First - thank you for creating a space for people to ask questions and get constructive feedback. Second, let me admit that I am a mom to a young man who purchased these cards, and, although they seem legitimate, I am hoping to lean into some and ask anyone who might be willing to lend their expert eyes to look at these and share your thoughts on authenticity? I am doing this for my own peace of mind, and to potentially protect his investment, before too much time passes. If I am in the wrong place, I apologize, but I am hoping for guidance and resources you can recommend. Thank you for helping me, I appreciate you all!
Hi there, I’m not super well versed in these cards, but I’m fairly sure these are bootlegs/counterfeits.
The real version of the last one, for example, should look like this:
The holographic pattern is wrong (I don’t think that pattern is used on the real versions of these cards). The back has typos (JR KIKAKU on the real one, and JR KJKAKU on yours). The spacing in “Nintendo . Creatures” and “Tokyo . Sho-Pro” look weird.
Maybe someone more versed in these cards can opine though, as I could very well be wrong!
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bbobrob is exactly right. Sorry to say they are all fake cards.
No need to look into text, spacing etc. For the holo cards, as bob pointed out, holo pattern is wrong, and they would have also been glossy. As for the '96 non holo carddass card (the green dragonite) this is supposed to be a glossy card, and I can see it is the same surface texture as all the other fakes, indicating that they all came from the same source. Same thing applies for the town map venusaur and file no 000 (with red and starters on it).
All fake, hopefully you can be refunded.
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I appreciate your help so much! Untrained eyes have no idea what to look for - and the cards I could see online weren’t much help since I wasn’t sure which I should compare to. And… thank you for not making me feel like I should have known better and were kind in your answers…
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Fake!
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Just a general tip regarding these and other Bandai carddass cards, they are really notorious of having a large variations of bootleg copies. Some of the bootleg versions are so very good that grading companies have often graded them as legitimate.
Unless you have a good copy as reference in hand, it is really hard to tell a fake from a real copy when purchasing. Like you also said, online pictures do not help. You can also notice, there is a lot going on at the back of cards in terms of small texts and images, so it becomes really difficult to spot fakes, because sometimes it just comes to the tiny details like @bbobrob highlighted.
We have all made these mistakes and it is really unfortunate in this case as well. So I hope you guys don’t beat yourself too much about it and can also get the refunds.
Cheers!
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Stick with the hobby and you’ll learn how to spot fakes fast! I also bought a few fake lots when first starting out
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There aren’t many serious collectors out there who haven’t learned the hard way and it’s always a bummer. Did all of these come from the same place? The holos are the easiest-to recognize fakes based on the holo patterns, and ask mentioned by @bbobrob , there is a typo on the back of the Special Carddass. The two that I wasn’t entirely sure on was the Dragonite and the Venusaur. That Dragonite should have a very glossy front but I can’t seem to find any surefire indicators on that one that it is fake. On the Venusaur, the indicator is on the back of the card where it sais “BANDAI 1996 MADE IN JAPAN” On the real card, the font size on the top and the bottom of that map picture is the same and none of it is bold - it’s very very thin type.
Anyway welcome to the forum and ask us any time you have a question!
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