THE SIDELINES : ‘Rare’ Baseball Card Just a $10 Copy

PITTSBURG, Calif. —  A supposedly rare baseball card stolen from a 14-year-old boy who had hoped to use it for his college education turned out to be a replica worth $10 at the most, investigators say.

The stolen card, thought to be a 1910 Honus Wagner tobacco card worth about $100,000, lacked the tobacco stamp that would have shown that it was an original, said Detective Phil White of the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department.

The boy, who still hasn’t recovered the stolen card, was shown a replica Tuesday and said it was “exactly the same card stolen from him,” White said.

“Up until yesterday we had no way of determining if the card was authentic or a replica,” White said. “We didn’t even know a replica existed, not being specialists in that field. We had nothing to compare it with.”