Graded Prototype Pokémon Cards Worth Millions May Be Fakes, According To Hidden 'Metadata'

The enormously popular Pokémon Trading Card Game continues to attract huge numbers of players willing to pay vast sums to catch 'em all, especially rare cards. However, some detective work by PkmnFlyingMaster on EliteForum (thanks, VGC) suggests that prototype cards from the mid-'90s which first went up for auction last year could be fakes.

First, a little background. Prior to the debut of the Pokémon Trading Card Game in Japan back in 1996, the makers printed up prototype cards during the game's development. The rarity of these pre-release 'playtest' cards makes them highly sought-after and a significant cache of them went up for sale in 2024 having been verified by card grading company CGC. CGC highlighted how they worked closely with Takumi Akabane, one of the original designers of the card game, to verify the cards' authenticity.

However, upon close examination and armed with knowledge of the near-invisible 'watermarks' modern printers use, many of these playtest cards appear to be recently printed replicas, as detailed in PFM's research.

PFM's forensic analysis is based on a series of small tracking dots that are practically invisible to the naked eye but which can be better seen by tweaking the colour values of a high-res scan. This form of metadata typically gives the time and date it was printed and the serial number of the printer itself and is used by law enforcement and other agencies to track the origin of documents.

In this case, PFM has enhanced and analysed the patterns on several of the cards and they appear to contain data indicating a print date of June 2024. Although the "higher quality" cards show no sign of the data," I have yet to find a low-quality beta playtest that doesn’t have a similar dot pattern," PFM wrote in their post.

Various cards that came from Akabane's personal collection are said to have this pattern on them, and other users have come forward showing similar markings on their cards. Speaking to PokeBeach, PFM said it was a "really disheartening" discovery.

One 'Alpha Prototype' Pikachu card sold by auction house Goldin fetched $24,400 in December, and with hundreds of these cards on the market, the allegations have shaken the TCG community.

The Pokémon TCG scene is no stranger to controversy, with rushes on newly released sets regularly causing a ruckus at retail and causing The Pokémon Company to address the situation. There's no shortage of allegations when it comes to shadiness in the grading industry, either.

The October release of Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket has invigorated mainstream interest in the game, with the mobile game generating over $120 million in revenue in its first month.