to print these business cards including for their own COA's.

And if I came across a memorabilia item that has a COA from screenbid I would stay away from it, And just because it says it's from screenbid on the COA doesn't mean that I should have confidence in buying it because nothing they have looks directly accurate that's being sold on their site like the wardrobes, pots, cigarette cases, jewellery...pretty much everything they have, so yeah this is why I'm not confident in buying their business cards.

Screenbid is also connected to another scamming memorabilia company called ''Heritage Auctions'' and you can clearly see the negative reviews they were given on 'Trustpilot' and I think the worst thing they do is selling reprints of old rare comics which is the same thing that screenbid also does.

But yeah I agree with one person on here saying that vipfanauctions is the best and the COA's are more unique due to they have unique holographic stickers that came directly from MGM which you can't replicate at home including scammers who has fake memorabilia sites can't replicate these stickers.

Screenbid COA's look quite bad in my point of view due to they don't look professional because all they have to identify what they have is for real is small text righting at the bottom of the COA saying ''Lions gate entertainment inc'' along with a signature from the boss on the COA which is clearly a reprint which is why the signature looks directly the same on all screenbid COA's which you can tell by seeing where the signature starts and ends...the signature is too much the same on every COA they have. And also where is the holographic sticker from lions gate that truly tells us it's from lions gate?.

Not only vipfanauctions has COA's from MGM with holographic stickers but they also have lions gate COA's that does have holographic stickers which screenbid and other scamming memorabilia sites do not have. When you come across a COA that's from MGM and LIONS GATE this is what the COA's look like which are the real ones below and as you can see they have vipfanauctions name also attached to the stickers that screenbid does not have and why?...because screen bid does not work for these studios which is why they don't have the stickers.
 

Attachments

  • 51060z_med.jpeg
    51060z_med.jpeg
    423.8 KB · Views: 44
  • 50079z_lg.jpeg
    50079z_lg.jpeg
    847.5 KB · Views: 49

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top