Counterfeits have gotten good enough that plenty of honest sellers pass them along without ever knowing they have one. Assume nothing about the person selling it — check the card, not the story.

These are the checks in the order we run them, fastest and most decisive first.

1. The light test — ten seconds, catches a lot

Hold the card flat against a phone flashlight or a bright bulb. A genuine card has a thin black layer sandwiched in the middle of the card stock, so very little light comes through. Most counterfeits are printed on ordinary card stock and glow — you'll see the artwork light up through the back.

2. Feel the texture

Real cards have a distinct linen-like texture pressed into the surface and a specific stiffness. Fakes tend to feel too smooth, too glossy, too thin, or unusually floppy. Bend it a few degrees — a real card resists and springs back; many fakes crease or stay bent.

3. Tilt the holo

On a shiny card, tilt it slowly under a light. A real holo has depth and a pattern that moves through the artwork. Counterfeit foil is usually flat, rainbow-ish and uniform, sitting on top of the picture rather than inside it. On older cards the holo covers only the artwork box, not the whole card — a vintage card that's shiny edge to edge is a warning sign.

4. Look at the print pattern up close

With a jeweller's loupe, a magnifier, or even your phone camera zoomed all the way in, look at a solid-coloured area. Genuine printing shows a fine, regular rosette pattern of tiny dots. Counterfeits are often printed at lower resolution and show blurred, blotchy, or visibly square dots. This check is slower but it is close to conclusive.

5. Read the text

• Font weight and spacing. Fakes commonly use a slightly wrong typeface, and the letters sit too close or too far apart.
• Spelling and grammar anywhere on the card, including the attack descriptions and the fine print at the bottom.
• The copyright line at the bottom — check it exists, and that the year makes sense for the set.
• The HP number and energy symbols — fakes frequently get the symbol shapes subtly wrong.

6. Check the back

The back of a Pokémon card is the easiest place to catch a fake because every real card shares the same one. Compare it side by side with a card you trust: the blue should match, the swirl pattern should be sharp, and the red-and-white Poké Ball in the centre should be crisp rather than fuzzy. Counterfeit backs are often too dark, too purple, or washed out.

7. For graded cards, verify the certificate

A card in a hard plastic case with a grade on it is not automatically safe — the slab itself can be counterfeit. Every major grading company publishes a free cert lookup on their website. Type the certificate number from the label into it. The card and grade it returns must match what you're holding, including the photo where one is shown.

The check that isn't about the card

If a deal is far better than every other listing for the same card, that is information. Counterfeits are priced to move quickly, and so is stolen product. The price being too good is itself a test result.

What to do if you find one

1. 1Don't destroy it yet. If you bought it, the platform or payment processor will usually need photos, and sometimes the card itself, to refund you.
2. 2Tell the seller plainly. A large share of people selling fakes bought them as real and will take it back.
3. 3Never resell it, not even marked as a fake or a proxy — that is how they re-enter circulation, and on most platforms it will end your account.

There is one destructive check people mention — cutting or tearing a card to look for the black layer. It works, and it is only ever worth doing on a card you have already written off.