Since the dawn of time – well, since the late '90s, at least – Pokémon fans have had to deal with a trading card market full of dodgy knockoffs and counterfeit goods. Buying new packs from reliable stores is usually just fine, but picking up cards second hand or buying them from less trustworthy shopkeepers has always been a very risky business.
With the Pokémon Trading Card Game enjoying even higher-than-usual levels of popularity just lately – 3.7 billion cards were sold during the fiscal year 2020-2021, equating to 10.8% of all-time Pokémon card sales – it's hardly surprising to see that fake goods are still doing the rounds. And in great numbers, too.
According to Yicai Global, a China state-affiliated outlet, Shanghai airport officials managed to seize twenty boxes of counterfeit cards yesterday. The huge number of cards, which are said to weigh more than 7.6 tons in total, were supposedly headed to the Netherlands and had been shipped by a company located in Qingdao, a major city in eastern Shandong Province.
You can get a quick glimpse at the packaging of these fake packs in the video below.
We're sure you already do, but remember to always buy your gaming goods from reputable stores that you trust. If you see a box of Pokémon cards on Facebook that seems too good to be true, it probably is!
[source twitter.com]
Comments 22
Stuff like this usually happens when someone wasn't paid enough for looking the other way.
And they’re probably plastic coated and so can’t be recycled and will end up in the landfill in some form
My eyes initially read that as "Christmas officials" rather than "customs officials" for some reason. Painted an image of heavily armed grotto elves and people in Santa hats making a bust.....
Watch out guys. I pulled this freaky-ass fake Pikachu card the other day. The fakes are real. They thought I wouldn’t notice. Even the name is spelt wrong lol.
@Maxz
I see your fake Pikachu card and raise my fake Charizaro!
It evolves from Metapod!
(I actually own one of these)
Are these good quality? Anyway fake cards suck unless you can’t tell them.apart from the originals. If ur dad works at custom then ur lucky
Nice! Did they light them on fire?
How do you tell when a card is fake?
@RupeeClock A charizard that is weak to fire 😂
Sorry, I mean a Charizaro
And that's the problem with the world everybody tries to scam everybody. And it's wrong
Yet the image you use is legit cards.
There's a victory for law enforcement! Just say no to Fauxkecards, kids!
The irony is, I'd like to come across some fake cards (but not pay for them) just for the LOL factor.
@Alpha008 i guess when nintendo don’t get the money
Jk jk
As someone from the Netherlands, we get a lot of fake ones here
But what was the street value?
@Rosalinho If they're as obviously fake as the Charizaro card, probably nothing.
@Pillowpants
I can only imagine that counterfeit Pokémon cards are now more like forgeries, than the silly nonsense we used to see in the late 90s and early 2000s.
These counterfeiters are no doubt tempted by the specific cards that go for very high prices, but they counterfeit booster packs too, which were shown in the article.
Would've been nice if the seized goods were shown in detail to get an idea for them though.
@RupeeClock Yeah, they would probably just copy the artwork and text. I always wonder how such terrible crappy off-brand stuff even comes to life when the source material can simply be copy/pasted. But maybe that's just my simple brain at work
Wow. The real life Team Rocket...
@Alpha008 More importantly, how do customs workers tell they're fake? And why would they care? It's cards, there's pictures on them of Pokémon. The cards, as being cards, are real (I suppose). They are by definition real Pokémon cards then. Not something someone will use to kill someone or anything. So nothing customs should 'protect' us from.
And just when there have been several news reports of Pokémon cards selling for insanely high prices.
I feel a wave of cards being sold for inflated prices coming up... Those customs companies are broad daylight highway robbers with shady deals with tax extorters and the likes, making it all 'legally' protected, so where exactly is the crime taking place, and who's benefiting from this? We KNOW they van be paid off to allow weapons and drugs to pass through, and we KNOW most governments around the world are involved in arms and drugs and other trafficking they'd call the highest of crimes if someone else did them. Oh well, we'll never know what really happened here, we can only know that in the end, it's all organised crime, and just a matter of who's the best at it. If I recall correctly, even in the Sopranos they mention a heist of Pokémon cards at some point.
@Shambo
🎶 Woke up this mornin'... Got myself a 'mon...🎶
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