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  • Harry Kersh: So, we're here in East London.

  • And we're gonna visit Sneak Attack Games.

  • Sneak Attack is managed by Roy Raftery,

  • who's a trading-card expert with years of

  • buying and selling experience.

  • And he's gonna teach us about what you should be looking for

  • when you're buying and selling Pokémon cards

  • and how to tell if a card is fake or real.

  • Roy Raftery: Typically, people don't know

  • they have fake cards.

  • They're coming to me with their childhood collections,

  • and most of the time it's a mixture

  • of new stuff and old stuff.

  • And there's always one or two

  • fake cards, like, hidden amongst them,

  • which people just have no idea they have.

  • For me, there's, like, three tiers.

  • There's the tier where

  • you can just spot it just from a mile away.

  • There's you can spot it a little bit,

  • you have to do a little bit of background research.

  • And then there's other cards

  • that are just quite hard to spot.

  • Harry: So, before I do the fake or real challenge,

  • can you talk me through some of the things

  • that maybe we should be focusing on in these cards?

  • Roy: So, first of all, it's the card quality

  • and the quality of the print.

  • So, the way these cards are in their foil,

  • they were just never printed like this; it's quite shoddy.

  • The card itself, there was never any foiling

  • on the text boxes of the original cards.

  • So, you'll see here, the whole thing is shiny;

  • that just wasn't the case back in the day

  • 'cause it's hard to make out what the card does.

  • The cards from the very first era of Pokémon,

  • they just weren't printed like this,

  • so instantly alarm bells ring.

  • Another big one is the actual size of the card.

  • If we pull up an actual version of this Mr. Mime,

  • you'll see that it's a little bit smaller

  • than the real version.

  • So, most fake cards,

  • if you just measure them up to other cards,

  • if you think, oh, why is this one

  • smaller than the other one, why is this one bigger?

  • Chances are the smaller card is the fake.

  • Harry: I'm noticing on this Farfetch'd card,

  • there's, like, a shiny gold border.

  • Is that an immediate red flag,

  • or has that ever been done in Pokémon?

  • Roy: So, there was, I remember as a kid, my brother had

  • cards from the Legendary set.

  • So this Dark Blastoise came from the Legendary collection.

  • I know I said the whole card was never printed in foil,

  • but when these were printed, these were, like, '98, '99.

  • And then the Legendary collection came about mid-2002.

  • And it was kind of a swan song appreciation

  • of everything that came before it.

  • But getting a card like this was really hard.

  • It wasn't, like, once per every pack.

  • This is, like, the premium foil edition of this card.

  • And a lot of the fakes that came after

  • took inspiration from this.

  • The major thing about these all-foil legendary cards

  • is that the actual text box is foil,

  • but the picture box is not,

  • which was very different for Pokémon.

  • And on all the fakes, again, everything is foil.

  • Everything is really bright, and,

  • ugh, it hurts your eyes to look at it.

  • Whereas they didn't quite do that

  • on the Legendary collection or any Pokémon card.

  • Harry: So, using what you've taught me,

  • we're gonna look at some cards

  • where we've got a fairly obvious fake and a real.

  • I'm hoping that I'm gonna be able to guess these ones.

  • If not, I might just have to go home.

  • So, we've got two Kangaskhan cards here.

  • Immediately, based on what you taught me

  • about the size of the card, some of the colors,

  • and kind of, like, the plasticky-ness,

  • I'm fairly confident that this one's the real one.

  • Roy: Yeah.

  • It's just way easier to spot.

  • Harry: Mr. Mime, pretty similar.

  • I think, again, the size is maybe

  • more noticeable in this one,

  • and, again, we've got the whole card is foil.

  • Which, as we now know, bit of a red flag.

  • Roy: Yep, definitely.

  • Harry: This one's the real one.

  • So, we're moving on to the medium tier.

  • Roy: Medium tier now.

  • Harry: In terms of difficulty to spot the fake,

  • and you've given me a curveball here,

  • you've shown me three of the same card,

  • we've got three Venonats, and I'm gonna try and guess

  • which one's real, which one's fake,

  • or which ones plural are real

  • and which ones plural are fake.

  • OK. I'm gonna rule this middle one out immediately,

  • just because I'm seeing the text is kinda, like, blurry.

  • It doesn't look particularly well printed.

  • So that one's, I think, a fake.

  • Then we're left with two.

  • Now, these are pretty similar.

  • These are pretty similar sizes,

  • the coloring is fairly similar,

  • I'd say maybe the coloring is a little bit better

  • on this one on the right.

  • I'm gonna look at the backs.

  • OK, OK.

  • So,

  • I think this one is more of, like, a richer blue,

  • which is something which

  • you've sort of said we should be looking for.

  • The text again is very similar,

  • but based on the coloring I think this is the real one,

  • I think this is also a fake.

  • So, I'm gonna put that up there.

  • Was I right?

  • Roy: You was right.

  • Harry: Correct!

  • Roy: Yes.

  • (both laughing)

  • Yeah, a lot of the stuff you said was spot on,

  • so, for the cards that you can see

  • that they've put a lot of effort in to forge it,

  • they've still slipped up a few things.

  • So, on the middle Venonat you see the name,

  • the name is quite, it's a lot bolder

  • and at the same time blurrier;

  • it's quite hard to read.

  • They simply don't print cards this blurry or this faded.

  • It's a clear indication of a fake.

  • This one is a little bit better,

  • but the card just instantly feels different.

  • And also, with real Pokémon cards,

  • they're printed on loads of different layers.

  • So they, (card flapping)

  • they have a particular tang and, like, feel to them.

  • Whereas, the fake ones,

  • they don't, because they're quite loose.

  • There's not as much printing paper used.

  • Harry: They are pretty similar-looking cards.

  • The border is, like, maybe slightly thinner on this one.

  • And a slightly paler yellow.

  • The text looks, like, very similar.

  • The trouble with these at this point is that

  • you're not sure if it's a fake

  • or if it's just an older card maybe

  • that's had a bit of sun damage or something.

  • Let's try the backs.

  • OK, I think maybe the back is more of a giveaway.

  • 'Cause this one is looking like that kind of royal blue

  • that you're used to.

  • So, I think for the Nidorina,

  • I'm gonna say this one is the real one

  • and this one is the fake one.

  • Roy: Correct.

  • Harry: Got it? Roy: Yep.

  • Spotting the Nidorinas, you were correct.

  • This one is the real one, and this is the fake one.

  • Now, what we showed with the Venonats

  • was the card stock, the quality of the card,

  • and how easy it bent, and how it didn't make that noise.

  • This is because all of the official Pokémon cards

  • are printed on layers; they have a front,

  • they have a back, and they have a medium layer

  • in the middle, and it's usually black or blue, it depends.

  • And it's quite easy to find, and you can all do it at home.

  • If you take your mobile phone and get your torch