Counterfeit card: Difference between revisions

Counterfeit cards are likely the first type of fake cards to exist, appearing shortly after the Pokémon TCG grew in popularity in Japan. Counterfeit Pokémon cards are generally duplicates of existing cards, often contain flaws or cheaper materials which make them inferior to legitimate Pokémon cards.

In the early days of the Pokémon Trading Card Game, when the cards were gaining popularity in Western countries, counterfeit Pokémon cards frequently appeared in hopes of fooling unsuspecting buyers unfamiliar with the Pokémon franchise, as well as buyers who were unconcerned with the legitimacy of the cards, as Pokémon merchandise was in high demand and stores would be often out-of-stock of legitimate cards. Early counterfeit cards, made by companies such as Q-boy, were often exact copies of legitimate Pokémon cards, but printed on cheaper card stock and usually missing copyright information. Due to the cheap reproduction technologies used, counterfeit cards usually have lower-quality artwork, with print colors varying from the originals. In the late 1990s, police forces seized thousands of fake Pokémon cards, including over 500,000 from a warehouse in Hackensack, New Jersey.<ref>Hintze, Hal. "Fake 'n' Bake." [[PoJo's Unofficial Pokémon News & Price Guide Monthly]] Dec. 1999: 120-21.</ref>

Recent counterfeits are often more sophisticated than earlier attempts; however, modern counterfeits still have many flaws. Modern counterfeits are not usually direct copies of legitimate cards, and often contain critical spelling, grammatical, visual or factual errors. Common errors include the absence of the accented "é", wrong or mis-sized energy symbols, misnamed Pokémon (such as "Farren" for {{p|Flareon}} or "Lation" for {{p|Latios}}), or the illustrator's name will be misspelled (i.e. Mitsuhiro Arita's name can be accidentally spelled as "Mistuhiro Arita"). Often, counterfeit cards will be misprinted, making each card a humorous farce of its original (like a {{type|Psychic}} {{p|Rattata}} card with an attack that does 1000 damage, or a {{p|Magneton}} with 800 HP that should have 80). To further deceive potential buyers, modern counterfeits usually retain copyright information.