I believe that. My friend who made them in college (late 80s) wasn't dealing with the licenses they have today. They were laminated, had text on a white background and just one state seal looking thing over the text. He was able to make his licenses with a poloroid camera, an occasional run off an offset press and a laminating machine.
I had a fake ID for about a year when I was 19 in 2001. Got it at Bob's Photo ID in downtown Detroit on my way to Windsor one night for a round of boozing (Pre 9/11 days). It was the best. Lost it about a year later in my hometown, wife of the man who owned the store kept it. I politely reminder her (yes, really) that I spent about $100 weekend there for almost a year buying for friends. It was a great year. I agree with whoever said it was completely different "back in the day." IDs are way too secure now to get away with shitty fakes.
My friend worked at the license bureau and would make duplicates of guys that looked like us as they came in. Then we'd go buy beer in black neighborhoods, assuming (correctly) that the clerks would have a more difficult time distinguishing us from the license photo.
It was also well understood that you don't ever try to use a fake ID in a one of the bigger liquor stores or grocery stores that sold liquor, depending on what state you lived in. If we were using a fake ID to buy in college, we usually avoided stores close to campus. We'd either go to the outskirts or another town over. They didn't give a shit there. Hell, at those places, they rarely even asked for ID.
Sometime during sophomore year in college, some of us went in on some fake IDs. This fella I knew in my comp sci class was making them and they looked damn good. Plucked down $30 and used it in grocery stores for beer and in some bars. After I bought it, I remember being pissed that I didn't make them because I was pretty good with photoshop, etc. I just didn't have the laminator they used. Connecticut were the ones to make since those IDs at the time didn't have the hologram.
