How we will check authenticity

Fake Pokémon cards, resealed boxes and tampered slabs all exist, and they cluster around the cards people want most. This page sets out the checks we will run before anything is listed. It is written as what we will do, because we have not listed anything yet.

Raw cards

Every card above our photograph threshold will get the same five looks before it is graded for condition.

Card stock. A real card has a black (older sets) or blue (modern sets) core layer visible at the edge and a particular stiffness. Fakes are usually thinner, glossier or floppier, and the edge is white all the way through.

Print. Under a loupe, a real card's colour areas are made of a fine rosette pattern of dots. Fakes often show a coarser pattern, blurred text or the wrong font in the attack text and the set symbol.

Holo. Each era has a characteristic holo pattern, and fakes rarely reproduce it. We will compare against a known-real card from the same set.

Back. The blue swirl on the back of a real card has a consistent shade and sharp edges to the Poké Ball; fakes are often too light, too purple or blurred.

Light test. A real card blocks a strong light evenly. Many fakes glow through.

A card that fails any of these does not get listed, whatever it cost us.

Sealed product

For sealed product the check is on the chain and the wrap, because a competent reseal cannot be ruled out from the outside.

We will buy only from UK and EU distributors, Pokémon Center and retailers, and the product page will say which. We will look at every box for the factory shrink-wrap seam and pull-tab, confirm the lid tape under the wrap on sets that use it, and weigh packs from a sample of boxes in each case. Elite Trainer Boxes will have their edition confirmed from the pack count printed on the box. Anything that fails is returned to the supplier, not listed with a note.

Loose packs will only be listed if they reached us loose, sleeved or in a sealed pack art bundle. We will not open boxes to sell packs.

Graded slabs

Four checks, every slab, before it is photographed.

Cert lookup. The certificate number typed into the grader's own verification page, and the card name, set, number and grade confirmed against the label. Our page will link to the grader's lookup, never to a third-party site.

Holder. The seams checked for signs of opening, and the label and security feature compared to a known-real holder of the same generation.

Card. The same looks as a raw card, through the plastic: stock colour at the edge, print pattern, holo.

Photograph. Both sides, label legible, taken by us. The slab in the photograph is the slab you receive.

If you think something we sold is wrong

Tell us. Send photographs. If we agree, or if a grader or an independent check agrees, we take it back and refund everything including postage. If we disagree we will say why, in writing, and you keep your rights under the Consumer Rights Act either way.