“It’s not every day that you see such an incredible piece of TCG history, let alone three," said Matt Quinn, Vice President of CGC Trading Cards. "CGC Trading Cards is honored to have graded these Pokémon TCG playtest cards, and we look forward to seeing where their journey takes them next.”
That didn’t age well. Source.
Im actually blown away how ignant’ they were. Did they really think they could get away with it?
Waiting on CGC getting dunked with lawsuits. Do they have a guarantee?
I have nothing really to add, but I feel like I’m doing a disservice to efour if I don’t comment just to state just how impressive and diligent this work by @pfm and others is! This is part of what makes this site so spectacular! It’s a resource like very few other hobbies have!
I wish the best to everyone who has money wrapped up in this, hopefully everything will get sorted out!
Yeah that’s what I don’t get- could fakes ones really be signed by Akabane himself? 
You’d hope CGC will be gearing-up to provide commensurate financial compensation to those end-consumer purchasers of these cards. However, them doing so would ultimately be an admission of their failure to competently provide their core service: authentication. So I don’t imagine we’ll get to that point very easily. Their execs will have already had an emergency meeting discussing how they’re going to approach this situation, cos it’s looking like a total cluster. I imagine what will ensue in their public comms will include plenty of passing-the-buck, but as an authentication service they are ultimately culpable at consumer level. At the higher level of fraud, well I guess TPC, Akabane and the middlemen involved in distributing these cards are gonna have some things to hash-out. CGC are probably reading this thread as we speak, so hopefully they take on board the following advice: move quickly, take it on the chin, bend over backwards to make things right with your consumers. don’t pass the blame.
Edit: checked their website specifically to find policy on situations in which they have mistakenly graded a counterfeit card, and no mention of compensation (unless I’ve missed it?) Their policy is literally “we don’t do that”:
I don’t need CGC’s opinion to know Disco Test prints were printed by Wotc as they check every box in authenticity and quality. Same as I don’t need their opinion to know Yu-Gi-Oh Magic&Wizards trophy cards were counterfeits. I really want to know now if the Tropical Wind/Snap Bulbasaur and the other Snaps uncut sheets are real or 2024 forgeries as all those cards are non-holo and easier to replicate at least to the naked eye. Would love to see some magnification photos of those sheets
So this might be a silly question, but would it be possible to determine a printed signature vs a handwritten one? What I’m getting at here is: could someone who bought one of these signed cards with 2024 printer metadata dots do some analysis to figure out if the signature is an original? Even if it means cracking a slab open (for science, especially since in this case the card is probably worthless). If we got some sort of proof that Akabane signed cards printed in 2024 that would be 
People joked about pkonno’s basement printer in the past… Thanks Akabane for making memes real.
Thank you for your work OP.
What boxes did they check lol
I want them to be real too but this makes all the test prints that came out in the last year or two open to at least suspicion.
I’ve never seen a person who’s willing to do the greater good at the risk of losing thousands. Hats off to you @pfm
Also how does this impact my CGC 10 rayquaza TG20/TG30?
CGC going to 0 you’re done for Vert!
JK, you’re fine.
I’ll give you 2 dollars for it
I found this on instagram a few weeks ago and shared here, for those who haven’t seen it may be relevant.
In response to the checking of boxes to confirm authentic… Is the evil double edged sword.
By researching and giving out the details of how it is authentic, gives people who counterfeit the ability to make even better fakes.
In another collectible hobby, a person asked all the experts about a rare item. They gladly helped and gave measurements, details, casting points etc. the guy used all of the information to make higher quality fakes.
I’d stay away from uncut sheets. I mean… why would some sheets remain uncut somewhere ?
The pros far outweigh the cons in my opinion. The level of scrutiny going forward from any grader/auction house/authenticator will be on another level (theoretically). The ripple effect this will have is beyond anything we have seen so far.
Im assuming it’s much harder to forge the disco holo patterns but its 2025 so i dont doubt there could be a method to. My opinion is leaning towards highly unlikely that the discos are forged but that could easily go the other way with more information or the abscence of it.
The weather forecast looks brighter than usual for Akabane, CGC and other associates after @pfm 's reveal.
Didn’t expect reading 200+ messages since this morning would be so interesting, keep it up. 
You get a prototype, you get a prototype, everyone gets a prototype!
This won’t surprise me if this was a deliberate act to defraud and make thousands by the original seller.
