How to Spot a Fake Trading Card: Print, Light and Weight Checks

To tell if a trading card is fake, compare it side by side with a genuine card from the same set, check the print pattern and text under a loupe, shine a light through it and, if you have a precision scale, weigh it. No single check is proof; several differences together are what count. This guide explains those checks, drawing on a counterfeit guide published on the Magic judges' Europe East regional blog, and what their limits are. Its specific figures are for Magic cards; other games use different card stock, so always compare like with like. It describes techniques only and does not show or reproduce any card artwork.

Start with comparison

The judges' guide calls hands-on experience with genuine cards by far the most important test, and suggests keeping one or two common cards from each set for comparison. Put the suspect card beside a genuine card from the same set and compare:

• colours: overall tone, saturation and the colour of the borders;
• fonts: letter shapes, spacing and the sharpness of small text;
• layout: the position of the name, symbols and text box;
• the back: the guide notes that Magic card backs have stayed the same throughout the game's history, which makes them a stable reference;
• the edge: the guide describes Magic card stock as three layers with a blue layer in between.

Differences in one place can be innocent: the guide notes that genuine cards vary with where and in which batch they were printed. Differences in several places at once are a warning, and worth a closer look before you pay or trade.

Under a loupe: the print pattern

Printed colour images are made of dots. Wikipedia's article on halftone printing explains that in colour printing, the different printing colours have to sit close to one another to fool the eye into seeing a single colour, and that standard screen angles make the dots form small circles or rosettes. The judges' guide to counterfeits from the Magic judges' Europe East regional blog explains how that looks on a card: cards are printed using layers of different ink colours, each applied at a specific angle with a dotted pattern, and the mixing of those layers creates a "rosette". A jeweller's loupe makes it visible.

The same guide points to two things worth checking:

1. Text and black elements. On genuine Magic cards, it explains, the text is solid, with no pattern, because it is printed as a separate layer; many fakes reproduce the rosette over the whole card, so the text looks less crisp.
2. The overall pattern. The rosette differs between sets, and even between print batches, so a different pattern is not proof of a fake on its own; compare against a genuine card from the same set and batch where you can.

The light test

Part 2 of the same judges' guide describes a light test using an LED torch or a phone's camera light. Magic cards are printed on "blue core" stock, so light passing through a genuine card shows a bluish hue, and the art or back shows through from the other side; the guide says fakes are usually black or white core and either do not shine through at all or show a different colour. That description is specific to Magic, so for any game, shine the same light through a genuine card from the same set and compare. Treat the result as one clue among several.