They’re just memes bro. To seriously answer your question.
Yes there is not doubt altering will occur, in fact it already has with people trying to recolour borders of cards and using fake stamps. If you look at MTG there are many people trying to alter cards to make a profit. The thing is that if you spend enough time in the hobby you’ll know when you see a real vs fake card. People like Rudy from Alpha Investments has many videos where he can instantly see if a card is fake because of his experience.
When you have communities like this forum it’s hard to catch an “Expert/Serious” Collector out. We have cases of people posting here with doubt on cards and they always find an answer from members here. Yu-Gi-Oh had a case where PSA graded some fake cards, do they still do it? I honestly don’t know you’ll have to ask someone who deals in Yugioh.
TL;DR Yes altered cards will happen as they already exist. Most expert/serious collectors will be able to spot them out. Forums like this is a wealth of knowledge that should be utilized if you doubt a cards authenticity.
But i just think its very ironic that for Pokemon, we are willing to pay more for a card that looks like it has been printed this year, than a card we could easily tell that it has been around for years.
Please tell me if this is possible on this forum. I cannot stand his (shit)posts, either.
edit: Found it! This forum just became 10x better If anyone else is interested in blocking a member’s posts etc., go to Profile → Edit Profile → Privacy Tab → (at bottom) enter part of their username and click their name when it shows up
I am more worried about upgraded card being label nm to mint and if theres a bit of white they just use blue ink to make it look like there’s no white in the pictures as its alot harder but 9 times out of 10 as soon as you see a card you know its not right and then either work out for yourself or ask someone else im sure psa and other high end collectors have made. Mistakes and brought s fake. Or graded a fask before but these are few and far between i think of psa as an insurance company by that i mean they insure my card is two things 1 a real card and 2 what the person said it wws. Eg mint. Is psa 9 ect
The key is to become the expert, know what a card is suppose to look like before buying it, many/most of the collectors on the forum are more knowledgeable than PSA’s employees about authenticating Pokemon cards, remember that PSA aren’t gods, they’re regular people, in the end you are responsible for what you spend your money on, you are only paying for an opinion of the grade and authenticity
I’ve been thinking about this card. As far as I know, most large auction houses (Sotheby’s, Chrsties, etc.) go through an authentication process before selling an item, and sometimes items are just turned away because there’s not enough good evidence to support whether it’s a legitimate item (whether that evidence is provenance, an expert’s opinion, or whatever the case may be). I’m surprised that the people at PWCC didn’t take a look at this card and call into question its authenticity. I mean, I suppose you could argue part of the blame is on PSA for grading it in the first place, but I think it’s a very bad idea for PWCC’s reputation to list an item like this (especially if, further down the line, the buyer of the Venusaur tries to authenticate the card and it comes back as trimmed/altered - then, I believe, PWCC is liable for any financial repercussions).
I think the problem with this thinking is that there is an assumption that all mint looking vintage cards are altered. Not saying that you are assuming it but for the sake of debate I believe that’s what you are aiming at. I can point you to examples of pack fresh cards I pulled earlier this year that are from Japanese Base that look minty.
The reason we will pay a premium for a card in better condition is because some cards are inheritable harder to grade or come from the booster in worse condition. The cards we pay a premium for tend to be reviewed, authenticated and given a grade by a third party so there is reason to trust in their appraisal. That’s not to say that mistakes aren’t made on occasion, when mistakes do happen we can inform PSA that the card is altered. See the thread on the fake 1st Ed stamp.
Now if fake cards that looked just like authentic ones existed there are other ways to tell. Older cards that have been kept well have a distinct scent. Yes, cards do have different scents. It was either POP 5 or 7 that had a very sweet scent to it that I loved back in the day.
As mentioned previously if you live in fear of there being altered cards or fake cards that no one can tell the difference on then just don’t invest in collection cards. It’s honestly that simple, it personally held me back from taking the plunge for a couple of years because I didn’t want to buy from sources that I couldn’t ensure where trust worthy. Guess what? I took the plunge start of this year and since then I have spent a fair bit of money on my collection quite happily.
I’ve known these guys for years and believe me, they couldn’t care less about anything but their bottom line. Authenticating cards? Lol. They don’t even pay attention to piggy backing like listings. And that’s easy.
This was just discussed in the recent podcast recording a few days ago, which will probably go up this upcoming week.
The amount of passable fakes in pokemon are negligible at best. Moreover, if PSA mistakenly grades a fake, they rectify it.
As with the fake misaligned stamp, evidence is required to claim any card is fake, altered, etc. Otherwise, without evidence, saying, “I wouldn’t be surprised if psa graded a doctored card” has no merit.
I’ve meant to bring up this card as soon as I saw this thread.
What happens to whoever buys this? Obviously PWCC doesn’t accept returns on graded cards. As far I’m concerned they’re not liable at all, but I’m surprised they even dare to list it. I’ve asked him to look at it before auction end as it doesn’t look right, but they haven’t replied.
Is there any way PSA would compensate the buyer if he sends it in and they realise their mistake?
Interesting that this is a trimmed card. I assume you can identify it based on the corners. I have seen some variance in corner cuts though in original Base cards and some that are pretty similar to the trimmed bottom corners of that card. Is there any other identifiables besides the corners without having the card in hand to measure? If all 4 corners shared the same sharper cut I’d be more weary. But I know there are inconsistencies (granted usually it’s a direct result of sheets getting turned resulting in miscut cards).
Here is one I grabbed from the pile with a couple corners similar to that Venu.
I agree that the bottom two corners and even the top right seem off/ odd. I just don’t know how it can be deemed “trimmed” without a question of a doubt with as much variance and issues early WotC cards (and even cards being printed today) can have. Near as I can tell the cards get cut by two separate machines. One that cuts the corners and one that cuts the edges. If one is out of line weird things can happen.
And it’s not that I don’t believe that this card could be trimmed or that I’m doubting what those that are more seasoned than I have pointed out. But I would love to know how this card is, without a shadow of a doubt, trimmed.
There’s no way I can give no shadow of a doubt; with that said, I’m fairly certain that venusaur is trimmed. I took a random PWCC 1st ed base card, align and cropped it to layer overtop the venusaur. Assuming PWCC hasn’t changed their setting when scanning or use a different scanner the sizes should be the same. I tried compare the PSA cases as well and they’re similar in size before the crop. That Venusaur doesn’t match the same size as a standard card.
Again this isn’t 100% proof, but if you’re bidding on it expect to be the victum of a scam.