So I recently purchased this staff stamped promo card from eBay, everything checks out from PSA point of view. However, when I received it and compared it with the others I noticed the staff stamp was a lot poorer quality than the others I’ve got and it made me suspicious. Is this a fake stamp?
Not necessarily fake but you can now make a perfect fake. I’ve been saying it for two years, and I even made a perfect E4 Pikachu, steer clear of stamped cards that also have an unstamped version in circulation.
I graded one of these Europe staff ultra ball in a psa 10 around 2-2.5 years ago, it had the same ‘faded’ stamp as yours. Doesn’t mean they’re real or fake but just thought I’d let you know.
Does this advice extend to WOTC set cards?
I know fake stamps have always been a concern to some extent, but when it comes to WOTC set cards my worries have been tempered by the fact that mint Shadowless and Unlimited cards are still really valuable, so putting a fake stamp on them carries a degree of risk for the fraudster.
I can’t avoid them unfortunately as I need them for the master sets. I’m not too concerned about this one as it wasn’t expensive, but if I ever purchase any trophy stamped cards I’ll definitely put them under more scrutiny!
Best argument against this is cost vs. opportunity. If you can replicate the STAFF stamp on a Pokemon card, why do it on a nm-mt regionals promo when you can do it on a prerelease Charizard? The stamping process itself is nowhere near perfect and can result in a lot of defects, it seems much more likely that this was just one of the imperfect examples that wasn’t picked out.
I’d also disagree with the fake stamp prevalence. All the fake stamps we’ve seen so far have been blatantly faked and anyone with a basic understanding of stamped cards can distinguish a fake stamp. If someone had figured out how to make a passable replica of a stamp, we would have noticed by now.
Gary’s statement is grossly exaggerated. The amount of actual fake stamped cards are negligible.
You can have the same level of paranoia for 1st Edition stamps, but it’s unproductive, as neither are a real issue.
Except I didn’t say there were any, not to mention a lot. I did say they can now be produced which I’ve actually proved. I can offer more proof too.
This info may not matter today but could be important for all to know later so they don’t walk into deals blindly,
I’ve seen staff stamped cards in their wrapping from the factory that are either partially stamped or completely missing the gold lettering. I don’t have any legitimacy concerns for that stamp - it just happens sometimes that they aren’t stamped cleanly.
Worth noting that PSA has caught fake stamps. Ludkins has sent three STAFF Evolutions Charizards that have come back as questionable authenticity.
So they’re familiar with illegitimate STAFF stamps.
Good job PSA 