[garnettfan4life]

I have a ton of these cards that I acquired when I bought a dealer out last week and I have no idea how to tell a refractor in these sets

[mjand2345]

Refractors have reflecting rainbow light effect. Regulars does not.

[garnettfan4life]

ok that is not helping

[dodgytrousers]

Unfortunately he is right. I believe that is the only way to tell in this set. If you have seen refractors before then you will know what to look for and it will be quite obvious. When looking through the cards make sure you have good light that will easily show the refractor 'shine'.

[garnettfan4life]

Unfortunately he is right. I believe that is the only way to tell in this set. If you have seen refractors before then you will know what to look for and it will be quite obvious. When looking through the cards make sure you have good light that will easily show the refractor 'shine'.

i have a ton of refractors that are marked these are just tough for me unless i am crazy most of all this stack i have are shining a lot maybe i just got lucky and got a bunch of refractors

[mjand2345]

These were the very first batch of refractors, and they were not marked. Topps only started marking refractors in the following year. You will have to keep looking or you can go to your local shop, and get a cheap regular card to compare the difference.

[got watcha want]

I have this base set and I am chasing these refractors, and judging the scan of the card you have posted, that particular one is not a refractor.

The best way to tell is to take all of the ones that you have and a handfull at a time fan them out like playing cards in your hand. The refractors stick out like a sore thumb with the extra reflective sheen the refractors garnish. If they all look like the Cassell does in the scan then you probably don't have any refractors in that lot.

I can post example scans if you need them for comparison.

[garnettfan4life]

I have this base set and I am chasing these refractors, and judging the scan of the card you have posted, that particular one is not a refractor.

The best way to tell is to take all of the ones that you have and a handfull at a time fan them out like playing cards in your hand. The refractors stick out like a sore thumb with the extra reflective sheen the refractors garnish. If they all look like the Cassell does in the scan then you probably don't have any refractors in that lot.

I can post example scans if you need them for comparison.

yes i know what you are trying to say some of them do shine more than the others but on different levels it's weird to explain some are very shiny refracting some of them have some refraction to them and some have none I have never seen different levels of refracting that is why i am havin so much trouble and with these old soft sleeves on them they don't shine untill I take them out sometimes

[got watcha want]

Honestly if you can't tell then you probably don't have any refractors. It doesn't take a super keen eye to see the refractors in hand. The pics on ebay are bad sometimes, but most of the time if you can't tell that it is a refractor by a good scan then it is probably a base that someone is passing off as a refractor.

If you got these in a big lot purchase, I doubt that they were all refractors, unless there was nothing but high end stuff in this lot that would give you the impression these could all be refractors.

It is probably harder to tell a Fleer base card from a Fleer glossy in hand, than it is to tell the difference between these refractors and base in hand. I have seen these parallels debated more than any others on forums. I remember when BJWARRANTY was trying to pass off a base shaq as a refractor before he was banned.

The rainbow sheen that the refractors have are deep and not easy to miss. I will try and post the Cassell refractor and base side by side tonight when I get home.

P.S. These refractors also have a bad tendancy to have "refractor lines". Not all of them have these manufacturing surface flaws, but it is something common in all early Topps refractors. You might check your stack for these lines in the front surface of the cards.

[got watcha want]

Ok, it was much tougher to get the refractor sheen in a still picture than I thought. On the scanner the refractors only seemed lighter in color than the base. The rainbow sheen (that you can see on the refractors) rolls in the light when you move the card in hand.

I had to actually use the camera's flash after arranging the cards and making the room completely dark. Then I had to explain to the wife why I was taking pictures of cards in the dark.

The refractors alternate left and right position going down the columns of these examples. I did that for contrast and in the first pic of the Cassell cards you can actually see the "refractor line" I was talking about.

Hope this helps...........