How to spot fake Pokémon cards: English, Japanese and Chinese

Most counterfeit Pokémon cards are poor copies, and you can catch them without equipment. Compare the back with a card you know is real, compare the front with a database scan of the same printing, and feel for texture on rarities that should have it. TCGplayer's authentication staff use the back comparison first and rate its reliability as high. They also warn that no test is conclusive alone, so run several together.

The harder part is knowing what real looks like outside English. A Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese card is an official product with its own layout and rarity marks and, in Japan's case, its own card back. None of those are fakes. When hobbyists say "Chinese fake" they mean a counterfeit, and the phrase is about where counterfeits are believed to be printed, never about the language on a card.

Where buyers meet fakes

The Pokémon Company International says the most counterfeit reports it receives trace back to flea markets, and that a pack priced dramatically below retail is a near certain warning sign. TCGplayer's guide adds classifieds and general marketplaces, and shows the scale: in 2021, Chinese customs officials seized more than 7.6 tons of counterfeit Pokémon cards. None of that involves official Chinese-language cards.

Online, three kinds of listing deserve the most suspicion. The first is the chase card at a fraction of its price: our methodology treats any landed price under 10 percent of market as a mismatch or a scam. The second is the bulk lot that promises nothing but ultra rares. The third is the single shown only from the front, or with a stock image. Most fakes are made to fool children and gift buyers, so they are crude, and a clear photo of both sides usually exposes them.

Checks you can run from the listing photos

Start with the back. On a genuine English card the blue of the border is distinct from the other blues in the design. On fakes the two bleed together, or the whole back looks washed out, too light or faintly purple. If the listing has no photo of the back, ask for one.

Then pull up the same printing in a reputable database, such as the official Pokémon TCG card database, and compare line by line. TCGplayer's red flags are a wrong font or font size, misshapen or wrongly sized energy symbols, wrong HP, attack damage, weakness, resistance or retreat cost, a set symbol or collector number that does not match, and foil on a card that should have none. A collector number missing from the set's published card list settles it. So does absurd HP: TCGplayer notes that as of 2026 no genuine card has more than 380.

Read every word. "Pokémon" without the accent is a classic tell, including in the copyright line, and so are misspelled names, broken grammar and wide, uneven letter spacing. Clean text proves little, though, because many fakes copy it from real cards.

Look at borders and surface. Cardmarket's help pages note that fakes often have thicker borders and a glossy stock that throws glare. Off-center printing alone proves nothing, because genuine cards vary. That is a condition question.

For any holo, ask for a photo taken at an angle to the light. Fake holo tends to be a flat, simple sheen. On textured rarities the fine ridges should show in a raking light and should change how the foil reflects. Counterfeit texture is often only printed on, so the reflection ignores it.

Checks once the card is in your hand

The strongest test is a side by side with a genuine card: same era, ideally same set, rarity and foil type. TCGplayer's tells for this comparison are cardstock that is too thin or too weak, a flat surface where the foil style should leave texture, an obvious difference in weight, and messy edges, since real cards are cut straight and clean. Fakes are also often slightly smaller, and they tend to feel papery, plasticky or slick like playing cards. We found no authoritative gram figure, so treat weight as a comparison only.

The light test is where good sources disagree. The Pokémon Company International says counterfeits are often easy to see through when held up to a bright light. TCGplayer does not recommend the test, because genuine cards from two publishers and many foil types since 1999 vary too much and produce false alarms. A card that glows far more than a genuine card of the same type is a red flag, but passing proves nothing.

Genuine cards are two thin layers of card glued together with a black layer between them. Hobby rule of thumb, not an official test: under magnification that layer can sometimes be seen as a thin dark line along the edge. Tearing a card to find it destroys the card, so the rip test is a last resort for a card you own and already believe is fake. Never use it on a card you may return, because eBay requires a return to arrive in the condition it was received. Skip the bend test too. It damages genuine cards.

What genuine English cards look like

Apart from a few documented exceptions, every English card has carried the same back since 1999. Rarity is a symbol at the bottom of the card: circle, diamond or star, with extra star tiers from Scarlet & Violet onward, up to three gold stars for a hyper rare. Legitimate oddities exist, including jumbo cards, box toppers, World Championship deck cards with their own backs and a few documented misprints on very old cards, so an unusual card is a reason to look it up, not proof of a fake.

Japanese cards have their own back

Japan's game launched in 1996 with a back that reads "Pocket Monsters Card Game". Bulbapedia dates the change to a new Pokémon-branded back to the Pokémon VS release on July 19, 2001 (one hobby history says 2002). The current Japanese back is still a different design from the international one, with gold coloring and busier detail. A Japanese card will not match your English backs, so compare it with another Japanese card.

Since the Black Collection and White Collection sets, Japanese cards print rarity as bold letters, not symbols: C, U, R, RR and, higher up, codes such as AR, SR, SAR and UR. Japanese markings on a card that claims to be English are a counterfeit tell.

Korean cards

Korean-language cards date to a Wizards of the Coast Base Set in 2000, and Pokémon Korea, Inc. is the distributor today. Through the Sword & Shield series they matched English cards front and back, yellow borders and English-style back included, while using the Japanese set logos, set names and rarity marks. From Scarlet & Violet they carry silver borders in the Japanese style.

