One of these cards is currently being sold on Ebay. The other was purchased by myself a while ago as part of a bigger collection and is now sitting on my desk.
My guess would be card one (the one I own) is the fake. There’s absolutely no frosting on the sides whatsoever, the reverse of the label is holographic as it should be, and i’ve checked to confirm that the label is partially transparent when held to a bright light as PSA recommend… however something looks a little off about the case to my eyes. The little embossed PSA logo is there in the bottom right corner, but the case seems slightly different to another PSA graded card I own.
Before I take a hammer to it, i’d like a second opinion from people who have seen and handled far more PSA graded cards than I have.
Perhaps the seller is using a picture of your copy as sort of a stock photo. Maybe they once owned yours, and are selling another copy now. A bit unlikely I know, but it might be an explanation.
Both photos seem very legit though. It’d be a scary good fake if one of them turned out to be.
This is very interesting. The serial numbers in question are right around when PSA changed the style of case for Pokemon cards, and I believe that it explains the difference that you feel. If I am correct, the serial number of your other card should be in the 232xxxxx or beyond.
It is incredibly difficult to fake a PSA graded card. And if someone were going to go to all the trouble to do it, why would they make it one with a relatively low value, and not even the highest grade? Both certification numbers and barcodes check out with PSA’s verification system.
My best guess is that this is some grievous error on PSA’s part. I would contact them right away and let them know of this.
This seems strange to me as well. The only expanation I can think of is that maybe they feel safer faking cards of average value. If they tried to copy something like a PSA 10 1st edition Charizard from the base set for instance, someone may be more likely to notice the duplicate serial number.
As for the seller re-using a photo, i’m not sure about that. The photo I posted of my card is the same one from the listing I bought, so if this new seller is re-using a photo, it would have to be from a listing before the one I bought. I’ll ask them though, and if that doesn’t solve the mystery, I think i’ll get in touch with PSA.
Many cards have multiple pictures if you google them. That card may have sold many times with new pics taken then someone with a like card pulls the photo and uses it.
No concern, yours is fine:)
