Hi all,
I found this in a collection I received. I don’t know a lot about Pokémon, but I can’t find a Graveler from Base Set 2 anywhere but maybe I’m mistaken. Is this a genuine misprint or is it fake? Any advise would be very nice. Thank you!
Best regards,
Sorry man, that’s a fake. The different font is usually a dead giveaway.
If you’re ever in doubt, compare the suspect card with a card you know is real. Often the card material will be different (cheaper/flimsier/sometimes glossy) and the colour of the back will vary. You can also look up what the real card should look like online and compare.
Thank you for your swift reply. I will check the font with other cards. The material already made me doubtfull. Graveler isn’t an expensive card, so I couldn’t imagine someone making a fake of it.
I find fake cards like this occasionally when buying out collections. If you are new to the hobby, here are some helpful tips for spotting fake cards:
1 - check the set list (in this case, Base Set 2) and see if the card is even part of the set list. Secondly check the stats on the card. having 2000 HP or misspelt words is a dead giveaway that the card is fake. You can find a list of well documented errors here bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Error_cards
2 - become familiar with the card stock of pokemon cards. The quality and thickness is never the same with fake cards. I believe that Pokemon cards have 3 layers whereas most fakes are just 2 layers.
3 - Look for different fonts. Fake cards rarely have correct fonts. It can be subtle, but check for thickness and style of fonts.
4 - Check the quality and brightness/darkness of the colors. When I clicked on this thread, the picture started loading and as the imaged slowly appeared, among other issues, immediately I could tell that the color was off.
5 - For anyone getting into modern product, I suggest becoming familiar with fake cards. I’m not promoting the idea that new collectors should buy bulk fake EX/GX cards but becoming familiar with what you are up agaisnt by actually handling fake cards might end up saving you money (so yeah, maybe buy a pack on ebay for $5 and be a decent person and don’t try to resell them as real cards). Just two weeks ago, a seller on tcgplayer sold me fake EX cards from the XY era. He was a shop owner and said he couldn’t tell the difference (I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt) but point being, fake cards are ubiquitous and somewhat undetectable to the novice collector. The fake cards however have no textured patterns, can have print dots all over them, are too sheek and once you become familiar with them…are poorly produced.
Another really big flag on this is the card number, 37 out of 62 when base set 2 has 130 cards in the set!!
It was 37/62 in Fossil so they definitely just copied it over.