the supplier said they were made in January of 2024 from a supplier who lost their contract. Same digital assets and I’m assuming same printing methods but different material but with the same manufacturing standards. I physically saw the Eveelutions Gem set printed as January of this year. And those were not even brought to market but they were being manufactured.
But specific suppliers have shifted, except those suppliers seem to be still printing product and the Chinese government is doing nothing to address it. The fake gengar 151 sets that are being sold are from exactly this. Suppliers shifted, assets were sent out but suppliers were dropped. I guarantee there are fakes out there that are indistinguishable from the sets sent to market. They used up their supplies and made as many fakes as possible that are essentially “ real “ how do you think there are so many of the hits just setting available for sale, like mountains of them and they are bringing high prices. How many Captain Pikachus in gem mint 10 do you honestly think there are? And many of them popping up nearly the same week as distribution takes place already graded by these Chinese slab mills.
Once the old suppliers run out of the factory correct materials they shift to what’s cheap and available. The Mew promos that are being sold right now are made on card stock meant for Tein Gow.
The Chinese card market is cooked unless their local governments do something about it, but they won’t. China is a tricky place economically, they don’t care about intellectual property, they don’t care about licensing unless the Party has a way to make money off of it. The party being the CCP.
Everyone should be extremely weary with any Chinese Pokemon product made in 2025. The older Sun and moon era stuff is perfectly legit unless it’s some extremely limited promo card. Anything after that, just be cautious.