Im new here so please bear with me if i cant figure some of the navigation out on the platform.
I recently purchased about 65 first edition card and after discovering a few fakes, im tryingto learn more about the paper quality and discrepancies ive found, mostly with the “light test” . Does anyone have any experience with this kind of stuff. I noticed of the cards bought, about 10% have vertical lines in the cardstock where about 90% dont. My first thought was i bought a bunch of fakes but cards seem legit. They all came from different sellers so its not like i bought a bad collection. Any knowledge on what these could be is appreciated.
Havent figured out posting images here yet, sorry!
With the light test, you will still be able to see through real cards depending on how intense the light is and how close you put the cards up to the light.
It will probably be easier for us to tell if you take pictures of the front/back without the light. So far I don’t see any obvious indicators they are fake yet
Ill get some better pictures when im off work but what im really trying to figure out is what the deal is with some like growlithe having those vertical lines through the center vs arcanine that doesnt have them. The DCE is a bit tougher to see but one of them does have the lines
Of these cards, the light wasnt shining through more or less if the card had lines. Pretty consistent so i dont really think its fake, different card stock supply maybe?
I remember something about red dots visible from the back of the cards, in the pokeball, when you put light behind It. Can’t remember really clearly now, but they should be 3 and shaped like a J or a L.
This was similar to something about MTG cards, so I’m only speaking for wotc cards.
Also with a sharp eye you can see from the side of a card the Blue line even without having to rip it, if it’s not too damaged of course.
Can’t really help better now, I’ll edit to add more specific Infos when I’m home
Appreciate it. I have a jewelers loupe but havent had a chance but ill be checking each card. That dot thing is definitely something id be interested in knowing!
Forget all these other weird tests, post clear front and back photos and the boys here will be able to tell you with certainty wether or not they’re legitimate
I would check for the black core on the edges. I have yet to find a fake card with a black core layer (i.e., which is why they don’t pass the light test).
Speculation is good, can lead to answers. Gonna google this right now. I will get some pictures up of the backs but im sure everyones gonna say they look real based on pics.
I apologize.
I knew I was fucking something up with my broken memory but it’s worse than I thought.
The red dots are (four) only on the MTG cards, not on pokemon (and you also have to use lens, not light to see them).
However another method is to weight the cards.
With that much light coming through the cards, it’s most likely fake. Use the same light source on different cards and hopefully you have some real WoTC cards to compare it to. I did a quick light test on a fake I found (Shadowless Base 2 Charmander lol) with my phone light press against the card and can see the light like your pictures. When I did the same to a real unlimited base set card, you can barely see the light coming through, but still visible.
Hope to see the pictures of front and back without light soon. Be a shame if they are all fakes
Im using a pretty high power flash light., it shows through all the old stuff. I have a few fakes that is goes through like glass and all my 4th print stuff is prob fake
They are all black core and though stamps slightly vary, they dont seem faked. Some just have lines, its a high power flashlight but starting to die on me
Theyre all black core cards and im going to look more into the production process but this makes the most sense to me. Definitely think youre on to something and maybe the glue in the core wasnt perfect. Im finding printing inconsistencies with 4th print as well where there was thinner paper used on the backside and it reveals light as fakes would, but ive got several that are thick on both faces and dont let light through. With the amount of lacking QA back then, it could be reasonable that they were just a mess on the production line as well in the very beginning. I reached out to a paper company and they told me i have to go to industrial supplier. Learning alot today, ty!