Traditional and Simplified Chinese cards

There are two separate official Chinese lines. Traditional Chinese cards first appeared with a Chinese Base Set in 2000 and stopped after EX Legend Maker in 2006. The line returned on October 9, 2019 in Taiwan and Hong Kong with the All Stars Collection. Those cards follow Japanese design on the front and carry the international design on the back.

Simplified Chinese cards are newer. The game was never officially released in mainland China, or printed in Simplified Chinese, until October 28, 2022, when Storming Emergence launched under Pokémon Shanghai Toy Limited, The Pokémon Company's mainland subsidiary. That first set drew on several Japanese Sun & Moon era releases, and the line has its own numbering, beginning CSM1a.

Telling an official Chinese-language card from a counterfeit uses the same tests as any other card: compare it with a known genuine card in that language, confirm that the set code and collector number exist in a published list for that line, and check print quality, texture and stock. Other-language cards have their own market prices. Every price on Pullnomics is for a raw, Near Mint copy of one specific printing, and English and Japanese printings are priced on separate pages, so identify the language before you compare a listing with a number. The eBay buttons on English card pages exclude common non-English words and proxies.

Proxies, custom cards and gold metal cards

Some non-genuine cards are sold openly. Sellers label them proxy, custom or "orica", hobby slang for fan-made cards. They are not products of The Pokémon Company and have no place in a price comparison. The trouble starts when one is resold without the label, so read the whole title and description before you pay.

Bulbapedia's list of official metal cards is short, and each came inside an Ultra-Premium Collection: gold-faced metal Base Set Charizard and Pikachu in the Celebrations collection in October 2021, full color metal Arceus V and Arceus VSTAR in November 2022, and a metal Mew ex in the 151 collection in October 2023. The boxed sets of gold "foil" or metal cards of assorted Pokémon sold online are not on that list. Do not confuse them with hyper rares, genuine gold-colored cardboard cards marked with three gold stars.

What eBay covers

The eBay Money Back Guarantee covers an item that is not as described, and it names counterfeits specifically. Where there are strong indicators of a counterfeit, you must still open a return request, but you may not have to ship the item back. eBay's general window to open it is 30 calendar days from delivery, but for trading cards the policy sets 3 calendar days when the seller does not offer returns, and the seller's stated return window when one is offered. Read the return terms before you buy, and inspect the card the day it arrives. The seller has 3 business days to respond, and after that you can ask eBay to step in. The refund includes original shipping, and the seller pays return postage on a not as described return.

eBay's Authenticity Guarantee for trading cards now applies to single cards sold for $200 or more, raw or graded. eBay announced the drop from $250 about a month before this guide was written, with a rollout over the following weeks, so look for the Authenticity Guarantee mark on the listing itself. The seller ships to PSA, which checks the card against the listing's title, photos and description. For a graded card it checks the holder for tampering and verifies the label, and only PSA, SGC, CGC, CSG and BGS holders are eligible. Nothing is graded or regraded. A card that fails goes back to the seller and you are refunded. Lots, sets, decks, boxes, packs and art cards are not eligible.

For slabs below that threshold, use PSA's certification lookup and read PSA's own warning there: forgers copy real certification numbers onto fake labels, so a matching number lowers the risk without removing it. Our raw versus graded guide covers when a slab is worth paying for.

If a fake arrives

1. Do not alter the card. Photograph the front, the back, the foil at an angle, and a side by side with a genuine card.
2. Open a return request through eBay at once, within 3 calendar days of delivery if the listing offered no returns, and say plainly that the card is not authentic.
3. If the seller has not resolved it after 3 business days, ask eBay to step in.
4. For a second opinion, The Pokémon Company International's counterfeit guidance suggests a local shop that specializes in trading cards.

Pre-purchase checklist

• The photos show the actual card, front and back, not a stock image.
• The back's border blue is distinct, and nothing looks washed out or purple.
• Font, energy symbols, HP, attacks, set symbol and collector number match a database scan of the same printing, and "Pokémon" carries its accent everywhere.
• Holo pattern and texture show in an angled photo.
• Language and back belong together: a Japanese front has a Japanese back.
• No proxy, custom, orica or replica wording in the title or description, and any metal card is one of the few official ones.
• The landed price is believable. Find the card through its set page, and see how to buy on eBay for the arithmetic.
• At $200 or more, the listing carries the Authenticity Guarantee.

In-hand checklist

• Next to a genuine card of the same era: same size, stiffness, feel and weight, with clean, straight edges.
• Texture can be felt where the rarity should have it, and it changes how the foil reflects.
• Against a bright light, it does not glow far more than a genuine card of the same type.
• For a slab, the certification number resolves to the same card and grade.
• No bending and no tearing.

Bottom line

Compare the back, check the front against a database scan of the same printing, and feel for texture. A side by side with a genuine card catches most of what those miss. Learn what each official language looks like so you do not mistake a real Japanese, Korean or Chinese card for a fake, or pay an English price for one. On eBay, skip the too-cheap chase card, report any counterfeit within 3 days of delivery, and prefer the Authenticity Guarantee at $200 and up.