While looking up info on the TCG (because I have been out of it for while) I came across this thread. Because I have been a very adimate collector of Pkmn cards, I became quite saddened to find out that several booster packs that I purchased (from a cheap store at a local mall no less) appear to me to be fakes according to certain details described in this thread. I still have the original booster pack wrappings from the cards too and I had bought them around 6 months or so ago. The store I bought them from had them for 25c each the first time then 33c each and then a while after they ceased to have them in their store, but they used to have a lot of them, boxes full of them.
The reasons I believe these cards of mine to be fake are the following:
1> The blob on the back is solid blue and not detailed like my genuine cards
2> The foil cards have either gold borders or appear to have some sort of "foil" material overtop of a printed on foil image (like shown in the OP with the Camerupt card)
3> The fonts in the attack area are different (Although, the fonts on my cards are different than even the ones shown here. The Darkrai holo card on this page that someone posted, I have that card, but it doesn't look like either of the two images posted when you look at the fonts.)
4> The non-holo cards I can see right through them, even though I can't see through the holos.
5> Many of the cards feel like they are thinner or made on a cheaper, thinner material.
6> Some of the card images appear crooked or tilted (Although not all, but especially some of the holos).
7> (I'm not sure if this was a sure-fire indication or not, but...) The boosters each contained a seemingly inordinate and large amount of rare cards. I mean I would get at least 2-3 in every booster. Which seemed unusual. (Granted, I had not been "in the game" so to speak for a really long time back when I got these cards so I wasn't familiar with all of the changes made since the old days, but now it seems these were just fakes to me)
The reasons I think it's hard to tell if my cards are fake are:
1> Pokémon is spelled with an "é" in every location from what I can tell.
2> The energy symbols are all normal size.
3> The border on the back of the cards is definitive and not lighter and faded looking.
I thought this information may be useful to someone.
If you want to see pics of some of the cards I could try to scan some and post them later so you can really see these things. I just can't believe that they are fake, mainly because I never knew that people have been making fakes and selling them in fake packagings too! I just never would have imagined that a Pokémon card straight from a booster would've been fake. I mean, I've seen fakes back in the old days but they seemed different than these ones today. This thread has a lot of good info that I think people need to know. I feel bad when looking at that post above with all of the cards and all of the kids who are going around sporting fakes and not knowing it.
I've checked a bunch of other cards of mine that I have on hand too and they all check out to be 100% genuine, but of course they come from more reliable sources, lol. Although, from what I can tell, all of the cards that I've ever bought off ebay have been completely genuine, so I guess that's good. <They were mostly older cards and many of them were promos and rares with special markings and foil stamps and such that were not the kinds of things that people really fake or could easily fake, so I think it's safer when buying those kinds of odd cards online, just be sure to double-check everything when buying online, I was also very cautious too so that always helps.
---------- Post added 09/08/2010 at 11:03 PM ----------
About a week ago I had posted some Fakes here that I had received from childern attending the league. I offer to give them real cards in exchange for the fakes so they do not have to worry about which cards they have are real.
This is a base 1 Dugtrio: Text boxes are clearly visible.
[gal=50760]Dugtrio[/gal]
This is the only image I do not quite see how it is fake (it might be better with a genuine next to it for comparison), but to me it appears to be a genuine, albeit in quite poor condition, shadowless Dugtrio from the base set?
Edit-
I see a white space behind the second attack cost that lines straight up with the side of the attack information, but Idk that that is a signature of a fake or just a signature of the original quality found in the shadowless cards. I mean the shadowless base set pikachu was notorious for the attack information being awkwardly spread out on the card much like this one where the 70 is uneven, and everything else about the card appears that it is a shadowless, imo.
Edit2- Well leave it to me to prove me wrong, lol. Here is a pic of a genuine shadowless Dugtrio:
So it would appear that one above is a fake after all, now I feel like I'm losing my touch. I thought was pretty good when it came to the older cards :C.
