Harry Kersh: So, we're here in East London.
And we're gonna visit Sneak Attack Games.
Sneak Attack is managed by Roy Raftery,
who's a trading-card expert with years of
buying and selling experience.
And he's gonna teach us about what you should be looking for
when you're buying and selling Pokémon cards
and how to tell if a card is fake or real.
Roy Raftery: Typically, people don't know
they have fake cards.
They're coming to me with their childhood collections,
and most of the time it's a mixture
of new stuff and old stuff.
And there's always one or two
fake cards, like, hidden amongst them,
which people just have no idea they have.
For me, there's, like, three tiers.
There's the tier where
you can just spot it just from a mile away.
There's you can spot it a little bit,
you have to do a little bit of background research.
And then there's other cards
that are just quite hard to spot.
Harry: So, before I do the fake or real challenge,
can you talk me through some of the things
that maybe we should be focusing on in these cards?
Roy: So, first of all, it's the card quality
and the quality of the print.
So, the way these cards are in their foil,
they were just never printed like this; it's quite shoddy.
The card itself, there was never any foiling
on the text boxes of the original cards.
So, you'll see here, the whole thing is shiny;
that just wasn't the case back in the day
'cause it's hard to make out what the card does.
The cards from the very first era of Pokémon,
they just weren't printed like this,
so instantly alarm bells ring.
Another big one is the actual size of the card.
If we pull up an actual version of this Mr. Mime,
you'll see that it's a little bit smaller
than the real version.
So, most fake cards,
if you just measure them up to other cards,
if you think, oh, why is this one
smaller than the other one, why is this one bigger?
Chances are the smaller card is the fake.
Harry: I'm noticing on this Farfetch'd card,
there's, like, a shiny gold border.
Is that an immediate red flag,
or has that ever been done in Pokémon?
Roy: So, there was, I remember as a kid, my brother had
cards from the Legendary set.
So this Dark Blastoise came from the Legendary collection.
I know I said the whole card was never printed in foil,
but when these were printed, these were, like, '98, '99.
And then the Legendary collection came about mid-2002.
And it was kind of a swan song appreciation
of everything that came before it.
But getting a card like this was really hard.
It wasn't, like, once per every pack.
This is, like, the premium foil edition of this card.
And a lot of the fakes that came after
took inspiration from this.
The major thing about these all-foil legendary cards
is that the actual text box is foil,
but the picture box is not,
which was very different for Pokémon.
And on all the fakes, again, everything is foil.
Everything is really bright, and,
ugh, it hurts your eyes to look at it.
Whereas they didn't quite do that
on the Legendary collection or any Pokémon card.
Harry: So, using what you've taught me,
we're gonna look at some cards
where we've got a fairly obvious fake and a real.
I'm hoping that I'm gonna be able to guess these ones.
If not, I might just have to go home.
So, we've got two Kangaskhan cards here.
Immediately, based on what you taught me
about the size of the card, some of the colors,
and kind of, like, the plasticky-ness,
I'm fairly confident that this one's the real one.
Roy: Yeah.
It's just way easier to spot.
Harry: Mr. Mime, pretty similar.
I think, again, the size is maybe
more noticeable in this one,
and, again, we've got the whole card is foil.
Which, as we now know, bit of a red flag.
Roy: Yep, definitely.
Harry: This one's the real one.
So, we're moving on to the medium tier.
Roy: Medium tier now.
Harry: In terms of difficulty to spot the fake,
and you've given me a curveball here,
you've shown me three of the same card,
we've got three Venonats, and I'm gonna try and guess
which one's real, which one's fake,
or which ones plural are real
and which ones plural are fake.
OK. I'm gonna rule this middle one out immediately,
just because I'm seeing the text is kinda, like, blurry.
It doesn't look particularly well printed.
So that one's, I think, a fake.
Then we're left with two.
Now, these are pretty similar.
These are pretty similar sizes,
the coloring is fairly similar,
I'd say maybe the coloring is a little bit better
on this one on the right.
I'm gonna look at the backs.
OK, OK.
So,
I think this one is more of, like, a richer blue,
which is something which
you've sort of said we should be looking for.
The text again is very similar,
but based on the coloring I think this is the real one,
I think this is also a fake.
So, I'm gonna put that up there.
Was I right?
Roy: You was right.
Harry: Correct!
Roy: Yes.
(both laughing)
Yeah, a lot of the stuff you said was spot on,
so, for the cards that you can see
that they've put a lot of effort in to forge it,
they've still slipped up a few things.
So, on the middle Venonat you see the name,
the name is quite, it's a lot bolder
and at the same time blurrier;
it's quite hard to read.
They simply don't print cards this blurry or this faded.
It's a clear indication of a fake.
This one is a little bit better,
but the card just instantly feels different.
And also, with real Pokémon cards,
they're printed on loads of different layers.
So they, (card flapping)
they have a particular tang and, like, feel to them.
Whereas, the fake ones,
they don't, because they're quite loose.
There's not as much printing paper used.
Harry: They are pretty similar-looking cards.
The border is, like, maybe slightly thinner on this one.
And a slightly paler yellow.
The text looks, like, very similar.
The trouble with these at this point is that
you're not sure if it's a fake
or if it's just an older card maybe
that's had a bit of sun damage or something.
Let's try the backs.
OK, I think maybe the back is more of a giveaway.
'Cause this one is looking like that kind of royal blue
that you're used to.
So, I think for the Nidorina,
I'm gonna say this one is the real one
and this one is the fake one.
Roy: Correct.
Harry: Got it? Roy: Yep.
Spotting the Nidorinas, you were correct.
This one is the real one, and this is the fake one.
Now, what we showed with the Venonats
was the card stock, the quality of the card,
and how easy it bent, and how it didn't make that noise.
This is because all of the official Pokémon cards
are printed on layers; they have a front,
they have a back, and they have a medium layer
in the middle, and it's usually black or blue, it depends.
And it's quite easy to find, and you can all do it at home.
If you take your mobile phone and get your torch
and shine it on the card, so as you shine it on the card,
because it doesn't have that inner layer,
it passes through really easily.
And it passes through the card from quite far away
as well as being close to it.
On a real card, and this goes for cards
from the very first set, from '98,
to cards printed yesterday, it doesn't pass through
until you get right close to it.
And when you do get close to it,
it's so small and faint
because of the middle, inner layer of the card.
So, if you're ever unsure about a Pokémon card,
this is a very good, quick indication.
You can see as you move it around,
it's a very small, tiny circle.
Whereas on this one, it's quite massive
and you just see the whole thing.
And I've actually got some battle-scarred cards over here.
So, here is a fake Parasect.
When you rip it,
you can just see no inner layer of the card;
it's just the front and the back of the card.
Here I've got a real Hoppip.
And when you rip it, you actually see
the middle, inner layer of the card;
you see the black.
That's still relevant in cards printed today.
Harry: So, ultimately, if you wanna avoid
buying these cards, what can you do
to kind of make sure that you're getting cards
from the right places?
Roy: So, my tips would be
only go to a local game store.
Wherever you are in your country,
go to your local game store,
kind of like us at Sneak Attack.
Or go to somewhere where you know
they're just a reputable seller.
Harry: So there we have it.
Thanks to Roy and Sneak Attack for having us.
We found out some of the key things
you should be looking for when you're buying
and selling your Pokémon cards to tell if it's real or fake.
Some of them are easier to spot,
like the kind of entire holographic thing.
Or some of them are a bit harder to spot,
like the way the card is actually structured
with that darker inner layer if it's real.
Now that you know all the things you should be
looking out for,
hopefully you'll be able to catch them all.