Some hobbies can double as investments, with limited edition and rare toys and collectibles reselling for hundreds of times their retail prices.Pokemon TCGcards are among the more popular examples, with desirable cards reaching hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the secondary market.

Unfortunately for new collectors, players, and investors, the high profitability leads to counterfeits leaking into the market, and some are remarkably convincing. There’s no worse feeling than learning that the card you spent $100 on is worthless, but this guide can help you separate the bank from the jank.

Fake cards featuring the Kanto First Partner Pokemon and Pikachu.

What Are Fake Pokemon Cards?

Any cards not printed and distributed by The Pokemon Company(TPC) or The Pokemon Company International (TPCi) are fake. Usually these cards are printed by an unauthorized third party, but occasionally cards will be altered to look like older, more valuable prints.

Wizards of the Coast localized and distributed Pokemon cards in the American and European markets from 1998 through 2003, before the license was transfered to TPCi.

A fake Magma Basin and a proxy of the same card.

Fake cards can be a big problem for players, since they’re prohibited in official tournaments.Players found to be using counterfeit cards may be disqualified from tournamentsand Pokemon League events, even if they did not realize that their cards were fake.

Collectors are affected as well. Theyneed to be wary of potential fakes in the market, on which they’ll certainly lose money, and of the possibility of accidentally adding counterfeit cards to their collections. A single fake card in a collection casts doubt on the authenticity of the entire collection.

The fake Ancient Mew on the left is distinctly different than the real one on the right.

Realisticcounterfeits can be inexpensive, but convincingenough to sell for market value, giving sellers looking for a quick buck an opportunity to make a quick profit. Often you’ll find these products on display at flea markets and rummage sales, where vendors hope to take advantage of parents and grandparents shopping for their families.

Proxies Vs. Counterfeits

Players testing new decks oftenuse proxies to represent cards prior to purchasing them. These can be as simple as a basic Energy with the name and abbreviated text of the card or as realistic as a printed copy slid into a sleeve over a real card.

Oftenplayers will use translated copies of unreleased cards to playtest themprior to a set being released outside of Japan. Like counterfeits,proxies are not legalfor tournament play.

A counterfeit Charizard with several mistakes circled.

The only exception is if one of your cards is damaged during a tournament, only for the duration of that event, and only if issued by a judge.

The key difference between counterfeits and proxies is thatproxies are never sold as real cards,and don’t claim to be genuine. You wouldn’t be fooled into buying a basic grass Energy with “Magma Basin” hand-written on it, or buy an Earthen Vessel printed on a piece of copy paper.

The “fingerprint” texture is clearly visible on the genuine Umbreon V, but absent on the fake Syveon V.

How To Spot Fake Cards

If you’ve had more than a few weeks of experience with the Pokemon TCG,you’ve probably run into some fakes. Maybe your kid brought home a Mewtwo with 550 HP with Electric-type attacks, or you realized that the Umbreon VMAX alternate secret art you paid $500 for on eBay feels a little different from the Inteleon VMAX alternate secret art in your collection.

Here are a few tips to avoid accidentally adding any more fake cards to your collection.

Two fake Pokemon cards compared to a genuine card on the right.

The lowest-quality counterfeitsoften have telltale mistakes in their spelling or grammar. Always check for the following:

There are some official Pokemon cards with typos, like the infamous “Nintedo” Ancient Mew, but they tend to be rare.

A fake Sylveon V shows a different foil pattern than a real Umbreon V.

The font used on real Pokemon cards has never actually been released for public use, so low-qualityforgeries often have a different style of textthan genuine cards.

Check The Texture

Special prints such as Full Art, V, and GXusually have a unique texture on the front of the card. If you gently run your fingernail over the grooves you should be able to feel it clicking through them. This texture is not present on commons, uncommons, and regular rares, and is also absent on Trainer Gallery cards.

The highest qualitycounterfeits started to apply a convincing texture around 2021, which makes this test less reliable. Still, the absence of a texture when it’s expected or the presence of texture where it isn’t is a clear giveaway.

A fake Snorlax VMAX and Shaymin VSTAR next to a real Copperajah VMAX

Check The Back

The backs of Pokemon cards can be a clear giveaway, if you know what you’re looking for.

The most obvious tell is thatthe card has the wrong back. Outside of Japan, Pokemon cards have had the same back since 1999, soif the back doesn’t look like the rest of your collection you know it’s a fake. This includes having a Japanese back on any non-Japanese printings.

The differences between a fake (left) and real (right) card can be hard to spot.

All English Pokemon cards havethe same back except promotional itemslike the Ancient Mew and the World Championship decks.

Color is another good indicator. Genuine Pokemon cards use three distinct shades of blue: light and dark blue to make the swirl pattern, and a medium blue for the outer edge. The edges between the outer edge and the swirl design are clear on a real card, buton a fake they can blend together because the colors are too close, or the printing quality is low.

A torn fake and real Pokemon card show the different layers in the genuine one.

Low printing quality can also result in the back of the card looking washed-out, which will causethe blue parts of the swirl to run together.

Both real and fake cards can be printed off-center, but it tends to be more common and more extreme in fake cards.

The back tends to be a reliable way to check for authenticity, since counterfeiters are usually more concerned with the front of the card. This is especially true if they’re selling the cards online, where they can list cards without pictures of the backs.

Don’t Be Fooled By Foil

Special-print Pokemon cards and basic rares are usually printed with a foil effect. This foil effect varies by type of card, but isthe same for all cards of that type. For example, Scarlet & Violet era Ace Spec cards and Sword & Shield era Radiant Pokemon feature similar cross-hatch foil patterns. Meanwhile, GX Pokemon have a wavy, diagonal foil pattern, but only behind the Pokemon.

The best way to check the foil pattern is tocompare the card to a genuine one of the same type. If the colors, direction, and pattern are the same, that’s a good indication that they’re both real.

Touch And Feel

The feel of genuine Pokemon cards is difficult to replicate. Counterfeits are usually a little bitsofter, lighter, and more flexible than genuine cards, which you can feel just by handling them.

Don’t bend cards that you don’t ownto test them, as this could damage legitimate cards.

This test is only reliable when you have access to the card and permission to pick it up and examine it. It alsorequires you to have enough experience with Pokemon cardsto be able to feel the difference. Often beginning collectors will start to recognize fake cards by feel without realizing it, only identifying that the cards feel wrong.

Research

There are plenty of sites that host card databases, includingpokemon.com. Whileit’s better to compare a suspected fake to a known real card in your hand, using a database to pull up the same card is a good substitute.

Compare the text, fonts, illustration, and copyright information.If anything doesn’t match, you’ve found a fake.

Pokemon Have Layers

Pokemon cards have three distinct layers when viewed from the side:two white layers with a gray or black layer in between, like a backwards Oreo. If you look very closely at the side of a real card you can make out these layers.

If you’ve heard of the “tear test,” this is the check being referenced.Tearing a card in half is a dramatic way to show that it’s real or fakeby revealing this inner layer.We don’t recommend tearing cards to determine authenticity, since it will destroy real cards and you can see the same evidence from the side without damaging your cards.

Trust Your Instincts

The more time you spend around Pokemon cards, the better your instincts will beat spotting fakes. Eventually, you’ll start to recognize fakes before you consciously realize how you know they aren’t authentic.

If something feels off about the cards or the seller, walk away. Try to be polite and don’t make a scene, especially if it seems like the seller doesn’t know that their product is fake. If you’re concerned about the cards your opponent is playing at a tournament,share your concerns with a judgeor tournament organizer so that they can maintain the integrity of the event.