FAKE PSA Slabs are becoming rampant
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- Episode 2 of the Card Lounge Podcast is out!
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Today we're looking at the issue of fake pokemon card PSA slabs that keep popping up marketplaces everywhere. These keep getting better and better looking and they are starting to fool even the most season collector.
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This honestly should be a felony. The first time a dude goes to federal pound me in the ass prison over Pokémon cards, I guarantee 99 percent of these bastards will stop.
Pound Town, Professor Big Bubba wants to talk to you.
It is. This would be considered fraud, and in many states grand theft.
Technically is a felony especially if you can prove intent. But regardless it's hard to prosecute especially for the tiny amount of money involved. If this card sold for $50 million you bet it be a very different situation.
Yeah technically it is a crime in a lot of countries as in the uk where I live it would be providing false goods and false advertising. Also scams that take a certain amount of money do get charged with other things not sure on details. Definitely some counterfeiting laws broken and intellectual property violations as well. Problem is finding these people to actually prosecute.
The FOMO is Crazy right now.
yep
If I'm spending 2 grand on anything , I'm going in person to a store to get it.
In this racquet that’s not a possibility. You’ll never find every card you need locally.
@@NiftyMitts. card show your best bet for expensive cards but very rarely that comes to local area if you live in smaller cities.
TAG grading etches their grades in. Maybe PSA should adopt this approach too
PSA has the market they don't care. TAG is the future. Impossible to fake a TAG slab right now. Look what happened to CGC lol
Are vendors starting to take TAG? I'm very impressed by their services, but if vendors won't buy it, then it's worth only so much like CGC.
@@Gamedayinteractive they will take it when it becomes more popular and in demand. Vendors don't care about the grading company, they care about liquidity so that they can keep products moving and it's unfortunate that PSA is the best for liquidity right now
@@Nycblasianhighly doubt it unfortunately. Most companies are better than PSA but all non PSA companies are getting attacked and devaluated especially by UA-camrs
@@Nycblasian they definitely not the future. PSA is king and will always be the brand is huge
that "G" in gem mint give it away and the sticker. the card also looks super fake, but new people can be tricked. dang...good job getting the word out
PSA does slip up but that 70/30 centering was the instant red flag
I'm new, I 100% would've fell for it. I just found out about repacks and now I have this to worry about too. I was about to start buying slabs too for my personal collection. Glad I found this video first.
Nice catch
Like I said in another comment, the font is an easy fix. And they could have put a real Umbreon VMax in there and then what? How would you even know it's wrong, are we gonna have to double check the grading of the card by ourselves now?
@@559Gamma there is a handful of videos out there and I am also new into collecting slab. I'm currently paranoid about my Gold cards from CZ being fake right now as I thought I did some good checking but not enough... Im not even sure out to verify the authenticity any more as I do have a real non-graded one in front of me and a fake. super bummed
I have seen several fake slabs with the correct G recently, so they have caught on with that now.
Always compare the pictures of the cards with those on the PSA database, because even most PSA 10s will have at least one small blemish which won’t be present on the fake.
Not every card has a picture on the database though
@ That’s true! I would avoid those cards on eBay unless they’re from a reputable TCG account.
Fun fact, just had a local card show that found a fake Pikachu Luigi and the only difference was one letter of the font was off. One person caught it and idk how but they two parties met up later and re traded
The fact that people now can fake psa graded cards to make them look this good is enough for people to consider getting out of the hobby.
Yep, if you need to have your PSA slabs authenticated, it kinda defeats the purpose
@supermax64 agreed. I think this will cause people to leave the hobby. Imagine the person thats about to spend 3k on the moonbreon only to realize its fake.
Absolutely, a local card show I frequent had a massive deal where a vender traded a BGS 10 Moonbreon for a PSA 10 Luigi Pikachu and nobody could tell it was fake. The deal happened right in front of me and it looked real to me. At the end of the show I found out it was fake because the font on the label was off. The ONLY distinct difference was the 0s. After seeing that I've started appreciating being a raw collector but I'm probably just gonna slow down on Pokemon until the hype dies down. Everything is nut atm
Also for context, I've been collecting since 2009 but took a break from 2018 to 2023
@@ryanpsaucier wow. And who was able to catch the difference in o's? Not sure if anyone has tried this, but do the fakes have the psa logo on top if flashed with a black light ?
