I’ve been trying to complete booster pack artwork sets and ran into several packs that looked “off”. These are packs from the Diamond & Pearl and Platinum expansions and it looks like I see them for sale for EX also. I started scrutinizing these packs and found the following glaring differences than all the other packs I have:
They tend to be wider than normal.
The back flap stops way before the “London Office” (for Platinum) or “Pokemon USA, Inc.” (for Diamond & Pearl) texts that the majority of packs extend to.
Back flap crimp pattern doesn’t have the slight vertical crimping that makes the waffle looking pattern.
I did a blacklight test and the Yellow ink pops very bright. These packs are the only ones that do this.
Color seems to have a slightly darker hue.
These were purchased from reputable sellers with high positive feedback. Can it be possible that these are just printed in a different factory? Or are these more than likely fake packs? I saw another post by a different user asking about the authenticity of a few Holon Phantoms packs and it looked like they had these same attributes but many of the comments said more than likely they were legit.
NOTE: The Platinum Charizard artwork I have seems to have a very slight double print shift that makes the writing look like it’s in a different language.
I forgot to mention that the questionable packs are the group to the left. Also, an important thing to note is that the relative alignment of all the texts, border patterns, and artwork match up exactly as the ones I know are real.
I don’t know anything about packs, but this seems like a potential use case for CT scanning. It wouldn’t alleviate all concerns (e.g. if the fake pack had similar contents as a real pack), but it could be a good start.
I’d be willing to open up the Platinum Charizard pack just to find out if they contain real or fake cards but would like to hear from the community first to see if this is something that is already known or not.
Keep in mind that packs are produced in a roll and cut to length during fabrication, so I can see how variations in width or where the back flap falls would happen. I’m a little concerned about the crimps as they are slightly different. Might be worth checking if the tips of the pack, beyond the crimp, are closed or open? I’m leaning towards the packs being authentic.
Totally understand and possibly could be a separate print run by a different print factory since the ink is definitely different. Maybe the factory had a different crimping technique that caused the wider packaging and different crimp patterns. I’m just wondering if it’s worth opening a pack to at least see if they contain fake cards or not.
My theory is that the packs were cut too short (even though the pack is wider) and that the rear flap wasn’t wide enough for the standard crimp style, so there is perhaps a second narrower crimp style which is present here. I’m speculating of course but that’s my guess.
Additionally, here’s a graded Stormfront pack with a similar crimp on the rear flap:
This Stormfront crimp is the normal crimping I expect to see. You can see the faint vertical crimp line that makes it form the waffle-like pattern. Also, the flap ends where I expect it to end (at the Pokemon USA, Inc. text). I haven’t found a graded pack yet that was in the print format as the questionable ones I posted granted I haven’t looked that hard yet.
Here are other pics of packs with the same attributes that are currently listed by a single seller. Again, I’m not insinuating they are fake but trying to figure out if it could possibly be a different print run or maybe a print from a different region. I know that the cards from the Australian prints have the yellow popping effect under blacklight so could these possibly come from a different region?
Oh wow! Thank you for finding this! Definitely looks like the same type of packs and the placement where the flap ends prematurely is similar to all the questionable packs I have. I really think this is an obvious indicator of a fake pack since all the graded packs I’ve found online have the flap ending just before “London Office” or “Pokemon USA, Inc.” (depending on the set).
No problem! Glad to help out. No idea what the kid is saying but yes, as you noticed the location of the rear flap and the crimp look like a match here.
Follow up on this topic. The sellers refunded me for the packs and one of them allowed me to keep the packs and open them to confirm that the contents were indeed fake. Scrutinizing them a little further, I weighed the fake ones and they all weighed pretty much 16g each which is way too light for a 10-card pack…so the weight is another tell-tale sign that these packs were fake. Upon opening, they resembled exactly like what was shown on the YouTube video that was posted in this thread. The front card was a “holo” and the back card was facing the other way around from all the rest of the cards. So I can guarantee with high certainty that a pack with the attributes I described in my above comments is a fake pack. I see several listed on eBay right now with bids on them so people aren’t aware of what to look for. If I knew all this beforehand, I would have obviously not purchased them. Hopefully this helps other collectors from making this mistake. Attached are a few pics. The card in the middle of the 9-card pic is a real card for comparison to the rest of the fakes that surround it.
