At the bare minimum, all you need is a flashlight and a magnifying glass to discover 99% of the fakes out there. Is there less light coming through? I've seen real cards with square and mis-cut corners, cards that make a million different pitches when you give them The Squeak Test (not even going to describe this one), and seen fake cards that pass The Bend Test with flying colors. to panic, because counterfeits currently are pretty easy to spot. But frankly, it's easy enough that anyone can do this on their own. [CDATA[ Hopefully after reading this article, you can now determine the ballpark price range of misprints that you come across! So the fact that you could see that crummy rosette in the fake card is a giveaway in this particular instance as well. }); $0.31. If you can get your hands on a few of the cards from those decks, you might be able to do a comparison. Terminology for misprints isn't an exact science, but if you are using the same words to describe your misprints as everyone else, you'll have a much easier time figuring out a price for it. Check to see if the misprint is on every version of that specific card. Again, as a reminder, if you ever receive a card on Puca that does not pass these three tests just mail it to us at: PucaTrade Authenticity Clearinghouse 146 Wood St.#4San Francisco, CA 94118USA. The main one is that you can snap a photo of your 15x magnified cards, and directly compare the real one to the “fake" one side-by-side at the same time. TLDR: Click this link, find misprints visually similar to yours. $0.69, As low as: $0.02, As low as: A small drawback, all things considered. Especially in the beginning, you might not be able to tell the difference between the dot-matrix of one print run versus the next, and it's way easier to tell differences apart when you're staring at two side-by-side. The rosettes on the real card are nice and orderly, like cute little flowers in a row. Dim the lights or turn them off entirely, and press the front face of the real magic card directly up to the beam of the flashlight. But it also appears to be true that normal wear and tear, exposure to the sun, and contact with dirt and oil can change (if slightly) the way an individual card glows as well. $0.28, As low as: (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({ You can subscribe and unsubscribe to our email alerts and briefings through the buttons below. Need to cancel your ProTrader subscription? In fact, there are only three tests you need to know. If you don't already own a real version of the card (and don't know anyone else who might), you might need to make the trek to your local game store and poke around in the display case. Previously, I've recommended that people take suspicious cards to certified MtG judges, but I've recently learned that WotC gives no specific training to their judges as to how to identify fakes. This Mystery Booster card list revealed that the "set" is comprised of 1,694 reprints from across Magic's history, and there are indeed some very valuable cards to be found in the product. You can enable this with a little check box on the left side. List prices are too unreliable as a good source of information. This is because modern day MTG print runs are much much larger to accommodate for the enormous player base compared to the 'old days'. As a general rule, my experience is that older cards phosphoresce less than newer cards. As a novice counterfeit-detection gumshoe, before you begin any of these steps the first thing that you should do is find another copy of the card that you are sure is real. The Beginners Guide to Misprints covers a little bit of this, but here are a few simple rules of thumb to help you figure out how common or rare your misprint might be. DON'T start your searches with "misprinted [name of card]." And if you still have doubts after that, a black light should tell you what you need to know. In case you haven't heard, counterfeit Magic cards exist. I should also point out that before you even start these tests, the card has probably gone through a 4th test that's not listed here. {{(subscription.plan.amount/100 | currency) || '-'}}, {{(subscription.plan.intervalCount + ' ' + subscription.plan.interval) || '-'}}, {{(subscription.currentPeriodEnd | date:'mediumDate') || '-'}}, Today's Gainers and Playtesting. There's a few different ways that fakes can be detected, and this can serve as your comprehensive guide for spotting them. Deck Builder. We're sorry, we are unable to process your feedback at this time. Read this blog post to learn why.