How to tell if a Pokémon card is fake (without ripping it)

PSA reported that Pokémon counterfeits submitted to it rose more than 125% in 2025, and trading card games made up 56.3% of the counterfeit cards it intercepted. Fakes cluster on chase cards (Charizard, alternate arts, vintage holos) and on sealed product sold far under market, the pattern in a Nanaimo, B.C. case where a buyer paid $1,200 for counterfeit booster boxes and cards from Kijiji.

Before the meetup: what the listing tells you

Many fakes can be ruled out from the couch.

• Stock or official images instead of photos of the actual card. Ask for a photo of the card next to a note with today’s date and your name. A seller who won’t send one has told you something.
• Too many hits in one cheap lot. Dozens of “ultra rares” or a stack of gold cards for $40.
• Words that mean fan-made or novelty: custom, proxy, orica, replica, fan art, “gold metal”. Some of these are sold openly and honestly as what they are, but they aren’t official cards and they aren’t collectible.
• A price far under PriceCharting and eBay sold for the same printing and condition (how to price Pokémon cards).
• Copied photos. Run Google Lens on the listing photo. If the same image appears in a shop or an old eBay listing, the seller may not have the card at all.

The 9 checks, in order of how often they catch fakes

Bring a real card from the same era if you can; comparing side by side is far easier than remembering.

1. Text. Read the card. Fakes are often printed from poor scans or retyped, so look for spelling mistakes in names and attacks, odd grammar, a missing accent on “Pokémon” (check the copyright line at the bottom too), and HP or damage numbers that make no sense for the card.
2. Font. Compare the HP, the attack names and the small text with a real card from the same era. Fakes often use a slightly wrong typeface or uneven spacing between letters.
3. Energy and set symbols. The energy symbols in attack costs, weakness and retreat should be crisp, round and centred. The set symbol (or the set code on recent cards) should match the set the collector number claims.
4. Collector number and rarity mark. Look the card up in the official Pokémon TCG card database. A number that doesn’t exist, or belongs to a different card, settles it.
5. The back. English backs have used the same design since 1999: a deep blue swirl, a bright red and white Poké Ball, and a thin, even border. Fakes often look washed out, purplish, too dark or blurry, and their borders are uneven. Japanese backs are a different design (see below).
6. Holo and texture. Holo foil on a real card shines in a pattern as you tilt it. Recent full arts and illustration rares have a raised texture you can feel and see in raking light, like a fingerprint. Fakes are often flat and glossy, or have the texture printed on rather than pressed in.
7. The edge layer. Real cards are made of layers with a thin dark sheet in the middle. Look at the edge under a loupe or your phone’s macro camera: you should see a fine dark line between the front and back. Many fakes are plain white, grey or beige all the way through.
8. The light test. Hold a phone flashlight behind the card, with the seller’s permission. A real card lets through only a faint glow. Many fakes light up clearly. Test a real card first so you know what normal looks like.
9. Size and feel. Lay it on top of a real card: a fake is often slightly off-size, and feels thinner, glossier, more papery or more plasticky. Feel on its own isn’t proof, but it’s often what makes you look closer.

One failed check is a reason to keep looking; two is a reason to walk away. Good fakes exist that pass several of these, which is why the price and the seller’s behaviour matter as much as the card.

Japanese and other languages

Japanese cards are real cards, just not English ones, and they differ in finish, texture and back design. Older Japanese cards (until 2001) use a dark blue back with its own Poké Ball design; current Japanese backs differ again from the English one. Compare a Japanese card only with a known Japanese card of the same era, and price it against its Japanese printing. Korean and Chinese printings are also real and price differently; they’re not fakes, but they’re not what an English-language listing promises either.

Checks to skip (they damage the card or prove little)

• The rip test. Tearing a card shows the dark middle layer. It also destroys the card, and the edge check shows the same layer without harm.
• The water test. Wetting or soaking a card damages it, and the results aren’t reliable.
• The bend test. Bending creases a real card and takes it down at least one condition grade, whatever the result.
• Scratching the surface. Scraping at the holo to see what’s underneath damages a card you haven’t paid for.

A seller is entitled to say no to all of these. The light and edge checks do the job without risk to anyone’s card.

Graded slabs and sealed packs are different problems

Slabs. A fake slab can hold a real card or a fake one, and counterfeiters copy real certificate numbers. Look the number up on the grader’s site, such as PSA’s cert verification, and check that the card, grade and label details match. Then look at the case itself: label printing, hologram and seams. More in graded cards and slabs.

Sealed packs and boxes. The checks are on the wrapping, not the cards: logo-printed shrink wrap, seams, crimps and glue. See how to spot a resealed booster box, ETB or pack.

If you already bought a fake

1. Ask the seller for a refund in writing, in the same chat, with photos of what’s wrong.
2. Expect no chargeback if you paid by cash or e-transfer. Call your bank anyway if an e-transfer was sent recently.
3. Report the listing on Facebook or Kijiji, so the next buyer is warned.
4. Report the fraud to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, and to local police if the seller is local and keeps listing.

Keep the fake out of circulation: don’t resell it as real. Our guide to Facebook Marketplace scams has the reporting steps.

Where Sift fits, and where it doesn’t

Sift doesn’t detect fake cards. It can’t see the card, and no browser extension can authenticate one. What it helps with is the part before the meetup.

Sift is a free browser extension for Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji. Its Cards kit recognises card listings and puts Prices on PriceCharting and Search TCGplayer first in Check elsewhere, so a price far under what the card sells for is obvious before you message. Google Lens on the listing photo is one click, for spotting copied images. And “Check this” flags mark listings that ask for payment first or push you to WhatsApp, two habits of sellers with something to hide. For the full buying setup, see buying Pokémon cards on Marketplace and Kijiji. Sift runs in Chrome, Edge and Brave on a computer, and isn’t affiliated with PriceCharting, TCGplayer, PSA or Google.

Pokémon is a trademark of Nintendo, Creatures, GAME FREAK and The Pokémon Company. Sift is independent and isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by them.