The lighting for these three cards makes it look a little different than normal but I keep looking over them and they look legit but I’d appreciate the opinion of those with more experience.
Really? How can you tell?
All 3 are fake.
Colours are all off, borders are all off, holo is all off.
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Gotcha thanks for the help!!
What about the borders are off?
Their size and the cut is incorrect.
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Dang thanks for the help and saving me from getting scammed. Glad I asked!
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2nd opinion: Fake
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Well crap I did get scammed. Ugh I’m an idiot. I found the Shining Magikarp and Gyarados on Meccarri Japan. The prices weren’t super low but lower than normal which I figured was due to them being english cards in Japan. I ordered those two when I saw the shadowless charizard. That got me nervous so I posted here. I figured I could cancel my order for the other two cards with Buyee. NOPE. They can’t cancel a Meccari order. Ugh I have to hope my credit card fraud claim works out.
Please anyone reading this. DON’T be DUMB like me!
The problem is I bought the Magikarp and Gyarados first. They were good deals but not so crazy good of deals that I thought it was impossible. After buying them I saw the shadowless charizard for a price that is way too low for that card and that’s when I started to wonder if they were fakes. Wow I really gotta be more careful and learn more what I’m doing. So many scammers out there nowadays.
The crazy thing is the seller had over 400 positive ratings on Mecarri and only 1 negative
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Good luck with the chargeback/fraud case. The cards in the pics are definitely fake. It’s almost never worth it buying English cards on Japanese marketplaces. I’d say at least 90% of the English listings on Yahoo and Mercari are fake. And the few real listings are usually priced at a premium. Also, be ready to start using another proxy to purchase from Japan as Buyee may end up banning you after everything plays out.
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I have this type of fakes in my collection, since I got a bunch of them in a ebay lot bought some time ago. They’re produced by chinese manufacturers and you can even find them on aliexpress.
Thankfully they’re not smart enough to reproduce non-holo cards with high quality templates (like they are doing with mtg cards), so the fake printed holofoil background will always be an easy giveaway. I suggest to always ask for several pictures from different angles, you will see how the cosmo/star pattern is just printed and overlayed with a generic rainbow foil.
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All of these fakes have incorrect border dimensions from Left-Right. The more you look at cards, the better you’ll be at instantly spotting fakes just from the border size alone. The surface texture is also incorrect.
@timewaster1700 If things are too good to be true, they often are when it comes to buying high-end cards. People typically know what they are and what they’re worth nowadays. As others have said, stick to eBay if you’re looking to buy English cards. If they’re raw ($250+), they’ll go to CGC for authenticity guarantee. If they’re graded ($250+), they’ll go to PSA for authenticity guarantee.
A lot of people get scammed in this hobby, so don’t feel too much embarrassment. It’s a good learning experience and hopefully your credit card refund will work out.
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Just to play devil’s advocate, the seller might also be in the same boat as you. They probably also think that the cards are genuine. However, considering you mention the deal were too good to be true, the seller also got scammed, realized it and it offloading the cards.
The best thing to do is stay away from foreign language products on Mercari and YJP. Either they are way too overpriced or worse are fake and the seller cannot tell the difference.
Cheers!
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Sorry you found yourself in this situation. You should certainly be cognizant of a seller’s ratings and whether they have a good reputation, but good ratings do not preclude the possibility of scams/counterfeits, as the account could be stolen or it could be an exit scam. These happen probably quite often on Ebay, so I doubt other online marketplaces like Mercari Japan would be devoid of these types of scams too.
Always be wary, especially when purchasing through proxy services where the protection is minimal or absent.
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Thanks guys $500 is a hard pill to swallow but its a good lesson to learn 
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Additionally, the textures are clearly suspicious from the pictures. The bumps are too small and there are missing crevasses, I would normally expect to see.
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Man it sucks to see the original seller’s Mercari page and see how so many people have bought these fake cards. It’s crazy also that everyone has given good feedback, which suggests they have no idea that they’ve bought a fake. (I can see one guy who bought multiple cards likely $1000 plus… poor guy)
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I did the same thing many years ago with a booster box but lost 5k, id say this isnt so bad lol but definitely a lesson learned, sorry to hear!
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Thanks guys hard lesson to learn. Dang @teamrocketop that sucks! So sorry! $5k lost would potentially drive me out of collecting Pokemon altogether. Glad you are still here!
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