Hey guys was watching a video from Rudy over at alpha investments about fake MTG cards and it got me to thinking how prevalent are high quality fakes in pokemon, obviously pokemon is a popular set and there’s a lot of fakes out there but I’m talking high quality not just your run of the mill junk stuff that’s easy to spot. And I’d like to hear if anyone has any stories of run ins with fakes! I myself got stung not too long ago, it made me feel so incredibly STUPID! For the most part I won’t buy from people who only put one picture up I like to see ATLEAST a front and back shot, clear photos and a description other than “this card is mint” but for whatever reason I broke all these rules and bid on a secret rare mega gengar ex won the bid for luckily on 5 dollars because once it came in after messaging the seller a bunch of time for being shipped super late and slow, I was pissed it was flimsy and beat to hell and I noticed the one corner was delaminating, after closer inspection i noticed it was just a printed picture with this weird opaque pearlescent film glued over the image. Fake as hell I immediately threw it out but in hind sight I wish I kept it and left it on my desk as a constant reminder to myself to always be smart and follow my gut and the values that have kept me safe!
True high quality fakes of older cards are very rare, and even they stand out like dogs balls if you know your stuff
a bigger problem is faked 1st edition stamps, a few have gotten past the graders at PSA
I have still never seen a WOTC Holo card faked that wasn’t insanely obvious, I still have (somewhere) a box I bought in the late 90s from Ocean City that had all the base set “holos” with different backgrounds and scanned holo patterns. Really the only thing I can see is the new cards from China that are getting more prevalent on eBay, but even still the EX cards are pretty obvious from pictures.
Yeah, I haven’t seen many high quality fakes. Most are pretty easy to distinguish. I’ve never seen a good quality replica of any high dollar card.
I do recall seeing a number of fakes from the D&P or HGSS era runs that at first glance were hard to tell were fakes. But they were all non-holo cards. They’re all sitting in my junk card bucket.
Well this is all good to know! Always kind of one of those things that hangs in the back of my mind with collecting, I do a little coin collecting and wonder the same stuff. Lol but I’m glad to know it’s obvious as dog balls lol! That one made me laugh!
Luke others have said, the ‘high quality’ fakes are mostly newer cards. And I say that with quotes because any fake will stick out like a sore thumb if you know what to look for. The main issue comes with incidents like yours, buying cards online.
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You pointed out a good one, the photos. At least one decent front and back picture.
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If you ask for more pictures and they’re reluctant, turn away. Unless they have something to hide, they should be happy to provide pictures.
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Buy from well rated sellers, though it won’t guarantee that the card is real, it will lower the chances of getting a fake card significantly.
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Never buy stuff from China except if they’re an established seller like PokemonChina.
Wow, I bought fake cards from Ocean City too in the late 90s. I was really young back then but I could tell there was something fishy going on. Got them from one of those tacky shops on the boardwalk.
The thing about most fakes is that they’re pretty easy to spot with rudimentary knowledge. It’s not worth the cost in time/money for most counterfeiters to make really well researched, well imitated, high quality prints. Despite how uncouth it is, counterfeiting isn’t a cakewalk. I think most counterfeiters just count on fooling some people all of the time, instead of all people all of the time. That is, most of them just want their work to be good enough to offload on the first sucker that comes their way, as opposed to trying to fool PSA.
The thing is, we’re getting to a price point, especially with the 1st ed. base set, that high-end counterfeiters may start flooding the market. They’ll still probably focus mostly on new sets as the paper/printing from the 90s is costly to imitate.
I’m glad you mentioned this because that was going to be my next question was that why even bother doing it then if you not even going to make an effort ya know? But that makes sense. Kinda like the stereotypical “door to door saleman” as you said just looking for suckers so unload they’re stuff on for a quick buck!
All great points, and as I said most that I myself also follow, but something new to me that I’ll have to keep in mind, I never even gave it a thought to be weary of Chinese products, I guess you could chalk that up to the massive amount of everyday items that are outsourced to China! I guess that could be a plus for me being impatient I’ll usually only buy from inside the United states since I’m just not willing to wait/pay higher shipping rates! Lol 
yeah did you see the video with i believe derium with the fake booster box with pokeballs on the wrapping, the difference was the pokeballs on the fake didn’t have the trade mark symbol.
I appreciate that comment! I do worry that buyers can be put off by my location. Thanks man.
I’m pretty new to collecting Pokemon cards and a while back at a Flea Market, I saw some Pokemon GO cards. I got pretty excited because the packs were $2. I was about to buy them all but then I started thinking about all the sets that I could think of and a Pokemon GO set did not ring a bell. I still bought one pack because I just wanted to see how fake they were. I pulled 3 EX cards and one of them weren’t even holo.
My friend got back into collecting and Low-Key bought a big lot of cards from the Wish app. One day he texted me all excited and wanted me to come over and check out his new cards. As soon as I saw them, I knew they were fake. He had bought a lot of 50 EX cards for I think $20. He refused to believe they were fakes for a couple of days but he eventually came around. He ended up giving them to young kid. I bet that kid took them to school the next day lol and traded them off. I don’t remember coming across any fake cards in the 90’s.
It’s better to just take the fakes out of circulation. Now some kid is an unwitting victim trading his or her real cards for that kid’s fake cards.