The Print Detective
How to tell a real Japanese card from a fake, in the order that answers it fastest.
If you only do one thing
Hold it against a phone torch in a dark room. A real card has an opaque black core between its two printed faces and blocks almost all the light. Most fakes glow, and some let you read the back through the front.
It costs nothing, takes five seconds, does not damage the card, and it settles the question more often than everything else on this page put together.
- 1The light testA bright light
- 2The edge, under magnificationA loupe or phone macro
Compare it against a card you trust
The comparison that matters is not between your card and a photograph of somebody else’s fake. It is between your card and a real one. You almost certainly have one: anything from a pack you opened yourself. Photograph both and wipe between them.
Load both and a wipe appears between them. Nothing is uploaded: both photographs stay in this browser, and there is no endpoint on this site that could receive them.
Every tell, and how much each one proves
Ordered by what it takes to run rather than by how conclusive it is, because the check somebody will actually do beats the one they will not. 4 of these need nothing but the card and your eyes.
The light test
Decides itA bright lightHold the card flat against a phone torch in a dark room and look at the front.
- A real card
- A real card has an opaque black core laminated between the two printed faces. Almost no light comes through, and what does is a dull even glow at the edges.
- A counterfeit, usually
- Most counterfeits have no core layer or a thin grey one. The card lights up, and you can often read the back through the front.
Japanese cards: Identical for Japanese cards. This is the single most useful test and it costs nothing.
The blue on the back
Strong signalNo equipmentPut the card back to back with one you know is genuine, from any set, under the same light.
- A real card
- The blue is deep and slightly purple, and the swirl pattern inside the border is sharp enough to follow with your eye.
- A counterfeit, usually
- The blue reads flat, too bright, or slightly green. The swirl goes muddy where the printing resolution ran out.
Japanese cards: A comparison card must be Japanese. The Japanese back is not the English back, and holding a fake Japanese card against a genuine English one produces a difference that means nothing.
The edge, under magnification
Decides itA loupe or phone macroLook at the cut edge of the card side on, at about 10x. A phone macro lens is enough.
- A real card
- Three layers: printed face, black core, printed back. The core reads as a distinct dark line running the whole edge.
- A counterfeit, usually
- One layer, or two with nothing dark between them. Counterfeits that do have a core often show it wandering in thickness along the edge.
The print dots
Strong signalA loupe or phone macroAt 30x or more, look at a large flat area of colour on the front — a background, not the artwork.
- A real card
- A regular rosette pattern from offset printing: tight, evenly spaced, the same across the whole card.
- A counterfeit, usually
- A grid rather than rosettes, visible banding, or dots of noticeably different sizes in the same area.
The typography
Strong signalA loupe or phone macroCompare the HP number, the attack names and the copyright line against a genuine card from the same era.
- A real card
- Weights and spacing are consistent, and the small print at the bottom edge stays crisp and legible under a loupe.
- A counterfeit, usually
- The wrong weight somewhere, letters slightly too close or too far apart, and small print that goes fuzzy because it was reproduced from a scan.
Japanese cards: Japanese cards set their attack text in a specific gothic face. A fake reproduced from a photograph of a real card loses the fine strokes in the kanji first, so read the kanji rather than the katakana.
The foil texture
Strong signalNo equipmentTilt the card under a light and run a fingernail across the artwork of an SR, SAR or UR.
- A real card
- Japanese special-art cards carry a physical embossed texture over the artwork. You can feel it, and it catches light in a pattern that moves with the card.
- A counterfeit, usually
- A flat glossy surface with the pattern printed on rather than pressed in. It looks right in a photograph and feels wrong immediately.
Japanese cards: This is the tell that catches the most Japanese fakes, because the texture is expensive to reproduce and photographs cannot show it.
Size and weight
SupportingKitchen scalesStack the card with genuine ones and look along the edge of the stack. Then weigh a few.
- A real card
- 63 by 88 millimetres, and about 1.7 grams for a standard card. In a stack it disappears.
- A counterfeit, usually
- A millimetre out in either direction, or noticeably lighter. In a stack of ten the odd one shows itself at the edge.
Japanese cards: Japanese cards are the same size as English ones, so a stack of either works for the edge check.
The finish on a non-holo
SupportingNo equipmentTilt an ordinary Common or Uncommon under a light.
- A real card
- A soft satin finish with no mirror. The card reflects light as a broad soft sheen.
- A counterfeit, usually
- Often too glossy, because a laminate is cheaper than the right stock. It mirrors the light source back at you.
The set symbol and number
Strong signalNo equipmentCheck that the set symbol, the card number and the rarity mark agree with the set the seller says it is from.
- A real card
- The number, the symbol and the regulation mark are consistent and match the real print run.
- A counterfeit, usually
- A card number the set does not have, a regulation mark from the wrong era, or a symbol borrowed from a different set.
Japanese cards: This one is checkable without holding the card: our catalogue holds every Japanese print with its number and grade, so a listing photograph can be checked against it before any money moves.
Tearing it in half
Decides itNo equipmentDestroys the cardTear the card across the middle and look at the torn edge.
- A real card
- A black line runs through the tear where the core is.
- A counterfeit, usually
- White or grey all the way through.
Japanese cards: Listed for completeness and as a last resort. It destroys the card, it is only ever worth doing on a card already believed fake, and the light test answers the same question without the damage.
Two things this page will not do
It does not explain how counterfeits are made, which stock or process gets closest, or which tells are the easiest to defeat. A buyer needs none of that, and the difference between “here is what to check” and “here is what to fix” is the whole line. Every test above is already published by the grading companies and by anybody who has been sold a fake and written about it.
It also does not authenticate a card from a photograph, and neither does anyone else honestly. Two of the strongest tells here are the feel of an embossed foil and the way light passes through a card, and no photograph carries either. What a listing photograph can be checked against is the catalogue: a card number a set never printed, or a regulation mark from the wrong era, is visible before any money moves. Every Japanese set is here.
Everything you photograph on this page stays in your browser. There is no upload endpoint behind it, the same as the Grading Lab.