Beware of Phony End Labels, Lets Vote!!!

[haris1]

Fellow Smithophiles,
All of us have been stung when we think we have bought an original
smith only to find out its a reblue, original box complete with phony end label, or it has the wrong this or that. Myself inlcuded and I know what it feels like to be burned. My most expensive lesson was
an unfired pre 29 turning out to be a bad reblue complete with
imitation coke bottle grips!!
Here is a smattering of end labels. Lets have your vote and see where we end up Lets keep it simple....If you think the last one is real, the say "all phony except the last one"

Boys, there's 8 of them. Thanks for contributing!!

You newcomers, lets see your answers too!!
FAKE

FAKE

FAKE

FAKE

FAKE

FAKE

FAKE

FAKE




HERE ARE REAL MACHINE LABELED BOXES-THE THREE BELOW-THERE IS A REAL MACHINE LABELLED ONE
FOR EACH FAKE ONE ABOVE

[URL=http://s779.photobucket.com/user/Haris357/media/phonyLabels/9realbox.jpg.html]

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HERE ARE SOME REAL HANDWRITTEN ONES

 

[jjbrewst1]

All Fake All fake

 

[ben_g1]

First hand written one real, all other hand written ones fake. I don't know about the printed newer box ones.

 

[ben_g1]

I thought the first had a dotted line, maybe not. Hard to tell.

 

[murphydog]

Agree, I think they are all fake. The first one is close but the machine printing is light, and everything is handwritten by the same person, not consistent with an original label.

 

[wlp624]

The second and fourth (the first two computer generated ones) have a chance at being authentic, but the others are fake for sure. But then, I'm pretty gullible.

 

[625smith]

I think they are all fake.

 

[9mmsubgun-m11]

If I can touch them,they are real

 

[Granite6]

I'm a noob, but I'm going to guess 2, 4,5 are legit. None of my smiths are of the older box vintages.

 

[g8rb8]

I am too tired right now to really study the labels but I'll play. After a super quick look here's a knee-jerk response:
1. 43 no dash. Maybe fake maybe real? Label is appropriately faded commensurate with the age of the box but is NOT consistent with the overall condition of the box. Weird. The the ink on the label is too dark. There is a chance the label end of the box sat exposed to the sun fading just the label and not so much the rest of the box? Makes me think the label might be real and maybe has original script but someone has written over the original writing to make it bolder? Jeez, I'm already thinking to hard and this isn't as fun as I thought it would be.
2. 624 - Probably fake. The Smith & Wesson at the top of the label is of different color and font of some I have seen but maybe someone will point out S&W had different suppliers of end labels with different fonts? I suspect the hand written "c" is a fake for the stamped red C inside a circle?
3. The 66-2. Fake. Fake. Fake. Fake cause I say so. Also shouldn't there be bar coding on the label and the newer style label versus this older style label? Since I said "Fake" three times I'm fairly sure someone will come along to correct me.
4. 686. Wrong font and color for Smith & Wesson at top of label but with S&W I wouldn't be surprised if someone came along to correct me. Shouldn't there be a bar code?
5. 645 - Real. I'm going to vote for real. I am preparing my skewer and a pit for myself so I can be publicly grilled.
6. 18-4. Fake. It just don't look right at first glance. I'm too tired to try to figure out why and I've already been grilled (see #5 above).
7. 51 no dash. Fake. Serial number is circa 1959. Box is the right vintage and I think the serial # should be in grease pencil on bottom of box. End label is newer vintage than the box.
8. 63. Fake. Serial # is circa 1984. Two piece Bangor Punta box ended 1985 so box and gun could go together? It just doesn't look right and I'm too tired to figure out why.

FYI. First commercial bar code was 1974 and by about and by about 1980 about 85% of all commercial products had bar codes according to Barcoding Incorporated.

 

[pharmer]

I'm far from knowledgeable as most of my guns came without boxes. I figure #'s 3, 7 and 8 are fakes. 6 has a strange ser # but could be legit. Joe

 

[s3dcor]

1, 3, 4, 7, & 8 are fake.

 

[handejector]

#1 has a chance of being real. I can't tell from that pic.

The rest are fake.

 

[haris1]

THE LABEL TEST

The ones I posted , the eight are ALL fake
after the fakes , there are three correct machine labelled ones.
Hints-Fake machine label ones have the wrong shade of ink. they say 45acp,reals ones say 45. Also one fake says 357M. Smith only said 357. And after the machine labelled real ones , there are three
real handwritten ones. If you go back and forth , you will get a feel for the real as well as for the phony ones!!

 

[haris1]

pHONY LABELS

#8 is Upside down for Petes Sake!!!

 

[M3Stuart]

Who, in the heck, is producing all these forgeries?!?

 

[olympicmotors]

I have to be honest, they all look good to me.

 

[iskra]

Help! Bring me up to twenty first century speed here please!

It's one thing to have a fraudulent blank end label. It's quite another IF such label actually has both nomenclature bearing the exact model/feature description AND the correct SN for the gun to which it's presumably matched! Unless it's just generic rather than specific, how is that achieved short of special fake label custom orders?

Next just a point. My earliest memory of a similar tilt occured perhaps at least a decade at a local gunshow. A guy had a stack of blank Colt letterhead stationary on his table otherwise filled with trinkets and like junk. Instant do it yourself factory letter maker! Blatant! Yet as I considered it, likely only a civil copyright violation at best! Nowadays modern computers in leagues with high quality printers in the home… None of this stuff any longer over the horizon!

And just the final note. “OCIPS” works for me! That as in ‘Old Coot’ Intrinsic Protection Syndrome. Most of my boxed Smiths & Colts were acquired before the era where this sort of thing occurred!
Just my take

 

[haris1]

Link to auctions with very questionable labels

HA! As real as 3 dollar bills!!!

SMITH & WESSON STAINLESS 65-3 3" 357 EXC in BOX : Revolvers at GunBroker.com

SMITH & WESSON 645 45ACP RR, W/O Exc in Box : Semi Auto Pistols at GunBroker.com

I did find something interesting. He has nice guns and all the ones with these kind of labels say "Exc in Box"

seller does have some that say "orig box" and they are righteous labels

Seller knows what he is doing

 

[eveled]

Who do we have to blame but ourselves. We created the market for cardboard boxes.

This is true. Buy the gun, not the story.