@ Nobody had a black light nearby at the time, but I believe it didn’t have the logos under the light. Also the difference in zeroes was caught by a different vender who was close friends with the one doing the trade. The zeroes had the bottom and top chopped off (by a few pixels) and were too thin, causing the text to not be fully aligned to how it is in scans
Thanks for the information, very valuable as I work at a card shop part time and need to stay vigilant when we are looking at or taking in any products.
Jake, the reason why I want you to talk about TAG is because the only way for the Big 3 grading companies to finally up their game is by having a competitor (TAG) force them to finally make changes. The best way to do it is by having influencers talk about the company, spread the word, and have people in the card community weigh their options instead of defaulting to PSA, who objectively provides a worse service than TAG
The fake graded card problem is not a problem for TAG since every card has their own unique dents and other issues, which are then reported in their DIG reports. The slabs also make it hard for others to replicate
Collectors, and im not talking about card flippers, shouldn't have to default to PSA simply because its the largest card grading company. They should go with the company that provides them the best service for their budget in a slab that they like.
Defending PSA is like defending your abusive significant other, where you defend them even though they often times treat you poorly and don't apologize or fix their mistakes. Then everybody tells you to stay with them simply because they're the most popular kid in school
I bought fake cards from an account in ebay with 10,000+ sales and 99.7% positive reviews. He said he didn't check them before and refunded me them.
At least it was refunded, lots of trust needed for online card businesses now
@@ManaMochiTCGnow?
I call that shine "oil/garbage slime", it's always that same very colorful, synthetic look
I don’t know if you’re on Mercari or not but I’ve been buying and selling on there for a few years and in the past 12 months 50% of the accounts are fake account accounts no sales no reviews but everybody is just stealing pictures of other people’s cards and if it’s not a fake account, it’s a completely fake card and then when you try and tell them, you know they tell you you’re jealous, you’re broke and you can’t afford what they have, all the same stuff all the scammers say. It’s just sad that there’s always gonna be newbies buying up those fake cards because they’re just too damn impatient and they believe everything they say.
The shine in the PSA logo was a dead give away
Also the bar codes on the real vs the fake Giratina are different. Maybe the best way to detect them but at the same time it maybe easily fixed
Seems ridiculously easy to fix. As a scammer you can buy a real PSA card and keep perfecting it until there's no discernable difference
As a collector of a few years I have yet to see a fake that in hand holds up. Maybe the pictures can fool you (not in these cases, man they're obvious) but that's why we buy on ebay, if we get it in hand and it's fake we can just get our money back. Important thing is to always have buyer protection :D
This is scary what stops a guy from putting in a real card into a fake psa 10 slab and pocketing the margin and just doing it again and again
My thoughts exactly. Obviously spamming PSA 10s would tank the value of a card. But someone could easily make thousands by sprinkling PSA 10 copies of cards here and there
As a returning collector and as someone that hasn't seen these cards in person I wouldn't be able to tell. The thing that gave it away to me was the PSA sticker and that really makes me only want to buy slabs from now on.
This is why I’ve always been a Raw collector. Never saw the merits of grading once fakes get introduced.
eBay needs to wise up and actually believe people when they report these.
Btw, I see the G mentioned a lot and nobody seems to know what that little line coming off the G is called, so I am here to tell you all it's a 'Spur'. So lets use that from now on, ok? ;)
as long as the seller has a high raiting they can do whatever they want
I did my due diligence to try and report these listings just now and unfortunately eBay did nothing.
@@collectingwithdmac1522 same, they only seem to remove cards if the seller states in their descriptions that they are proxy cards. It's bizarre that they let cards sell for over £1000 that are blatant fakes. There is not even enough text in their form to explain why the cards are fake.
