War of the Spark Card Stock Bad Again
Spotting counterfeit Magic cards
Apocryphal box product
Permit'south start with the big stuff. A recent operation in Southeast Asia has been producing and distributing boxes of counterfeit Magic cards. A number of these accept appeared on popular online sites and some have migrated over through solicitations to legitimate retail operations by some rather unscrupulous individuals. While we make every effort to assistance in shutting downwards these operations, non everyone in the world respects copyrights and trademarks to the degree that they are enforced in the U.S., and some areas are more difficult to trace and shut down. Luckily though, these are fairly low quality and are fairly easy to spot. In fact, you tin can spot the counterfeits at every level you might see the production at.
Allow'due south start with the box. All Wizards of the Coast production is packed out with plastic overwrap that contains white Wizards logo symbols printed on the plastic.
To our knowledge to engagement, no counterfeit product has reproduced these security markings, and the recent apocryphal boxes have just standard plastic wrap without the symbols.
If the box is opened, don't worry. Y'all will still be able to spot the fakes. The pack seals have distinguishing marks. On existent production the estrus seal striations are vertical. On the re-create production they are generally horizontal and far fewer in number.
Additionally, the paper used in these products is usually much more than flexible than paper used in standard Magic product. Hold the pack by the ends in your hand and apply gentle force per unit area to the ends of the pack in a slight curvation. A real pack of cards volition barely curve, while one of the counterfeit packs will bend quite noticeably with lilliputian effort.
And finally, most counterfeits are hands distinguishable as fakes without going into annihilation complicated. For starters, the colors are noticeably inaccurate when compared to real Magic cards. While different expansions of Magic cards over the years have occasionally had slight colour variations, the counterfeits are often and then far off yous can't miss spotting it. The most noticeable is the colour in the word Magic on the back of the bill of fare. Here are the two side by side.
The colors on the front ofttimes announced washed out when compared to a real menu likewise.
Additionally, the latest batch of fakes we uncovered has a distinguishing mark on the edges of the card. Hold the card as you would in your hand and expect at the top edge. There is a slight white protrusion about a third of the way from the side edge. In that location is a like bump opposite this on the bottom of the card. A stack of the fakes will take a visible line caused by these bumps when viewed on border.
Merely await, there is more, although I would use this last ane sparingly every bit it destroys the bill of fare. If you tear a Magic card in half, at that place is a blue or black line at the tear line, depending on the product. The counterfeits that accept been recently uncovered (and virtually of the counterfeits we run into) do not have this.
Left: Real Magic bill of fare. Right: Fake carte du jour.
As a final note on boxes, while the contempo counterfeit boxes are current production such as Mirrodin and Eighth Edition, in that location accept been a number of other "fake" boxes over the years. While these boxes do non contain counterfeit cards, they misrepresent the contents of the package. A common example of this is a repack. An old box for a product like Arabian Nights or Legends is taken. The box is filled with cards, commonly contempo mutual cards, and and then compress-wrapped closed. The con creative person will then sell the box for a reasonable discount off the going rate, figuring the buyer will attempt to resell the box without opening it and they will be long gone at that betoken. Most running this fraud have a set story of how they bought it off a guy they met somewhere if the box gets opened in forepart of them and they are confronted. Unlike modern plastic wrap, early boxes, which are more frequently the targets of repacks, had a gap on the side of the foil wrap. If the box you are inspecting does not accept this gap, it could be a repack. Yous tin can often selection up on a simulated box by looking at the plastic wrap, since repacks oftentimes take a much different look on the plastic wrap than official product.
Some I accept seen are then shoddy that y'all tin milkshake the box a little and meet loose cards shaking around. Many of you would be able to experience that the box doesn't contain booster packs.
Apocryphal Singles
These days color copiers and scanners are everywhere, and the quality on them improves every twelvemonth. Since Magic cards are often bought or sold as singles and some command some reasonable prices, people are often tempted and in some cases counterfeit private singles. Some people may have questions as to the legality of this so here is some data you lot should know.
The mana symbols, tap symbol and Magic: the Gathering logo are all proprietary to Wizards of the Declension. Additionally, all individual cards are protected under trademark and copyright laws, including art elements and the menu backs. Making reproductions of the art images and carte du jour faces of Magic cards is an infringement of our rights and is prohibited. The employ of this fine art and images requires the express permission from Wizards of the Coast. Without this permission, scanning and posting and otherwise distributing these images violates the law. Fifty-fifty photocopying them to use as a "proxy" for personal employ is illegal and violates our intellectual property rights.
In general, the more valuable the card, the more wary y'all should be of the card existence a counterfeit. Older Type I cards such as Black Lotus, the Mox Sapphire, and Library of Alexandria are common targets of counterfeiting, just occasionally popular standard cards such as Chrome Mox are targeted.
There are a number of ways to spot these cards. Here are a few.
Article of clothing and Tear
Fake Magic cards oft have a different gloss blanket or different texture. As a outcome, they will handle repeated shuffling and exposure to clay and skin oils differently. Some will chip on the edges or fray in a way real Magic cards practice non, and some will wear very unevenly. Most apocryphal cards you volition see are unplayed for this reason, since the played versions are often very apparently fake. The upshot is you should be more skeptical of unplayed cards than cards that have obviously been around.
Print Quality
Printing of Magic sets vary. Some professional players can flip through a deck of cards face down and tell you lot which expansions the cards are from by modest color variations, so the fact that a bill of fare is slightly off colour from another carte du jour you know is real does not necessarily hateful a fake is involved. You lot take to delve a fiddling deeper. Many fakes will accept the black edges with gaps or actualization to bleed into the other colors. With small-scale magnification like a unproblematic magnifying glass, you can run across this clearly. Some dealers and retailers keep a lens handy to spot fakes. Dealers and retailers who buy and sell cards tin can sometimes be a good resource for spotting fakes. They purchase and sell cards daily, then they are experienced in what to look for. They do, however, accept businesses to run, so be respectful of this if you lot ask them for assistance, merely many are willing to give an stance if asked nicely. Unfortunately, Wizards of the Coast employees are not allowed to consult on these bug.
