Summary
A newly spotted Charizard card forgery prompted some collectors to start cautioning fans about fake gradedPokemon TCGcards that have been circulating digital storefronts recently. Their warnings surfaced online shortly after The Pokemon Company announced anewPokemon TCGset featuring Generation 1 pocket monsters.
Pokemon TCGcard forgeries have been a lucrative business for counterfeiters ever since the hit trading card game first hit the store shelves in 1996. And while somefakePokemoncards have even landed people in jail, their prevalence continues to this day. That state of affairs popularized grading services like the one offered by Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), a California-based company specializing in appraisals of collector’s items.
RELATED:Pokemon Trading Card Game Online Servers Are Officially Shut Down Forever
But not even the PSA grading cases are immune to forgeries, as illustrated by a fake graded 1st Edition Charizard card that recently found its way online. The forgery was spotted by Reddit user Gloomy-Trade-1792 on a “local selling website,” where its owner was selling it for $4,000. While that’s more expensive compared to thevalues of many rarePokemon TCGCharizard cards, the figure is actually a quarter of what a legit copy would cost, Gloomy-Trade-1792 explained.
After that price discrepancy raised their suspicions, the collector verified that the card itself was fake due to its holographic pattern not matching the legitimate design, as well as its lateral borders being too thin. The enclosing case was also confirmed as a forgery, with several collectors taking to Reddit to explain that its label does not match the look of an actual PSA certification. Gloomy-Trade-1792 described this graded fake as “infuriating,” warningPokemon TCGenthusiasts to always do their due diligence before wasting thousands of dollars on any single card.
While numerous experienced collectors commenting on this particular forgery labeled it as an unimpressive fake, several other fans acknowledged that they could have fallen for the scam, explaining that the subtle differences in holographic pattern coloring and border width may have flown over their heads. Some of them said the same of the fake PSA label, especially since the counterfeit case features a legitimate certification number.
Forged copies of the 1st Edition Base Set cards have been among the most frequently peddledPokemon TCGfakes for years, presumably because the game’s oldest release is also among the most valuable for collectors. But despite the abundance of forgeries,Pokemoncard collecting remains a lucrative hobby for numerous individuals, as recently underlined by one formerNFL player who made millions tradingPokemon TCGcards.
