Hi,
I recently bought a glaceon staff card. ( €59 on cardmarket EU)
But in compare to my other staff cards the staff stamp is much thiner than normal.
Do you know if it is real of a fake stamp?
Looks fake, font is also off and the “S” of the stamp should start a little farther left.
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My 1st impression: fake.
After looking up the Glaceon staff card online: I would never claim it to be genuine if I were to sell it myself.
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There is also a Nationals Exploud staff card with different stamp. I don’t think this is a fake card.
Do you have a photo off the exploud?
The font indeed looks thinner.
That aside, is it normal for the STAFF stamps to start at different positions for the same card? I’ve just looked at some pictures online. Here two pictures where the STAFF stamps are at the same position on all six cards:
But here a PSA graded copy where it’s shifted upwards in comparison, which seems odd to me:
And on your copy it’s shifted toward the right.
I know STAFF stamps are placed on later, but I thought they’d always be in the same position (ignoring a potential error, although based on 1st edition stamps which are also placed on later, I assume that almost never happens - and I’ve also never seen it before when comparing STAFF stamp pictures online before - mostly for the Sevipers I own).
Do you perhaps have a very strong loop, like a mini microscope with between 20-60x zoom? I think you should be able to see pretty obvious differences between a fake stamp and real stamps that way (ignoring any potential dust and miniscule damages on the stamps). Like the way the edges of the stamp are, and things like that. If it’s a real, but just thinner (and misaligned) stamp, the differences between that stamp and your other STAFF stamps should be very minimal.
It’s plausible it’s still legit, but since it’s in a different position than both other positions of the STAFF cards above (although it’s already pretty weird there are two different positions for those imho); it’s pretty thin; and it also seems to be an ever so slightly lighter shade of golden in your pictures (could just be the lighting of course), I have similar doubts as you regarding it’s legitimacy. But again, it’s plausible it’s real but just partially misprinted of some sort I guess. Pretty hard to say with things like this just based on some pictures tbh.
Greetz,
Quuador
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Here’s a comparison-picture between two graded English Vivid Voltage pre-release Lugia cards with different positions of the staff stamp:
I’ve seen staff misprints where the gold wasn’t added and you could only see the ‘STAFF’ indent, but I’ve never seen a genuine Staff stamp this thin; I don’t think that’s possible since the stamp is flat and so it’s either ‘full’ in the card, or (if there were to be some kind of error) perhaps just ‘half’ in the card, not thinner. (I hope that last sentence made sense. 
)
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Thanks for the reactions!!
No there is not a silhouette visible off a thick staff stamp.
Send it in for grading and after PSA slabs it, it’s officially authentic.
@chrisbalestra You should know by now with the history of PSA slabbing fake cards, resealed packs, fake 1st ed. stamps, fake signatures, etc that even if it’s slabbed, doesn’t always mean it is 100% authentic 
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Who cares. If they slab it you can either sell it as authentic or take it up with their insurance “gaurantee” Submit it and let them figure out if it’s authentic or not.
Thanks but sending to psa and getting it back takes a year from out the Netherlands. I really think, based on the info i got that it is fake.
Many thanks you all!
Also got a reaction off cardmarket about the glaceon:
Hi Gérard,
I’m an expert on Pokémon Cards and I’ve been asked to chime in on this ticket.
To clarify, The Pokémon Company international (TPCi, Nintendo doesn’t actually produce anything tcg related) doesn’t use an actual ‘stamp’ to mark staff cards. Rather, it is a technique done by one of the machines that stamps the gold letters on the card. This is done by calibrating settings and can actually give different sizes. I will give you some card examples of cards that to help illustrate this:
- 2007 National Championships Blastoise Promo - This card has a very large STAFF stamp in the bottom right corner, more than twice the size of the current staff stamps you are used to!
- Any World Championship promo - World Championship promos have staff logos with a bigger width and in recent years even a different font entirely. This goes back as far as 2006’s Tropical Tidal Wave.
Pokémon has a solid quality control, so not a lot of cases of misprints are seen, especially with cards like STAFF versions that are in small quantity. But it does still happen sometimes (A famous case is a Staff Charizard with the Staff logo only half visible on the yellow border).
Based on the picture you provided, it seems like something may have gone wrong during calibrating or during the stamping process. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a Glaceon with a weird looking stamp, so it may be that it’s a more frequent occurance for this particular promo.
I hope this information is useful to you.
If you have any questions or would still like to send over the cards, please let me know!
Kind regards,
Cardmarket Customer Support
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If you think it is fake, why do you care how fast you get it back? Sub it and see.
I’m sure the owner of the card cares at least… He came here looking to see if there would be some more expert opinions on other people who have maybe dealt with fake staff stamps in the past. Based on the fact alone that he posted this thread on this forum, I’m sure he doesn’t want to wait 1+ years to see if PSA will slab it, pay for the service, then have to deal with the massive headache of PSA’s customer service to try and use their insurance “guarantee” to try and get some money back for it in the case that they deem it fake. If he can at least get a somewhat straight answer from someone here who knows better than him, he can still try to just return it to the seller and get his money back while he still has the chance… And doesn’t have to wait 1-2 years either.
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Again, if even TPCi isn’t sure, why not let an authentication company decide? It takes very little effort to submit, the card is gauranteed if it ends up being graded as authentic, and waiting for a year (if you really don’t want to submit at a faster tier) isn’t so bad. That’s literally just a semantic/pivot to argue from. Are you saying you, as a collector, can’t go for a year without staring at one of your cards? Do you open your binders every day and stare at them? If one was missing from said binder, you couldn’t sleep at night? The best thing you can do if you aren’t sure if something is authentic or not, is to submit it. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills here with some sort of silly argument against this.
There is no one here with an expert opinion on this. People can simply show what he already knows: usually the font is thicker, but that doesn’t necessarily mean this is fake". It’s literally a roll of the dice on betting on the card and hoping it’s authenticated, or ending up with a 59 dollar L. You can’t win them all. Is the risk worth the reward? Up to the OP.
Most selling sites offer 30 day returns. Paypal I think 3 months. Why would he wait to submit to PSA and void his return window when he can try to get a better opinion from people who have maybe dealt with a similar card/situation with staff stamps before… Anyways OP obviously made the post instead of sending to PSA for authentication for a reason, I hope he gets his answer.
Read my whole post. I have nothing more to offer here. If you say he shouldn’t take the risk and just return it because there is no gaurantee that it is authentic, just say so. No one here has the “expert” authority to say if it’s real or not. At the end of the day he has to take a bet on the card or not.
yeaa thats fake compared to all the others I have looked at. Sorry. However I am not a pro and it is just my opinion. All the other ones I have seen raw and graded have a larger and blocky looking stamp. If you have doubts and have to ask on the forum, I would just return it and be done with it.
I will ask somebody to post pictures of “different” stamps. I don’t think its fake, there are also very “fat” stamped staff cards.