How to Spot a Fake Pokemon Card Before You Buy

When you buy online, you judge a photo, not a card, so most in-hand tests (the light test, the feel of the card stock) are not available to you. Check what a photo can show (the print, the back, the card number), check the seller and the price, and know which eBay protection covers you. For single cards of $200 or more, eBay's Authenticity Guarantee has PSA inspect the card before it ships to you.

What a listing photo can show, and what it can't

Most fake-card guides are written for a card in your hand. They tell you to shine a light through it, feel the surface or compare its thickness with a card you own. None of that works through a screen.

A clear photo can show:

• The text. Spelling, grammar and font should match the official card. Marketplace guides list wrong or mixed fonts and text that does not fit the Pokemon as common signs of a fake.

• The symbols. Energy cost and weakness symbols should sit centered in their spots, with the right colors.

• The color. Real cards look bright. Fakes often look dull or washed out next to an official scan of the same card.

• The card number and set symbol. These tell you which printing you are looking at (see the next sections).

• The back. A listing without a back photo hides half the card.

A photo cannot show: the card stock, its thickness, weight or texture, how light passes through it, or whether the card in the photo is the one that will ship. A stock image, a scan copied from a database, or a photo of a different copy all look fine on screen.

So the practical test is simple. Open an official scan of the same card from the same set and compare them side by side: text, symbols, borders, colors and the back. If the listing will not let you make that comparison, ask for better photos or move on.

Red flags in the listing itself

The seller and the price tell you as much as the photo does.

I have never received a fake. Fakes usually come from sellers with low feedback, listed at exceptionally low prices. How much protection I want depends on the price. For a cheaper card, I don't need eBay's Authenticity Guarantee, but I want a seller with a minimum feedback, and fewer than 100 feedback is a warning sign for me. Even at a high price, a seller with a lot of feedback can be fine without the guarantee.

Pokemon's own support page makes the same point about price for booster packs: a price far below the suggested retail price is a near-certain warning sign. The same logic holds for single cards. A price far under every other listing for the same card and grade needs an explanation before you pay.

Other flags to check:

• Only stock images, or only the front.

• Photos so small or blurry that you cannot read the attack text.

• A seller who asks you to pay outside eBay. eBay's own advice is never to agree to that, and the Money Back Guarantee does not cover any purchase where part of the payment was made outside eBay.

• Words like "proxy", "custom" or "replica" in the title or description. A card described that way is not an official card, whatever the photo looks like.

Ask the seller for more

You can message a seller before you buy. When the price is exceptionally low, or the card is ungraded, I ask for more photos or a video so I can see the real condition, especially when I'm buying near mint.

Useful things to ask for:

• The back, in full, if it is missing.

• Close shots of the corners and edges, front and back. For a raw card this is about condition as much as authenticity (see Near Mint and card condition (NM to DMG)).

• A short video tilting the card under light. On a holo, you should see the foil move. A flat scan can hide that.

• For a slab, a clear photo of the label with the cert number readable. Verify a Graded Pokemon Card Before You Buy covers what to do with it.

eBay's own guidance for card sellers asks for the same set of photos: front, back, any significant blemishes and any grading labels. A seller who will not send them is telling you something.

Make sure it's the version you want

This is not about fakes, but it goes wrong the same way: the photo didn't show what you assumed. Many Pokemon cards were printed in more than one version, and the photo has to show which one you are buying.

I made this mistake myself. I saw a 1st Edition Jungle Vaporeon that looked very cheap for a 1st Edition holo, and I bought it in a hurry before someone else could. Only then did I realize it was the non-holo print. The same card exists as both, which is confusing until you know it.

In early sets the two versions have different card numbers. In Jungle, Vaporeon 12/64 is the holo and Vaporeon 28/64 is the non-holo, and both were printed in 1st Edition. A low price on a "1st Edition Vaporeon" can simply mean the 28/64. Check the number and the foil in the photo against what you want before you pay (see Holo rare). Modern reverse holos share a number with the regular print, which makes the photo matter even more; Holo vs Reverse Holo Pokemon Cards covers every era.

Raw cards and slabs need different checks

A raw card is judged entirely on the photos and the seller's word. A graded card adds a label with a grade and a cert number that you can look up on the grader's own website (see Graded vs raw cards and Slab).

A cert lookup is a strong first check, but PSA itself warns that it does not remove the risk. Criminals do attempt to counterfeit PSA labels using real cert numbers taken from public sources. So the lookup tells you the number is real, not that the slab in the photo is the original. The full slab check is in Verify a Graded Pokemon Card Before You Buy, and what each grader's label means is in PSA vs CGC vs BGS vs TAG for Pokemon Cards.

Which eBay protections cover a fake

Two details matter most here. First, auctions qualify when they sell for $200 or more, whatever the starting price, and eBay says some eligible listings may not show the badge right away. Second, the 3-day window for trading cards is short. If a card worries you when it arrives, open the return the same day.

If you think you received a fake

1. Open a return request from your Purchases right away, say the item doesn't match the listing, and add photos.

2. Give the seller 3 business days to respond. If they don't, or can't resolve it, you can ask eBay to step in.

3. Don't resell it. When there are strong signs an item is counterfeit, eBay requires the buyer to help dispose of it and not to sell it on eBay or anywhere else.

4. Get a second opinion if you're unsure. Pokemon's support page suggests a local shop that specializes in trading cards may be able to evaluate a card for you.

I don't run tests on cards when they arrive myself.

A checklist before you buy

• Real photos of the front and back, sharp enough to read the text

• Compared side by side with an official scan of the same card and set

• Card number and foil match the version you want

• Price makes sense next to other listings of the same card and grade

• Seller has a feedback record you are comfortable with

• No "proxy", "custom" or "replica" in the title or description

• For a slab: label and cert number visible, and the cert looked up

• For a pricier card: the Authenticity Guarantee badge ($200 or more), or a seller record you trust without it

• Payment only through eBay checkout

If you'd rather not check every listing by hand, a ChaseBoard watch can require eBay's Authenticity Guarantee or a minimum seller feedback score, so listings that fail those rules don't alert you.