@@JaytheGreen Is sad because of a lot of the people buying them, pay, receive a fake, and think they have a real card.
Needs to be reported to PSA, maybe they have enough pull to make eBay do something. PSA's whole business is on the line honestly
subscribed. thank you for raising this issue. it is a real problem right now.
Thank you for bringing attention to this, as someone looking at singles to buy just recently it would be heart breaking to get a fake.. being blinded by want, and then getting a POS selling you this shit would suck
PSA needs to add a NFC tag or other form of stronger verification.
Wouldn't do anything. They pretty much just need one real one to copy it infinite amount of times.
Make em nfts /s
I was just on eBay earlier before I saw this video and I was shocked how many listings that I was seeing that had fake cards. You used to be able to report the listings which I always did if I saw a fake card but now I can’t seem to find the button on the listing for reporting anymore.
On ipad... click on auction, then a question mark (?) appears on bottom right of the screen. After pressing on it, you can report the auction. On computer, depending on browser, it could be on same spot or elsewgere. Hope it helps.
People keep saying “oh just look for the g” lmao…bro thats like level 1 of fakes. Level 2 uses a real psa id with a fake card, and level 3 uses a real psa id with a real card where the hgher condition card has been swapped out with a lower condition version and passed off as higher condition. Virtually indistinguishable. Its when you see a 10 or 9 with very clear visible damage and youre like “how the hell did this get 9 or 10?!”. There is a device that can unclick the psa seal using powerful suction devices apparently. Idk tho. Thats why i think graded cards will not be anywhere near as valuable in 30 years as most speculate, rather more like very cool relics from childhood.
they do it all day, swapping out 10's w/psa 8's they bought
PSA slabs are doom but the new AI grading with etching from TAG with the report to verify the card is future. No one gonna fake that for a long time.
@@SmrtShrX exactly. Id imagine its a complex syndicate going to be very hard to stop that until their op site is discovered, and hopefully it isnt associated with psa in anyway or that company and graded cards in general will be cooked 📉
Agreed, PSA is donezo with these slabs. Literally only need one proven case of such of "perfect fake/swap" and the whole PSA market goes to 0. The G thing can literally be fixed in a day by making a correct font, assuming it's not been done already
People on reddit will say don't protect your cert numbers. How dumb some of the collectors in this hobby are is beyond me.
Imagine if the actual good counterfeiters actually tried their hand at this as it’s scary how good some of the counterfeits look.
The font is definitely off. The letter "G" is way off from real PSA lettering.
I see this a lot more now and what's sickening is that they have 100% positive reviews
Wow thank you! This was very helpful. I just bought my first slab on eBay so it led me to here.
You forget to notice that on real PSA slabs you have the three PSA letters visible as transparency on right part of the stickers behind their security print
Just checked PSA 2.4.25: "The certification number provided has temporarily deactivated due to its use on a known counterfeit it the market."
Whats scarier is that seller has 44 positive sells...
As a new collector, I am thankful for videos like this to raise awareness against counterfeit cards. I wanted to respectfully ask if you could do more videos like this with side by side comparisons of fake and legit cards to help both experienced and new collectors spot fakes! Thank you so much, twice baked jake. 😁
You can can pinned the link of those users selling the fake cards so we can report them, the only way eBay can do something is if we can get enough reports.
As a scalper for 6 years I don’t like people selling fake cards 3 time the price that I ask.
Shoutout to my homie Caterpie EX. You the real MVP of fake charizards.
Those are pretty obvious to spot, but the Terrastal Festival SAR ones that just popped up on Aliexpress look pretty damn close...
I wonder why PSA makes the easiest slab to fake? The uglier the slab, the easier it is to fake. I can't even imagine how difficult it would be to fake a BGS slab in a remotely convincing way.
Umbreon listing got taken down and reported the other listings as well.
great awareness! thanks Jake!
They should do the sticker that fanatics has. It’s a sticker where there is 3 hidden codes in it. You have to tilt it three different angles to get all three letters to prove authenticity. if you are posting it on sale on eBay, you would only be able to see one letter and not all three. You would then be able to verify if it’s real once it arrives shipped
Here is my hot take: if you can’t tell that those listings are fake, maybe you shouldn’t be bidding $2500 on a slab? Idk.
