Is this a problem with pokemon TCG cards?
Most fake cards I’ve gotten before were pretty low quality and obvious. You could do the light test or simply looking at the front to see it was fake. Also feels thinner or more cheap.
Has anyone found high-quality fakes? What methods are you guys using to authenticate the card? I’m figuring that over time as the value of cards in general rises we will start to see more sophisticated methods being used.
Truly *high* quality fakes are generally not a problem in this hobby. The people who know the cards well can spot the fakes from a mile away. Getting things like the colors, holo patterns, etc. juuuuuuust right is very tricky for those who attempt fakes.
But do some inexperienced buyers fall for buying fakes from low feedback sellers who post potato quality photos and mysteriously list their cards for way under market value?
… Yes, they do.
The bigger problem with fakes in the hobby is with authenticated signatures.
I’ve been trying to figure out what is going on with all of these “1st Edition Shadowless Charizard (Proxy)” things? It’s ridiculous that people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for them, or is it really just lots of ignorance? I have no clue, but I’m wary of buying any 1st edition Zard off eBay at this point. It’s just kinda annoying.
I guess it’s just people trying to catch ofguard buyers who didn’t read too well, while also not “”“scamming”“” because they declared it was a proxy/fake
Worse than signatures is sealed product. Now that I’ve seen a dozen or so reseals, all getting better and better, I will no longer trust them.
I was a little surprised yesterday when I saw this gold star rayquaza fake
Upon closer inspection the front border is obviously wrong for gold star cards, but the rest is pretty convincing…
Yeah, I just recently watched the TCAGaming Fake 1st Ed Base set box. That was a heck of a tragedy. To make things worse, that one was thrown together years ago, if I remember correctly. Like Gary said, nowadays is probably significantly better quality.
Yeah seen a lot of custom/proxy Charizard/Venusaur/Blastoise cards pop up on Facebook and eBay. When the pie gets bigger more people want a slice of the pie.
Are all the reseals 1st ed base/shadowless?
No there are fakes even of the new sets. Lots of fake “hyper rares”. This happened to me recently trying to order some cards for my kids. We for scammed with a few fakes and the seller still has them up for sale. Low dollars but still highly disappointing
Yeah I’ve seen a few convincing listings on eBay while searching up deals that I could tell were fakes, but I felt for the people who are inexperienced or new to the hobby who might not be able to discern the difference. At least some people list fake cards as such, but I have no idea who would actually buy a fake Pokémon card knowingly.
That seller is suspicious as well. If you look at his other listings you can see cards where the front side of the card is in a sleeve and then the backside image doesn’t have a sleeve…
@garyis2000, Have you ever come across a fake booster box with the WOTC logo on it? Or would you presume that WOTC boxes post logo are safe?
Far from safe, seen more fake WOTC logo wrapper resealed boxes than anything else.
@pikazardcollector, Now that’s terrible news 
Do you have a great way to identify a real from a fake? Purchased a base box several months ago which checked out based on pictures compared to other reputable listings. But I don’t have a physical comparison 
I’ve seen similar fakes produced by whoever makes these fakes. Another subtle sign is to look at how the corners are cut. They look jagged or misshaped. Real WOTC cards always have smooth and perfect round corner. The person making these fakes probably uses a hand tool or scissors of some sort to cut the corners.