Counterfeits galore! Another fake Pokemon booster box! This time we have Silver Tempest on deck…
Anecdotally Chinese booster boxes / packs and cards enter into circulation in the United States in two ways. Scammers scamming people with cheap counterfeit booster boxes out of China and parents giving kids cheap fake packs which inevitably get traded around at school (see aliexpress gold pokemon cards).
Either way, there are plenty of fake cards and fake booster boxes / packs floating around in the Pokemon collecting hobby and it’s always good to get some knowledge on spotting a fake.
So lets start out with the actual box. Notice how it’s beat up? This is because Chinese companies ship product to the United States in plastic bags, not cardboard boxes like you’d find your Amazon order in. So if the box is beat up right away you have a warning sign.
Now if you compare the cutout on the front of the box to a real Silver Tempest booster box you’ll find that it’s wrong. The box is just wrong in general. The packs inside aren’t even oriented in the correct direction. Compare the box a scammer is trying to sell you to pictures of the real deal online and it’ll be easy to see it’s different.
The first thing to notice about the fake Silver Tempest booster packs is just how shiny they are. Real Pokemon booster packs are more muted. They also have a higher print quality which you can actually see when you’ve got a fake and a real booster pack in your hands.
Also notice the scalloped edges on the top and bottom of the booster pack, this is a giveaway. Real Pokemon booster packs do not have scalloped edges, they have smooth crimped edges. If you see a pack with scalloped “tear here” style edges don’t even bother.
Here’s an example of one of the holos you can get in the fake Silver Tempest booster packs, a lovely Charizard. But if you flip the holo over you’ll notice the back is fairly faded… another giveaway. In fact all cards in the fake booster pack will have faded backs compared to real cards. So there’s that.
So anyway to sum things up… A card or booster pack is fake / counterfeit when…
- The booster pack is very shiny. Real booster packs are generally more muted.
- The cardstock used to make the cards is thinner.
- The cards have washed out yellow borders.
- Holo cards have faded backs.
- The booster pack has scalloped edges on top and bottom. Real booster packs are crimped.
- The booster packs only contain 9 cards. Real booster packs contain 10.
- The booster pack weighs in the 12 to 13 gram region instead of the real booster packs weight of around 21 grams.
- The cards smell wrong when a booster pack is opened. Not joking.
- The cards have a pure white interior. The Pokemon Company uses 280 gsm paper with a blue core.
- The card weighs around 1.2 grams instead of a real cards weight of around 1.7 grams
- If the price is too good to be true, it’s a fake… or stolen…
Be careful out there! There are scams everywhere and the Pokemon collecting community is no exception!