1. Front-to-back font comparison
Compare your card's typeface to a known real card of the same set. Fakes often have slightly different font weights, kerning, or letter shapes — especially on the energy symbols.
Counterfeit Pokémon cards have gotten very good. But not perfect. Here are the five tests that catch 99% of fakes — and the one test you should never skip.
Compare your card's typeface to a known real card of the same set. Fakes often have slightly different font weights, kerning, or letter shapes — especially on the energy symbols.
Hold the holo card up to bright light. Real Base Set holos show a distinctive silver layer on the back when light passes through. Fakes typically don't.
Real Pokémon cards have a thin black/blue layer sandwiched between the front and back card stock. Fakes typically don't. Only use on cards you're sure are fake.
Real Base Set holos have a specific star/swirl pattern. Modern fakes get the pattern wrong — too uniform, too sharp, or missing entirely on the energy symbol.
Real Pokémon cards weigh ~1.8 grams. Counterfeits are often slightly lighter and feel flimsier. Stack 10 of your cards; weigh on a kitchen scale.
SnapGrade is a pre-grading tool, not an authentication service. We measure centering, corners, edges, and surface — we don't authenticate. But our model often flags cards that look "off" in ways that correlate with counterfeits: wrong holo pattern, wrong font weight, wrong color saturation.
When the model returns very-low-confidence outputs on a card that visually looks fine, treat it as a yellow flag. Get the card authenticated by PSA, BGS, CGC or SGC before sending more credits at it.
For cards worth $500+ raw, always send to a professional grader for authentication before relying on a pre-grade. SnapGrade tells you the likely grade if real; PSA tells you if it's real.
Sign up free, 2 free credits. If a card comes back with very-low confidence, treat it as a yellow flag and authenticate before relying on the pre-grade.