Incredibly real No Rarity Charizard Fake & Masaki Alakazam Fake Cards

[charizardespana]

Recently it has come to my attention of several very good fakes circulating the secondary market and duping a lot of people (including some prominent japanese buyers/collectors).

One person has at least lost $10k to this already.

They are scary good fakes but have some minor details that you can look for.

I won’t share where or who is making and selling them, as I don’t want to promote them.

First up, No Rarity Charizard:

Fake card popped up in the USA and even this experienced account didn’t notice it’s fake:

Another fake Zard, exactly the same actually, but in Europe. Note they have the exact same Holo pattern:

The zard looks pretty close to real but what gave it away to me is that there appears to be no Holo on this section under the (right) wing:

If you compare to real copies, they all have Holo there. Both of these next two zards are real:

And here is another close up of the fake:

The Holo also looks slightly off but to even a trained eye these are likely passable. ChatGPT even said it was 95% probably real (stupid ai).

Also, in the Stage Box - on REAL cards, it has a holo pattern. On the fakes, it cuts into the holo.

Thanks for the tip @sofamore1991 and clarification @mrbubbles

Real (left) - Fake (right).

On to an even more concerning card: Masaki Alakazam

Honestly I was only able to tell this one was fake because it’s Holo pattern matched several cards that have been listed on secondary market places.

Perhaps someone more experienced can assist identifying other features.

Fake card involved in a likely scam:

Holo exactly matches this proxy listing. Note the swirl placement, orb in the top left (zams right) and smaller orb to the lower side of the swirl.

All exactly the same as on the video.

Proxy listing:

New addition: Masaki Gengar

@expedition

Something both of these examples have that differs from a real copy, is incorrect shading on the energy symbols and evolution box. So yeah, you can let that person know they bought a fake.

Thanks to @expedition for the overlay and analysis. See the stage box shading.

Not sure what else to do other than bring community awareness.

[RoyalOak]

Graded gang gm

[bbobrob]

One small thing for the Alakazam is that the normal swirl holo pattern doesn’t look like that, and it doesn’t reflect properly in the video either (i.e. doesn’t look like an actual swirl).

The Charizard has some features that are off just comparing to the picture of the actual card in your post. Maybe some could be found for the Alakazam too, but I’m on mobile, and flipping between images is annoying Comparing closely to actual cards seems to hopefully save you from these fakes, but it sucks to always need to be on alert for more expensive cards.

Thanks for sharing!

[charizardespana]

Also to note, what bothers me is that both zard and Alakazam that I was sent videos /pics of are in a BGS inner sleeve.

Either the original purchaser sent them to BGS and either a) BGS authenticated them and upon return he cracked them or b) BGS deemed them fake and they return them in their inner sleeve for protection.

I’m not familiar with this process from BGS - worth noting.

[smpratte]

The text and area outside of the pokemon art looks off, but these could easily fool the average buyer today. Hopefully grading and authentication services catch em all!

[charizardespana]

@smpratte

easily fool the average buyer today.

And average reseller as most are quite recent.

Apparently the owner of the two bought from the same person and they were “authenticated” by a couple more people.

Won’t disclose what he spent but it was more than a few tins of beans.

[tidaldreams]

ppl would actually buy these raw???

remember da playtest

also anyone who owns one there is literally no reason not to grade it so

[sofamore1991]

The fake Charizard’s holofoil doesn’t cover the Stage 1 box, unlike what is seen in the genuine examples. I believe all Japanese best set holos which feature a stage box, including no rarity, have the holofoil covering it. Can anyone confirm this is the case for all authentic prints? If so, this would probably be the best give-away for the Zard…

EDIT: for clarity, I mean the holofoil in the top-left of the illustration box. This should partly cover the Stage 1 box, as is seen in the genuine examples.

[mrbubbles]

This is an excellent point and I think a far easier way to distinguish at a quick glance if there is something not right about the card. I double checked my base set cards and all of them have the holo through the Stage 1 Box which cuts at the borders. Seems to be that the fake copy does not have the same and the stage box is covering the holofoil. Thanks for the tip @sofamore1991

Real vs Fake

Also, thanks for the heads up post @charizardespana . Very helpful and will keep an eye out. The Masaki Alakazam was much harder to call out. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers!

[charizardespana]

Great work!

[SolemnStar]

another day, another scamerino bambino. Thank you for the awareness. If I ever look to buy anything at this level of price, I guess its very important to remember to take your time and verify. Even with the grading companies, as we well know, will often validate fakes and trimmed/altered cards.

This info is of great worth for the masses. I’d have probably not figured this out until I had it in hand and noticed the weird holo swirl on the alakazam.

I’ll give you a gold star for this one.

hold on wrong star

[bigtechbill]

[charizardespana]

Another possible fake : masaki Gengar

Confirmed fake from the same seller of the Alakazam and Zard:

Someone on IG posting their just picked up this “in the wild” - I’m asking for more pics from him but some of the Holo matches.

See the small orb on the left side (Gengar’s right) that touches the frame. Some of the smaller Holo circles also match. Possible fake:

[expedition]

Something both of these examples have that differs from a real copy, is incorrect shading on the energy symbols and evolution box. So yeah, you can let that person know they bought a fake.

[bbobrob]

Your overlays are always so clean! Thats for making these gifs Makes things much easier to see.

[charizardespana]

Thanks for this - to be clear, this is the copy that was purchased. The fake one in your overlay above is the one I confirmed fake too.

This one looks sus, no?

For me the Holo patterns align in many cases with the confirmed fake copy.

[expedition]

It has the exact same issues as the confirmed fake (which I was trying to say by ‘both examples’), wrong evolution box, and too small highlight on the fighting energy. Therefore, I assume it’s at least the same source, if not the exact same card. The right side of the evolution box is the easiest indicator to spot (even when not overlaid). On the real card it gets lighter towards the bottom, on these fakes, it gets darker. So yes, the one you just posted is a fake.

For completeness sake: gif of 1 image you just posted, 1 image from the IG find, 1 real

[Keishara]

This account appears to be distributing some of the charizards

https://ebay.io/m/8r4K6l

[Dyl]

If I had an e4 badge to give, you’d have earned it for these incredible overlays!

[Quuador]

I can, so congrats on your CubeToken @expedition.

These overlay gifs you make immediately show the differences between cards, and in this case between the real and fake cards.
Your gif in the Dark Persian regular vs NoHP error thread was equally as impressive and clearly showed the differences.

Greetz,
Quuador