Funny comments on e-bay

[Khahan]

Thought this was pretty funny. Copied and pasted straight from a current E-bay auction for a mana drain.
Some people will say anything to push a sale:

This card has been authenticated by PSA, the leader in gaming card certification and grading, The card has been treated with an invisible DNA drop so even after it is removed from the PSA holder it can checked and verified as authentic.

Why is this important to you?

Due to the number of counterfeit cards on the market this is one of the only ways to know what you are getting is real. The counterfeit influx is so bad at this point Wizards of the Coast and the DCI looking into only allowing Certified versions of better cards into tournaments.


I wonder whose DNA is on your card....and how it was obtained!

[Harkius]

Personally, I wonder if there is a market in providing DNA for this kind of thing.

There is no chance in hell that they can tell one kind of DNA from another. As such, you could put damn near anything on there. I have DNA that I work with everyday.

Harkius

[Jacob Orlove]

A. whatever they're saying about Wizard policy is a total lie
B. they obviously don't mean deoxyribonucleic acid, just a unique identifying chemical (they may even use the same one on all cards they grade, I'm not sure).

[Lightning Dolt]

I'll bet this is bogus, but believe it or not a lot of products are now thinking about using such a process. Things like designer clothes and stuff so you can verify that it is authentic and not a bootleg. I read it somewhere like PopSci (they may not actually be able to do it yet, but I know they used to be working on it).

[Jacob Orlove]

I was wrong--it looks like they do use (synthetic) DNA to mark the cards. Bizarre.

http://www.psadna.com/faq.chtml#faqid107

[Lightning Dolt]

WOW! I can't believe that they actually use it for PSA authentication and it is permanent! I wonder what other uses they could have for this type of tracking. I'm telling you, soon its gonna be little robots with camera's to take pictures of every card owner to help prevent theft!

[Harkius]

Reading over the technology they are discussing, this seems turbo janky to me.

Despite their claim of the DNA being nearly impossible to duplicate (their statistics are worthless...the DNA that they are using is likely just an oligomer), its sequence is likely not being read by the laser.

A quick physical chemistry lesson. First off, the chemicals that make up DNA (deoxyribonucleotides, for those of you keeping track at home) do not absorb light in the visible spectrum. Nor will they fluoresce in the visible spectrum. This is because the chemical structures themselves are simply not excitable to the degree that would be necessary for emission of a visible spectrum photon. If you got it to fluoresce, it would be in the IR spectrum.

Second, to make things clear, it is perfectly possible to make it so that DNA will fluoresce. To do this, you derivatize (chemically alter) the DNA with a chemical that will fluoresce. However, this is most certainly not going to be sequence-dependent, and let me tell you why. First, you would need to have a chemical that attaches only to one of the four different nucleotides. Not hard to get, in theory. Second, you'd need a laser that could 'see' the spaces between the fluorescing tags. Could they do this? Potentially. But highly unlikely.

Interestingly enough, this is how DNA is sequenced in modern days. Copies are made specially so that they stop at varying lengths of DNA. (This is called the Sanger Chain-Termination Sequencing procedure). The DNA is then derivatized with four different chemicals, one for each of the nulceotides in it (A, T, G, and C). The DNA is then run through something that will separate it by size. The smallest (i.e., the shortest) go through the fastest, and the longest go through the slowest. Then, each one comes off one at a time, and a laser is shined on it. A reader reads the FOUR different colors (not just green), and then a computer assembles them in order to give you the sequence.

What else could they be doing? Since they specifically note that it glows green, I suspect that it is probably some DNA and that it is probably some GFP. GFP is an abbreviation for green fluorescent protein. It is a chemical made by certain organisms that shines green when you hit it with blue light. This, unlike the DNA thing, is perfectly visible, and it is more probably what is happening.

Could they do both? Sure. But the DNA would actually have to be sequenced. This is not always cheap, it isn't easy, and exposure of your collectible to UV light (like...say...holding your card out in the sun for a while) will seriously damage the DNA. The GFP is pretty stable, though.

A little biology lesson there for you all. But, take these kinds of claims with a grain of salt. My bet? Given a card, I could put a similar spot of plasmid DNA and purified GFP protein on there and they would never be able to tell the difference.

Harkius

[Anusien]

It also looks like they use this only for signed sports memorabilia, and not for collectable cards.

[Harlequin]

All this DNA crap is just to scare counterfieters.  When I worked at Dick's Sporting Goods part of my job was to go on the store intercom thing (the "attention K-mart Shoppers" broadcast thing) and say something to the effect of "Security sweep, section A ... Security Sweep, section A."    I had to do this about every hour or so.  Truth be told... there was no such thing as a security sweep, there was no such thing as section A either!!  This was just a brilliant plan by mid-management to curb the theift that was rampent in the mall.

the uniquely coded DNA is propably some elaborate hoax designed to have counterfieters shakein' in their boots.

[Nastaboi]

I left part of my DNA on every card I touch.

And yes, I do wash my hands.

[Harkius]

I left part of my DNA on every card I touch.

And yes, I do wash my hands.

I'm not entirely certain that is accurate, either.

I know you get this idea from crime shows, but I think that it is actually incorrect. The skin cells that flake off your skin are keratinized, and they have destroyed their nuclei, like erythrocytes (red blood cells). As such, there is no DNA in them. In order to get DNA, they need a cell that was nucleated. This is why they take DNA samples from in your cheek instead of off your hand.

If your hands are particularly abraded, you may be shedding DNA. Maybe not.

If you don't wash your hands, though, there are likely epithelials from your GI tract on there. And, ew.

Harkius