I’m glad that pikachu slab was immediately noticeable as fake
WOW, i am new to the hobby but man, this is sad... cant even buy graded stuff without worrying now.
Now?
Does fake psa also have a way to copy those hard to see psa sign on red line and at the back near psa logo?
Makes me wonder if my PSA 8 ho-oh from Skyridge is even real from a few years ago seems like it but I wouldn't know from the slightest now... Makes me sad.
If you got it graded a few years ago then try to shine on a black light on the front red border at the top. It should light up with tiny PSA logos in the red border.
From a few years it's probably fine. You'll just have to see what happens to PSA. If it gets replaced by a more secure slab you might have to regrade some day
Came across this yesterday. Forgot the name of the website, but someone was trying to auction off a 1999 1st ed PSA10 Chansey, or at least that's what the slab said, but I immediately noticed the 1st edition stamp wasn't on the card. I immediately alerted the website about it, and they said they'll look into it.
A 1st ed card from 1999 in a PSA 10? Ambitious LMAOO
We all need to report these items to eBay when we are seeing them.
Ebay DOES have authenticity guaranteed. Once a card is purchased above $250 it automatically gets shipped to an authenticator first, then you. So at least theres that.
Assuming PSA isn't using a widely available font, seems easy enough to recreate the font from all available PSA slab pictures. Not sure why the sticker is so wrong either seems easy to fix as a scammer.
Bottom line is I think we're gonna see perfect replicas real freaking soon. And here we have people going for max profit with fake cards, but you could fake grade a real card into a PSA10 and at the point it becomes impossible to prove really
It hasn’t even occurred to me that PSA slabs can be faked. Thanks for the info Jake!
I’d argue that PSA probably has the most fake slabs around because it’s the most coveted.
It’s almost like people make counterfeit slabs weird..
Great info. Ty again!!!
Good video to get the word out 👍🏻
Fakes are getting better and better!!!!!
Love your content and love what you do. I just wish you would have put a side by side comparison next to each other, for a better look.
I think the Expensive cards in the game is what drove most of these fake sales.
Most average people don't have $65 for a card so they might get the fake for $5...
And this has only gotten worse, The fakes are getting Really Good, They used to be very noticable and Obvious but now many are hard to tell when put in sleeves.
Mainly it's the Shiny Holo shine that gives them away but printing technology is getting better so they'll be able to make the Same exact thing.
if everything was Cheap and Affordable there would be no reason to make fakes.
But now the fakes are so good they're passing them off as the Real thing and Lying and it's scary because people out there will fall for it Spending Thousands on a Fake card.
Nice Skeletor outfit.
This is frightening, thanks for sharing!
What’s scary is the fact that this many people are in the hobby and they can’t tell that that’s fake!?!? Everything about this is wrong. All they have to do is compare it to another one and there’s so many different immediate red flags but I’m sure by now this is already purchased and somebody’s gonna bragged all their friends and say look what I got and they’ll probably put it on a little stand in their room and show everybody meanwhile, it’s completely worth nothing!
And which you also hit on in your video is everybody says it’s not fake I looked up the CERT number🤦🏽♂️. So apparently they forget that people can steal numbers as well.
This one could easily be avoided by running the cert number on the PSA app 😂
These fakes hurt real sellers. I grade cards with PSA and sell on eBay. A buyer recently bought from me and wanted to return a card i graded directly through PSA and left bad feedback on my seller page saying I sold a fake slab. So now people will just cry fake at any moment the hobby will be doomed before long get out now I guess if you grade with PSA
You are giving such a good counseling to fake card manufacturers😅
Aigrading has NFC installed in the slab so you can verify if it's fake or not as soon as you get it
A lot In Japan as well. Check the certs also especially high end cards. In Japan you have a high chance to not be able to get any sort of compensation or refund.
Very informative, thanks Jake!
