How To Spot Fake Pokemon Cards

By Carl00456

I recently bought over two hundred Pokemon cards from a person at a local car-boot sale. It cost me £10, which I thought was worth it for the amount and rarity of the cards. I went home happy until my brother explained to me that some of them were fake. I counted the fake cards and then the real cards and it turns out that only around fifty cards were real. Here are a few ways to tell if your Pokemon cards are fake and a few tips on how to avoid buying them. Please note that this only applies to English Pokemon cards.

Firstly, check the back of the Pokemon card. Though not that obvious, a real Pokemon card is usually a dark blue colour while a fake one would be paler in colour. To easily tell if a Pokemon card is fake look at the light blue spot next to the red bit of the pokeball. To the right of it you should see s light blue patch that is fairly detailed. On a fake card, however, there will just be a blue splat with no detail.

If you want to know if trainer cards are fake, look at the word ‘Pokemon’ on the card. If the card is real then the word ‘Pokemon’ will have an apostrophe on the letter e. If it is a fake card then there will be no apostrophe and the word will just be spelt ‘Pokemon’. You can also look is there are any spelling mistakes or if the image is at a slant or misplaced. The same rules apply here as you can check the back of the card to see if it’s fake.

For actual Pokemon cards, you can still use the same methods above, checking for spelling mistakes and so fourth. There is a way to tell if the Pokemon card is fake, by looking at the energy symbols. There are usually energy symbols after the hit points or HP, next to the attack moves and at the bottom of the card, as weaknesses or resistance. The symbols themselves are defined by their symbol and colour. Real Pokemon cards will have a small symbol so you can easily see the colour while fake Pokemon cards will have the symbol enlarged, almost touching the edge so they will look quite crowded. Fake Pokemon energy symbols will also look slightly darker.

Other ways to tell if cards are fake are if they have a gold border around them or feel like a sticker and scratch off easily. When I wasn’t sure if a Pokemon card was fake or not, I held it up to some light. Fake Pokemon cards will be a little bit see-through and you should be able to see the yellow logo ‘Pokemon’. It is always best to buy Pokemon cards from your local supermarket so you know they are real. I would avoid websites like eBay and drive clear of car-boot sales or Flea Markets. I hope these methods help you to never get ripped off again.

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