So I’ve been pulling out all my cards from childhood and going through to begin getting into trading/selling/collecting/etc and I’ve been able to identify each card variant except for one. It is a holographic Spearow with Jungle Set symbol, no 1st edition symbol, “1995, 96, 98” copyright info. I can’t find this card on any set lists. Anyone know where to look or have info on this card?
Spearow was never a holo in the Jungle set. The card is a fake.
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Do you have a picture? I would say 99% fake though.
Agreed, almost certainly a fake. I’d love to see photos too if ya can slap em in here.
i was suspicious that it was a Fake when I couldn’t find it in any list. But I have no idea what to look for to spot fakes. If this one is indeed fake it is well done imo because the card weight and the holo foil are very solidly executed. Any tips on spotting fakes so I can be sure to check my other cards? @milhouse,@thymeee,@pigeonsyndicate,
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There’s a handful of methods to detect fakes, some that come with experience, but the easiest might be to shine a light through it. Compare how the light behaves to a real card for reference
I think the light method can be quite misleading.
IMO the easiest method to spot a fake is to compare it to real cards or pics of real ones on the internet.
In your case it’s very easy: a holo pattern like yours has never been used on any Pokemon card.
Also, if the print quality is bad and blurry, if the fonts don’t match real cards or if the card feels very flimsy it’s usually a good indicator of a card being fake.
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The 3 easiest ways to tell in this case are:
Coloring, holo pattern and corner cut it also looks like the surface has a different texture to it than a real card.
Light card for this test would be dead on. Can’t compare to the internet if you don’t know where the card came from as indicated in OP’s post
Take a look at this thread from last year.
www.elitefourum.com/t/should-i-return-this-is-it-a-fake-neo-rev-with-red-flags/28292/1
Tl;dr OP did the light test on a real Neo Rev holo and then insisted on it being fake even though dozens of e4 pros told them it’s real. Light test got them bamboozled.
Therefore I say the light test is misleading and has not much substance as a standalone test.
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100% fake indeed, as expected when you mentioned holofoil Jungle Spearow.
As for some indications why this card is fake (I also include the obvious ones for completeness):
- It has a Holofoil artwork even though this card was never released as holofoil
- That holofoil pattern also doesn’t exist on any real TCG card (although it kinda resembles McDonald’s cards I guess)
- The back is wrong (wrong colors, and slightly vague)
- The front looks pretty vague as well (could be just the angle of the photo)
- The white parts at the front are wrong, as if it was printed from a scan
- It’s most likely thinner, so if you shine through it with a flashlight and compare it to a real WotC era card it will probably let more light go through (not always the case, but likely)
- The Rosetta pattern is most likely completely off. Although this is hard to check without a strong loop or (mini) microscope unfortunately.
Anyway, it comes with experience. Overall, if you find weird holofoil cards you can’t find anything about online, it’s very likely to be fake. The same applies to cards with wrong evolution boxes (i.e. a Caterpie evolving into Starmie); wrong names (i.e. I have a Pikachu EX fake with Raikou EX as name); or where it mentions the word ‘Pokemon’ anywhere in the description/flavor text with a regular ‘e’ instead of ‘é’.
But if you’re ever unsure again, feel free to ask it here on the forum again with a picture. Most of us can spot fakes from a mile away based on experience. 
Greetz,
Quuador
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*cries in LC*
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Woops, you’re completely right! Edited. I had already changed it to holofoil artwork considering e-series Reverse Holos are WotC era as well, but I’ve just removed that part completely now.
Greetz,
Quuador
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Thanks for the tips! Would you mind explaining what a “Rosetta” pattern is? I haven’t heard that term before. And yeah I’m sure I will be back with many more questions hahaha this is the first time I’ve looked at any of my cards since I was about 11-12 and fell out of collecting. I was very much into it when they first came out but when they started releasing the 2nd gen pokemon I fell out fast. Idk why but something about the second and later gens just didn’t appeal to me much. Of course back then I wasn’t as interested in knowing or vetting all the little details other than holo/1st gen and rarity but boy am I glad that I was 100% into the collecting and trading of cards and never played the actual game. All my cards pretty much went immediately from original packaging straight into binder sleeves 
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One of the easiest ways to go through a stack of cards and identify fakes is looking at the back of the card, specifically the blue area under the “MON” in Pokemon. There is a lighter blue area with darker blue dots. These dots usually look much more blended in on fakes than authentic cards. Below that is a blue streak. This streak also tends to have much clearer definition between shades of blue on real cards compared with fakes.
While not 100% reliable, it’s a great way to go through many cards at once and pull out potential fakes for a closer look. It’s a pretty easy way to compare any 2 cards, since all backs are the same.
All Pokémon cards are printed with a so-called off-set printer. Tiny dots are printed in four different colors (CYMK): cyan, yellow, magenta, and black, and forming colors for our human eyes when looking at the full picture. Although not an entirely correct comparison, you could kinda see the Pokémon WotC Rosetta pattern as an unique fingerprint. So you could compare the Rosetta dot pattern on real vs fake Pokémon cards, 99% of the time you will see a different Rosetta pattern.
If you google for “rosetta pattern mtg” you can see some examples. For Pokémon it’s not used too often tbh, but I personally think it’s a powerful tool to instantly determining if a suspicious card is fake or not if you the card in hand.
Here is also an interesting video. It focuses on misprints, but explains how Pokémon cards in general are printed, including the CYMK layer; solid black layer; white layer for holofoil cards; etc.
Greetz,
Quuador
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100% cool
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fake card, it looks like the mcdonalds holo pattern ha.
They should seriously consider doing test prints with commons and put the holo pattern on them and put those cards in random selected packs as a rare bonus. Would love to see some of this holo treatment on other cards!
That said, definitely a fake, but very cool in concept.
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I used to own a neo Genesis Feraligatr (5), Typhlosion (18) as a non holo with Quilava (Neo Genesis 46) & Houndour (Neo Discovery 58) as holofoil featured in this exact style (and not in engrish or Spanish but actual English). These were obtained back in 2001 on family Spanish islands vacations (sexpat shitholes like Alcúdia, Mallorca, Ibiza etc). Interestingly these two sets were not officially printed back at home unless someone knows about WOTC’s European distribution??
You have to imagine my amazement as a kid then seeing exclusive new areas to the franchise that already engulfs my life in seeing not one but two upcoming sets that were unreleased at home when all was had at that time naturally was magazines and word of mouth from elders. @azulryu and others are on point about how these franchises should utilise and take back ideas made from the fakes to give them a taste of their own medicine.
I have got still some amusing Yu-Gi-Oh fakes from 2004 that again featured the same excitement at the time when I pulled a funny ass deformed Five God Dragon before it was translated officially in English I mean to show.
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