One of the all-time spots to expect at print quality is the black/crimson edge of the lettering of the word Magic on the back of the carte. On many fakes, you can spot inconsistencies at this spot without magnification, and balmy magnification will show inconsistencies in this area quite oftentimes on fakes. With plenty magnification, yous will run across a distinctive pattern in the color dots that make upward the image that you see on the card. Virtually printers that counterfeiters use are a lower quality than is used to impress existent cards and you will see a distinct difference in the magnified pattern when compared to a real card, peculiarly if you compare it to a known real bill of fare from the same expansion.
The above methods are mostly the only methods that can be used for checking foil cards. Fortunately, most counterfeit foil cards look really bad and are like shooting fish in a barrel to spot.
Card Density
Magic cards, other than foils, show through some calorie-free when put up confronting a relatively brilliant light source. Take a card yous know is real and note how much calorie-free shows through. Then hold up the suspected card the same distance away and compare. Oft fakes will not allow whatever lite through the carte and nigh always they will vary from a real card in a recognizable way.
Water test
Not my favorite test, and again these are all apply at your ain run a risk and not on foils. This test basically involves taking a damp edge of a newspaper towel or cotton tip and wiping the border or edge of the card. A real Magic card will not drain from this, while fakes volition occasionally accept card bleed from this. This will also pick up blackness marker modifications, although most of these are visible to the naked middle.
The Infamous Bend Exam
If you have been around the game for a while, y'all accept probably heard the term, "Bend Test" used at some indicate. Here'southward the lowdown. Dissimilar paper formulations have different characteristics. The US Government uses this to keep people from counterfeiting The states currency. The papers have different textures, hold ink differently and, important for this, bend differently.
Utilize this test at your own adventure and never on foil cards. Practice not apply this test on our other card products as well Magic as they volition neglect.
While almost every counterfeit carte will fail this test, fifty-fifty existent Magic cards volition eventually succumb to the stress of existence distorted multiple times. The test works like this: Concord the card between your fingers and thumb and bend the card so that the ends touch briefly. Then straighten the card out apartment and examine the eye. A fake Magic card volition show visible creases and cracks, merely a real magic card will announced unaffected. Storage of cards in dry out areas volition touch the ability to pass this exam, and fifty-fifty real cards can only stand up up to this exam for and then long. Well-nigh will show modest creases after about viii "folds" and virtually will fail completely by 12 folds.
Oddities
Foursquare cornered cards
While these cards never were released in official products, a number have been stolen from Wizards of the Coast and various printers over the years, including some print test cards. The corners are square, like to the Collector's Edition sets, but they have white or black borders. Many dealers and retailers are enlightened that these came onto the market through questionable channels and do not buy or sell these for that reason. Quite a few have been turned in to Wizards of the Coast by dealers and retailers over the years and our security has improved profoundly.
Collector'south Edition cards
These are square cutting cards of all the cards in the Beta prepare. They are some of the most commonly altered cards. The cards have a gilt border and square corners. Over the years, many people take done various things to these to make them look like much more valuable Beta edition cards. These include trimming the corners and painting the borders black with a pen and removing the fronts and pasting it onto a standard size card. Usually close examination reveals these alterations easily. Interestingly, the collector's edition cards have gone up a bit in value, and as such people don't tend to use this amending method these days.
Pasted Cards
This is a variation sometimes used with World Champion decks and sometimes with photocopies. It is not seen that much these days as it is very time consuming to practice and very easy to spot. Ane usual tell is the front of the carte du jour is heavily worn and marked and the back is near new. You can also examine the edge for unevenness, although you might demand magnification to attain this.
Pen Marked Cards
I mentioned these a piffling before, and this is another scam and not actually apocryphal, only in the interest of beingness thorough information technology is included here. The basic idea behind the scam is to take a newer edition menu, such equally Revised, Unlimited or Chronicles, and pass it off as an older gear up. This is done by filling in the white edge with a black marking so that the card appears to exist a black bordered card. There are a number of various ways to tell, such as the lack of a beveled edge at the card frame border, the copyright dates in the legal text, and a few others depending on which set up is being modified. In about cases it is so obvious in reasonable lighting that you lot don't need any other indicator. This more often than not relates to cards that have been out of print for a long time, simply some of these are still floating effectually so you still have to be careful. A side note on this is that this technique is oftentimes used to "fix" poor condition cards to make them appear to exist in meliorate condition. Once again, when buying single cards, look at the front and back and make certain you are satisfied before completing the sale.
Exist Careful
My departing words. Not anybody in the world has your all-time interests at heart. If something looks similar information technology'southward too skilful to be true, it probably has a take hold of. So be careful and you lot can avoid falling victim to these scams. With today's world-broad computer auction network, where you can purchase stuff online from all over, yous take to be especially careful. If something seems hazy to yous, take steps to attempt to protect yourself or dorsum out if you lot are unsure. If you do fall victim to counterfeiters or one of these scams, feel free to contact us with details (Customer Service can be reached at 800-324-6496, or http://wizards.custhelp.com). While we do not compensate individuals who fall casualty to counterfeiters and scam artists, as a company we are concerned about these issues and volition certainly aid local and foreign governments in their efforts to track down and prosecute the individuals involved in these crimes.
Source: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/buyer-beware-2004-04-26
0 Response to "War of the Spark Card Stock Bad Again"
Postar um comentário