Nothing has changed in the hobby regarding fakes that I’ve noticed, and I’ve been tracking them for many years. The only difference is the influx of new less-experienced collectors and many new openings.
When I was buying collections in seemed like every 5-6 collections I’d find a fake or two, or a series/run of fakes. I’ve still got a shoebox full of old fakes, most of which are easily discernible. PokeRev just happened to come across one of the better fakes he clearly had not seen before.
They have graded a few over the years (a Blastoise and Japanese Charizard come to mind). They were very obviously fake, but at the volume of cards PSA has graded it’s expected that a few will slip by less experienced graders.
I get more and more messages on Ebay asking whether items are “real or proxy” “genuine” “official” “fakes?”
As prices go up, more money thrown around, the scammers are attracted to it like flies to s**t. There have always been fake son ebay…just searching pokemon cards and the amount of shoddy fake booster boxes, packs, cards, proxies and custom(the exact copy soo not custom) I expect there to be alot more flooding the market, this will catch out alot of new people and can deter them from the hobby once they realize.
I’m much more worried about fake/resealed product than about fake individual cards. With fake raw cards, at least you can directly see them and evaluate them, and if the pictures are too blurry, don’t buy anyway. And if it’s graded by a reputable company, chances are it’s legit (not that grading companies don’t make mistakes and grade a fake card here and then, but it’s much less common).
Sealed product on the other hand seems like a huge load of trouble. You don’t know for sure if it’s legit, you probably don’t open it to verify the content because 90% buy it to sell it sealed later, and if the guy you sold it to claims that it was resealed you have no way to verify it either. Maybe it really was a resealed product, maybe the buyer tries to screw you over. At worst they accuse you of being the scam artist who resealed the item and you lose credibility. No thanks.