We've all experienced it: we found Pokémon cards at the fair or at the flea market that looked nice and we thought we had found rare cards, only to find out that they are counterfeit cards.
That's why we are giving you some tips to avoid this. These tips won't catch all counterfeit cards, but they will catch several of them.
In general, be careful where you buy your Pokémon cards. It is best to buy your cards from official sources such as GameMania.
Second hand cards can be found at flea markets, but you have to be careful and pay attention. Counterfeit cards are often sold there.
The same happens with cards you can win at a fair. There are original cards to be found, but there are also many counterfeit cards. It is less recommended to choose Pokémon cards there. It will also usually cost more money than in a store.
Another place where you have to check your cards is at exchange fairs. Some people will try to exchange counterfeit cards for real cards.
You can perform the following tests to check if cards are counterfeit or not. But as mentioned, they will not catch all counterfeit cards.
Pay close attention to the quality of the card. Real Pokémon cards always feel like smooth cardboard, while with a fake card you feel that it feels much more fragile and cheaper in quality. The quality of the materials used is therefore higher with real Pokémon cards compared to the counterfeit cards.
Another test that can be performed to check the quality of the card is to shine a flashlight through the card. Real Pokémon cards have a black layer between two white layers, allowing no or very little light to pass through. This black layer is often missing from counterfeit cards. These cards will therefore let through much more light.
Please note: not all counterfeit cards can be found with this test, additional testing is necessary. Don't look for the black layer because it will destroy your card!
There is also a visible difference in the print quality. A counterfeit card will never have the same appearance as a real card. In the photos you can clearly see the difference in print quality.
A lot of counterfeit cards can be recognized by looking at the back of the cards. The counterfeit cards often have the wrong color: the blue edge of the card and the blue of the rest of the card will be almost the same. With real cards there is a fairly large color difference between the edge and the rest of the card.
The best way to perform this test is of course to place a real card next to it and compare the two with each other.
Please note: it is almost impossible to perform this test when shopping online, especially if the seller does not include a photo of the back with the quote.
There are TCG databases available on the internet where you can find almost any card. Pokémon TCG database is the original database. An alternative is pkmncards.
Compare the following parts with the cards from the database:
- Font type or font size
- Energy symbols or energy in the wrong place
- HP value
- Attack damage values
- Weakness, Resistance or Retreat cost
- Set symbol or set number
If the HP or Attack damage values are higher than 1000, the card will be counterfeit. Since 2023 the maximum HP is 340.
Read the card and look for any spelling or grammar errors. Pokémon rarely has spelling or grammatical errors on its cards, so if you encounter this there is a good chance the cards are counterfeit.
The spelling and grammar errors made on original Pokémon cards have been fully documented. You can find this information here.
What to pay attention to?
- Spelling mistakes
- Grammar errors
- The word Pokémon must always have an accent on the e.
- The word Pokémon was replaced by, for example, Pocket Monster.
In principle you can throw these cards away, they have no value at all.
But you can also keep them and use them for crafts: make a hole in them and use them as a decoration for the Christmas tree.
The choice is yours as to what you do with your counterfeit cards. But you cannot use them in Pokémon events, whether they are sanctioned or casual events. Trading counterfeit Pokémon cards is also not allowed.
Every Play! Pokémon Program Member must adhere to the standard rules of conduct. It is clearly written in the Standards of Conduct document that counterfeiting or distributing counterfeit products is an illegal activity with disciplinary actions starting from written warning to Play! Pokémon Program Suspension as a result.
Program members witnessing such activity in progress at a Play! Pokémon event should contact the relevant local authorities in addition to reporting the activity to Pokémon Organized Play.