Just found out through a facebook group that someone in the UK setup a website and is trying to sell fake cards, and I don’t mean the custom made stuff, or the obvious Chinese fakes, but actual replicas of high end cards.
I am not too concerned about Illustrators as those are rare and expensive enough that any buyer would take due diligence, but the goldstars are particularly worrying.
Below are links to the guy’s shop and youtube channel:
Removed
Anyway, I don’t know what the quality of these fakes is, or how long such cards have been in the market for, should we as a community worry about these? Also, is there anyone we can report this stuff to?
The Pokemon Company International really needs to start taking action on these sites. There is absolutely positively 0 reason to let this continue for any longer.
Should have posted screenshots instead and PM you the links so you could report.
Also, cards on his youtube videos look similar enough to the real thing, and I am sure he wouldn’t have bought an authentic Kangashkan or Illustrator for the sake of his crap website.
Obvious Chinese fakes and custom made cards, bad as they are, just prey on people’s ignorance, but it is a whole new ballgame if undistinguishable fakes start flooding the market. MTG is struggling with that problem already, would hate to see Pokemon go down the same route.
Anyway, is this something people encountered in the past or is the introduction of these fakes into the market a recent thing?
The truth is that many people simply don’t care if the item is fake or real. You see it all the time with movies on eBay. A large majority of people don’t understand why they’d pay $100-150 for a complete series of something on Amazon when it can be bought on eBay from a seller in China for $30 bucks instead.
Japan seems to care about copyright ten times more than rights holders here in the United States. The Japanese government is avidly working to prevent as much manga, anime and music piracy as they can. You see articles all of the time about website shutdowns and new laws going into effect in Japan to prevent situations like this, along with digital piracy. You may be onto something here.
