The Magic Librarities

I just discovered this....

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27 ... Cards.html

Almsot perfect counterfeit cards...

Were you aware of that ? It's a bit scary...

Great article.

There's been a steady stream of counterfeit cards out of China for many years. When one shop closes, two more open.

First time I saw counterfeits with the blue layer though. That is going the extra mile to make them look and feel the same.

The back of the card in the blue layer picture looks pretty crummy, may just be the quality of the picture though.

Gary

According to people that have seen the counterfeits, there isn't much difficulty in determining which one is real and which one is fake.

Probably a conspiracy from Beckett and PSA to have all the existing MTG cards graded

I want to get a really good fake and get it though one of those graders just to pester them with it afterword.

I have a bayou that is beta and graded as an Alpha by PSA (or is it the other way around?). Kinda cool actually.

Gary

mystical_tutor wrote:I want to get a really good fake and get it though one of those graders just to pester them with it afterword.

I have a bayou that is beta and graded as an Alpha by PSA (or is it the other way around?). Kinda cool actually.

Gary

Since I have seen a 10 graded card with clearly visible scratches and whitening, I decided to decide myself whether a card is in good condition.

I played with the thought to crack a graded card and send it in again multiple times to find out whether the grading remains consistant.

Back to topic: The flavour text of the fake Tarmogoyf uses a wrong front. Way easier to tell than from the bottom text. There seems to be no difference in the Polluted Deltas, though.

I know of two members of this board that have popped cards and got them regraded--many more times than one. The grading has not been consistent. That involved both PSA and Beckett.

Gary

I have seen a graded rebacked Mox Sapphire. It was bubbling apart and was graded PSA 3.

The counterfeits from January are old news by now, and not as good as people made them out to be. The quantity/quality was blown out of proportion by some people on Youtube so that they could get more video hits. The story spread like wildfire while speculators tried to convince others to sell all their cards. Once people actually got to see some of these fakes with their own eyes, word slowly spread that they were lousy fakes.

Here's what I had to say about them after seeing some in person at the end of January.

"Last weekend I headed to the biggest game store in my area about an hour south to play cards all day. I took my magnifier, caliper, blacklight, and some cards, hoping to find some of the new fakes for comparison. There was a lot of talk, but towards the end of the day someone actually came in with some. He wouldn't part with them, but showed everyone that was interested in seeing the differences. I was able to get a good look at a few of them. Card Height and Width is correct. Corners are more rounded, but not as much as Alpha, about half way in between. The corners are close enough to correct that you probably wouldn't notice unless you were looking for it (experienced). I measured card thickness, and it's an exact match down to 1000th of an inch. Didn't rip a card, but I can see with the magnifier that it's blue core cardstock. The biggest tell is that the cards are super glossy and slick. They definitely don't feel even close to correct out of sleeve. Wrong coating. With the blacklight, they glow just like real cards. Side by side to a real card, it is very easy to spot the fake because the fake has noticeably less image contrast, the image looks soft, or maybe a little fuzzy. If you have some experience with real cards, you'd probably notice this even if you didn't have the real card to compare with. Under magnification, the rosette pattern IS there, but there is a big difference in that the fake cards also show the rosette pattern on black like text etc., while real cards actually have solid black text (no pattern on solid black). I think this lack of solid blacks is what causes the contrast problem. I think the black is printed last (on top) for real cards, but the fakes have other colors (rosette pattern) printed on top of black. I think the fakes are created with some kind of professional commercial super high resolution scanner, not created from scratch. The card frame (without white or black border) image is the same width as a real card, but the height is visibly different with the naked eye when compared to any (even a different) real card, which is another big tell. Furthermore, on pre-modern cards, the beveled edge (or black line on Revised) is sometimes cropped off of the image before the cards were printed, which makes them look odd. In short, these are pretty lousy fakes when you see them in person, and if you're paying attention at all, you'll spot them. Black light will not help. card ripping will not help. with magnifier, look at black text. with real card look at color contrast. with any real card, look at card frame height, or lay them on top of eachother to compare corners. also, fakes are slippery. also, the card backs also have less contrast, and the reds aren't quite as bright. No way you could play these unsleeved."

Tav

Tha_Gunslinga wrote:I have seen a graded rebacked Mox Sapphire. It was bubbling apart and was graded PSA 3.

Maybe you should have sent in your bitten into P9 card.
At least this card was authentic (wasn't it).

I know of two members of this board that have popped cards and got them regraded--many more times than one. The grading has not been consistent. That involved both PSA and Beckett.

Good to know, now it's official.

mystical_tutor wrote:I know of two members of this board that have popped cards and got them regraded--many more times than one. The grading has not been consistent. That involved both PSA and Beckett.

Something I could confirm for BGS.

Those cards exist. TL;DR as I'm at work, though I can handle you this articles of mine. Most of the info is written in Spanish, so a translator is recommended, though the images speak themselves.

How to Identify Fake MTG Cards - October 2006 - http://tinyurl.com/o3ela22

How to Unmask a Fake PSA Mox - May 2007 - http://tinyurl.com/ocykvwk

About the New Wave of Counterfeit Conspiracy - March 2012 - http://tinyurl.com/omtvdwl

How to Identify the New Wave of Counterfeits - January 2014 - http://tinyurl.com/p7zvpq8

Hope you enjoy them!

Nicely done articles Ceasr.

I think I read the whole thing but I did not catch a comment on the bending of the new cards. Will they survive the bend test?

Sorry it it was there and I read over it.

Gary

Hello Gary!

I can't find the article where I talked about it (Which is in fact none of the listed) but here is my opinion about the 'bending test':

The bending test is one that worked well in the past but, as of now, it is a forbidden technique. I mean, we now have some more clever, scientific methods to distinguish fake cards, not as cheap as bending a card, but much more useful and definitely much more effective. It may come to be compared as to how some medical operations worked in the past and how they work now, I prefer to use the lesser invasive technique, as no matter how new a card is a bend test lies in the card forever, and repeated a lot of times, it will end up destroying a legit card. That's why I haven't used that test in the last few years, though I guess it won't be bad to know just for academic purposes.