Kerning is the spacing between each letter in the text of the card. An otherwise relatively convincing fake may give itself away by simply omitting one of these accents.Īnother telltale sign you’ve got a fake card is the kerning of the text on the card. In addition to misspelling words on the card, another common sign of a fake card is missing the acute accent on the é in Pokémon in various places on the card-in the evolution text “Place Kirlia on the Basic Pokemon,” the Pokédex-like informational text, in the attack text, and, most often, in the copyright section at the bottom of the card. Error cards do exist-Pokémon have even had their name spelled incorrectly on genuine cards-but errors of this nature are quite rare on genuine cards.įor a list of known error cards, see the article Error cards on Bulbapedia. Each of these errors are typos that would have been quite unlikely to make it very far in the production of a real card. When considering whether a suspicious card is fake, examine the card carefully for misspellings.įor example, in the fake Wartortle, the Pokémon’s name is spelled incorrectly as Wartortleh, the word flip is spelled filp, and the word turn is spelled trun. The fake Tapu Lele-GX (credit: Redditor /u/ZevTaub) has no texture whatsoever-but a real copy of Tapu Lele-GX would have a detailed texture pattern all throughout its holo.Īs many producers of fake cards do not speak English as their first language-or at all-it is common to see misspellings, including transpositions of neighboring letters and using similar letters in place of one another.

It’s not affecting the holo’s reflection like it should because the pattern has been printed onto the card instead of being actually added to it. On the Solgaleo-GX (credit: Redditor /u/SmileyJetson), you can see the holo is there, but the texture in the card’s background is clearly not actually present on the card. Sometimes, these fake chase cards will also have a brownish, yellowish, or orangish hue to them. In short, they just don’t shine correctly.

And although it sounds odd to hear, fake Pokémon cards-especially chase cards from relatively recent sets-XY onward-tend to have a very simple almost flat holo to them. The worst fakes will print the texture that the card should have instead of reproducing it in the card-making process.

In addition to poor color reproduction and otherwise bad print jobs, fake cards also tend to do a very poor job of mimicking the special holo and texture of the chase cards from the various sets in the Pokémon Trading Card Game.

Deck of cards comparing game online