What if one of my Pokemon cards is not real? 0

[dguerra]

I just bought a Charizard from XY Evolutions from an online store and compared it to my other Charizard card I pulled from a booster box I purchased from Amazon. They do not look like each other. If I were to send them in, what would happen if you found one of the cards was not legit?

I would want to get my money back from the retailer who sold me card. See attached photo.

Thanks for your help everyone! 

[Poke_Rogue_TCG]

3 hours ago, dguerra said:

I just bought a Charizard from XY Evolutions from an online store and compared it to my other Charizard card I pulled from a booster box I purchased from Amazon. They do not look like each other. If I were to send them in, what would happen if you found one of the cards was not legit?

I would want to get my money back from the retailer who sold me card. See attached photo.

Thanks for your help everyone! 

Hey! I'm no expect of course, but both look real to me. What makes you believe it isn't? If it's a matter of the "green" flame vs yellow, that is a print variant some assume was a part of earlier print runs (see link below). I attached a picture of all the Evolutions Charizards I have pulled from packs and you can see 2 green flames - the CGC 7 and the pack fresh on the right! Hope some of this helps.

https://efour.proboards.com/thread/8851/green-flame-charizard

I am sure CGC Admin will jump in here about what will happen if the card is in fact fake.. Probably just return it.

Best of luck with the grading! 

[Iceman399]

4 hours ago, dguerra said:

I just bought a Charizard from XY Evolutions from an online store and compared it to my other Charizard card I pulled from a booster box I purchased from Amazon. They do not look like each other. If I were to send them in, what would happen if you found one of the cards was not legit?

I would want to get my money back from the retailer who sold me card. See attached photo.

Thanks for your help everyone! 

Card on the left looks very much fake. If you aren't getting the holo effect you do on the right (like the stars under his wing) it's definitely fake. Given much evo has gone up there are a numbe Of fake booster boxes out there right now. (always look for the poke all seal around the booster box. 

[Poke_Rogue_TCG]

15 minutes ago, Iceman399 said:

Card on the left looks very much fake. If you aren't getting the holo effect you do on the right (like the stars under his wing) it's definitely fake. Given much evo has gone up there are a numbe Of fake booster boxes out there right now. (always look for the poke all seal around the booster box. 

The ink does look pretty thick for the one on the left AND a bit darker all around! But the lack of visible holo may just be lighting in the picture. Like Icemann said, if there is no holo effect, then it's most likely fake in this case. I think more pictures are needed to really tell from looking at it online... At first glance though, you can tell something seems off.

[theCapraAegagrus]

Are Pokemon cards glued the same way that MtG cards are? This was how I determined that a Jace, the Mind Sculptor sold to me was counterfeit...

Basically, a legit MtG card has a pattern that can be observed under close-light conditions (like your phone's flashlight). Fakes are usually opaque.

[the menace]

2 hours ago, theCapraAegagrus said:

Are Pokemon cards glued the same way that MtG cards are? This was how I determined that a Jace, the Mind Sculptor sold to me was counterfeit...

Basically, a legit MtG card has a pattern that can be observed under close-light conditions (like your phone's flashlight). Fakes are usually opaque.

Yeah you can do a similar flashlight trick with Pokémon cards as well. Shine a light through the back and no light should get through

[theCapraAegagrus]

16 minutes ago, EdisonS said:

Yeah you can do a similar flashlight trick with Pokémon cards as well. Shine a light through the back and no light should get through

So Pokemon cards are opaque and not somewhat translucent?

If that's correct, then detecting counterfeit cards is more difficult.

[Iceman399]

10 hours ago, Poke_Rogue_TCG said:

The ink does look pretty thick for the one on the left AND a bit darker all around! But the lack of visible holo may just be lighting in the picture. Like Icemann said, if there is no holo effect, then it's most likely fake in this case. I think more pictures are needed to really tell from looking at it online... At first glance though, you can tell something seems off.

Yes the fonts look off on the left.  Based on these pics only...if I'm a betting man (which I tend to do, from time to time).  It's fake

[dguerra]

Here are more pictures.

[dguerra]

11 hours ago, Poke_Rogue_TCG said:

Hey! I'm no expect of course, but both look real to me. What makes you believe it isn't? If it's a matter of the "green" flame vs yellow, that is a print variant some assume was a part of earlier print runs (see link below). I attached a picture of all the Evolutions Charizards I have pulled from packs and you can see 2 green flames - the CGC 7 and the pack fresh on the right! Hope some of this helps.

https://efour.proboards.com/thread/8851/green-flame-charizard

I am sure CGC Admin will jump in here about what will happen if the card is in fact fake.. Probably just return it.

Best of luck with the grading! 

I suspect the one on the left in this picture might be fake because the text looks bold and not sharp on the right. Also, the one on the left has an orange border and the one on the right has a yellow border.

Thanks for the reply!

[Ron Churches]

I don't think it's fake, though it's definitely different.  XY Evolutions is known for erratic print quality, which is part of the reason these are hard to grade in the first place.  If it's a fake, it's a very good one.  I'd shine a phone flash through both of them (out of the cases) and see if they are similarly translucent.  There are many articles about spotting fakes that have other techniques.

[dguerra]

11 hours ago, Iceman399 said:

Card on the left looks very much fake. If you aren't getting the holo effect you do on the right (like the stars under his wing) it's definitely fake. Given much evo has gone up there are a numbe Of fake booster boxes out there right now. (always look for the poke all seal around the booster box. 

Sorry, the light was hitting the cards differently. I took more photos and posted them below. Everything you just mentioned is exactly what alerted me to the possibility of it being a fake.

Thanks for the reply!

[dguerra]

Just now, Ron Churches said:

I don't think it's fake, though it's definitely different.  XY Evolutions is known for erratic print quality, which is part of the reason these are hard to grade in the first place.  If it's a fake, it's a very good one.  I'd shine a phone flash through both of them (out of the cases) and see if they are similarly translucent.  There are many articles about spotting fakes that have other techniques.

I did shine my phone through both cards and the light did not go through.

Thanks for the reply!

[Ron Churches]

The reverse of the card is often a tell, too.  That white spotch near the center is apparently hard to mirror.  And you could magnify from the side and see if there are three layers of paper (middle layer is darker), but that's hard to do.  CGC would definitely do that when grading, I'm sure.

[Iceman399]

Ok now I'm not sure it's a fake.  The holo pattern looks good.  

[greggy]

23 minutes ago, Iceman399 said:

Ok now I'm not sure it's a fake.  The holo pattern looks good.  

Make up your mind

[Iceman399]

57 minutes ago, greggy said:

Make up your mind

My mind has been made up since the day I met you  

[JoeRock]

There are some really good fake proxy cards out there, always check the back 

Edited October 29, 2020 by JoeRock

[dguerra]

51 minutes ago, JoeRock said:

There are some really good fake proxy cards out there, always check the back 

 

[dguerra]

Thanks for all your help everyone!