Buying Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece and Lorcana cards secondhand: fakes and prices

Counterfeits are a growing problem across the hobby. PSA’s 2025 figures, reported by Sports Collectors Digest, put trading card games at 56.3% of the counterfeits it intercepted, with fake Pokémon cards up 125% in a year. Pokémon leads, but these three games are printed by the same kinds of operations.

Yu-Gi-Oh: the checks

Yu-Gi-Oh has the most mature fake market of the three, and also the best-documented tells. The Yu-Gi-Oh Card Guide site lists them in detail; these are the ones that catch most fakes.

1. The Eye of Anubis hologram. A small hologram in the bottom-right corner of the front. Tilt it: it shows repeated eye symbols and “YU-GI-OH!” text at different angles. Gold on 1st Edition and Limited Edition cards, silver on Unlimited. Missing, flat-printed or a plain shiny square is a fake.
2. The card back. A dark orange swirl leading into a black oval, the Konami logo in white in the top-left corner, the Yu-Gi-Oh logo bottom right, and “TRADING CARD GAME” in capitals. Fakes get the colours too bright or too dark, or the logos blurry.
3. The name and text fonts. Card names use small capitals in the game’s own font. Monster types sit in square brackets separated by a slash, “ATK/DEF” is in capitals, and normal monsters’ flavour text is in italics. Wrong fonts and spacing are the commonest giveaway on cheap fakes.
4. The set code. Below the art on the right: letters for the set, the language (EN), then a number, like LOB-EN001. Look it up in Konami’s database and check that card exists in that set at that rarity.
5. Edition text. “1st Edition”, “LIMITED EDITION” or nothing. A card claiming a set and edition that never existed is fake.
6. The foil pattern. Star-shaped patterns in the holofoil are, in the guide’s words, “a dead giveaway”.
7. Corners and size. Real cards have rounded corners and measure about 2 5/16 by 3 3/8 inches.

Asian-English and Japanese cards are real Konami products for Asian markets (the OCG). They are genuine but priced differently and not legal in TCG tournaments. A binder of them isn’t fake; just make sure the price matches the version.

One Piece Card Game: the checks

Bandai’s One Piece Card Game launched in English in 2022, and its alternate-art leaders, special arts and manga rares carry the highest prices, which makes them the counterfeiters’ targets. The tells are less standardised than Yu-Gi-Oh’s, so compare with a card you know is real, or with the official card list on the game’s website.

• Print quality. Real cards have sharp text and vivid, well-aligned colours. Fakes tend to be blurry at the edges of text, faded, or slightly off in colour; SNKRDUNK’s authentication team found details as small as a wrong-coloured symbol and an altered mouth on fake cards.
• Card back. Compare the colours with a real card. Collectors often report a slight purple tint on fake backs.
• Thickness. SNKRDUNK notes that fake cards tend to be thicker than genuine ones, because of an added layer. Stack the suspect card against a common from a pack you opened.
• Foil. Real foil is a gentle, even shine. A finish that looks too bright, too glittery or patchy is a warning.
• Set code and rarity. Bottom right, like OP05-119. Look it up in the official card list and check the art, rarity and colour match.
• Language. Japanese sets come out first, and Japanese and English cards are priced separately. A Japanese manga rare isn’t fake, but it isn’t the English card either.

Disney Lorcana: the checks

Lorcana is published by Ravensburger under licence from Disney. Its most valuable cards are the Enchanted rarity: full-art versions with a textured, multi-coloured foil.

• Collector number. Enchanted cards are numbered above the set’s main count. In The First Chapter, the set has 204 main cards and the Enchanteds start at 205, so an Enchanted reads like 205/204. A supposed Enchanted numbered inside the main range is wrong.
• Foil. Real Enchanted foil shifts through several colours as you tilt the card, across the whole surface. Flat, blotchy or sticker-like foil is a warning, and so is a regular foil card with a rainbow sheen it shouldn’t have.
• Card back. Sharp logo, even colours, nothing blurry. Fakes often have off colours or wrong proportions.
• Ink colour border. The coloured frame for each ink (Amber, Amethyst, Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire, Steel) should be clean and the right shade.
• Stock and edge. Compare the feel and edge with a real common. Some collector guides report a thin blue core layer visible at the edge of genuine cards.

Skip the bend test and the rip test for all three games: one damages the card and the other destroys it.

Pricing these games

Card values move fast after tournament results and new sets, so price from recent sales, not from memory or asking prices.

• TCGplayer Market Price. TCGplayer’s help centre describes it as based on recent completed sales. It is in US dollars and covers all three games, by set, rarity and printing (1st Edition vs Unlimited, foil vs regular).
• PriceCharting. Built from completed sales; covers many sets of all three games, with prices by condition and grade. Prices show in US dollars by default, and its FAQ explains how to switch currency.
• eBay sold. On ebay.ca, tick Sold items to see what the same card actually sold for, often in Canadian dollars.
• Cardmarket. Useful as a European reference, in euros.

What moves a price: condition (near mint vs played), edition (Yu-Gi-Oh 1st Edition vs Unlimited), language (English vs Japanese vs Asian-English), finish (foil, alt art, Enchanted, manga rare), and grading. For graded cards, see how to check a graded slab.

Searches and block words

Sellers write these games every way imaginable. Search all of them.

Block words for buyers who only want real cards: orica, proxy, custom, "fan made", fanmade, replica, reprint. “Orica” is the community’s word for a custom-printed card; some are sold openly as art, but they aren’t the real card and are never worth its price.

Add "pm for price" and "dm for price" too, unless you enjoy asking twenty sellers the same question.

Meetup and payment

The rules are the same as for Pokémon cards, and our Pokémon card scams guide covers them in full. The short version:

1. No deposits, no shipping-only deals from a seller who claims to be local. See deposit scams.
2. Meet in a public place, ideally a police exchange zone or a game store, in daylight.
3. Inspect out of the sleeves for the cards that matter. Bring a loupe or use your phone camera’s zoom.
4. Check the tells above on every high-value card, and compare with a common you know is real.
5. Count binders and lots against the listing photos.
6. Pay last, once you have checked.

With Sift

On desktop Chrome, Edge and Brave, Sift does the price lookups for you.

• Recognises the game. Sift’s Cards kit picks up listings that name Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece card game or Lorcana, plus a card number with a rarity word or “TCG”. The details card is headed “Trading card”.
• Price links first. “Prices on PriceCharting” and “Search TCGplayer” are the first two “Check elsewhere” links, with grade and condition words (PSA 10, NM, lot, bulk) stripped from the search so you land on the card. Then eBay sold prices, Google Lens on the photo, and the same search on the other site. Prices on those sites are in US dollars.
• Start a hunt: Cards. One click saves a Cards preset that hides “message for price”, “PM for price” and “price on request” listings.
• Flags on the listing. “Check this” when a seller asks for a deposit or e-Transfer first, wants to move to WhatsApp or text, or is far cheaper than the rest of the page.
• Alerts. Watch a search like “lorcana enchanted” or “ygo binder”: up to 10 Kijiji searches as often as every 15 minutes, and up to 5 Facebook searches no faster than every 30.

Sift doesn’t authenticate cards and has no fake-card check; the tells above are yours to run.

Yu-Gi-Oh is a trademark of Konami. The One Piece Card Game is published by Bandai. Disney Lorcana is published by Ravensburger under licence from Disney. Sift is independent and not affiliated with any of them, or with TCGplayer, PriceCharting, Meta or Kijiji.