I also look at the ‘0’ if it’s Gem Mint - looks a lot more round on real slabs than the fake slabs
People dont even look at what they buy. That moonbreon not even close to the original like the corners are so sharp and the texture that does exist is completely wrong.
It looks like that listing was taken down? I searched the user name and only one product for sale
PSA and CGC got too comfortable, being the big boys in town. I've submitted 1 grading with PSA end of last year and with the back log nonsense they announced at the start of this year, I wont be getting my submission till beginning of April the email said -.- time to start looking at other grading companies. Looking at TAG.
As somebody who does flea markets and yardnsales i do see these fakes alot owned by kids who traded on the playground and want to sell thebcards andnlots of people have no idea.
It’s scary indeed!!
sellers gotta start providing a blacklight photo in listings as well
I’m not buying cards this expensive unless I’m in person and have a black light.
Not even a new collector but only vintage for me. I could be fooled with this Umbreon vmax, getting scary indeed
Coming from having to vet designer clothing I can see the inconsistencies in the tiny details
Great video! Most cards can be bought from Ali express or temu. I bought some cause I appreciated the art. Others have unfort used them for nefarious reasons. The fake slabs though are on another level.
I know just running th PSA cert number pulls up the actual card, but if you scan capcha will your phone recognize it?
Apparently people have been getting higher and fake slabs from gamestop recently. This is definitely a cause for concern because the return policy is not easy.
Ebay won't authenticate it. They authenticate cards over $300
You can tell that the umbreon is fake right away. New people are showing their newness.
We need to stop saying this is expensive for a modern card. Things changed after 2020 modern is king now
Thanks for the tips. Let me fix those asap 😂
Isnt Ebay’s system supposed to check the PSA certification number?
If you’re Hesitant about a card. I would go to my LCS and if they didn’t have it on hand to ask them to order it for you. They probably have better connection and more experience.
I actually reported a few fake slabs on ebay... and the cust service got back to me saying they found no issue.. *sigh*
The feedback number and the sales are not the same. Could be from a purchase. Not all buyers or sellers leave a feedback.
This is marked on the website as counterfeit when you put in the cert
Feedback(number next to username) does not equal sales on eBay. You can be a buyer buying penny items or other dirt cheap items for fake feedback. That feedback number is a combination of buys and sells and the only way to tell is to click into their username to see how many of that feedback is from sales.
Thank you!
Sucks for the people who get scammed, but I welcome this chaos. Between this, the fake alpha cards, and the general situation on pokemon collecting that is now 50% scalpers and 50% scammers, I hope a lot of people stop buying on the secondary market and make the bubble finally explode. Scalpers will panic as they sit on unsold boxes, scammers won't be punished sadly, but with less demand they will be less incentivized to produce more fakes.
Thank you very much
How does that not have authentication guarantee?
Heads up for everyone! If you shine a UV light on your psa slab it should reveal the psa fugitive technology inc. this will be the word psa repeated across the top of the label across/ just under the red boarder. I have one of these myself and inspect every slab I have to ensure authenticity 🙂
They are everywhere
Really hope it does get sold to gives those with more money then brain cells a lesson thinking they are getting a deal to sell for double the price
I’m fairly new to the hobby and I got burned on a couple of sales on the secondary market. Nothing like the prices in this video but still a sore one, disappointing and kinda embarrassing too. Made me wise up pretty quickly though. Appreciate the video and keep up the good work 😊
I used to message these sellers giving them the benefit of the doubt that they might not it was fake. The response is usually I don't know anything and its real. Yeah they got angry quick so either they are in disbelief or they know. Ebay doesn't even take this stuff seriously when you report it.
I don’t buy anything with obstruction on the slab like how sellers cover the serial number. It’s obviously they’re hiding something, either it’s a scam (using a duplicate image of one on the market) or they don’t want us to know how much they bought it for so they can flip it. I’ve seen someone buy a card for $100 and then market it for $500 the next week.
Psa is dog water. If the slabs arent fake, the cards are.
Can't you report the listing before the auction closes?
Ya but don’t know if eBay will be able to shut it down before it ends
This is scary.