Corrupted Vesuva ~ The Counterfeit Magic Cards

Many of you must be aware of the recent influx of counterfeit Magic cards from China. These counterfeit cards appear to have extremely good quality and some of them have an even better printing resolution than a legitimate Magic card. 

Magic the Gathering's popularity has increased dramatically in the past 4-5 years especially in Asia. Due to high demand and collectible value of the cards, Magic has became a target for the counterfeiters. In fact, these cards have already been in circulation in North America's gaming communities. 

The counterfeit cards that I have seen locally are almost indistinguishable from real cards when they are inside sleeves. Fortunately, the card surface of the counterfeits feels dramatically different from the real ones. However this does not mean that the counterfeiters would stop making improvements to their fakes. It may only be a matter of time for the counterfeiters to get it right and finally produce the perfect fake card.

This situation is alarming as these high quality fakes will potentially cause the collapse of Magic's community and could even devastate Magic the Gathering as a game in a long run.

Magic cards have a dual purpose, they are collectible and are also used to power a great game. Flooding the market with counterfeits will dramatically impact the collectible value of Magic cards.

This means your hard-earned collection will eventually become worthless.

Almost all the local game stores (LGS) that support Magic directly benefit and even depend on the secondary market. With the collapse of the Magic secondary market, these LGS will either go out of business or will no longer be able to provide as much support for Magic related events. The lack of support and promotion of Magic from LGS will gradually cause Magic to lose its player base. As the player base of Magic gets smaller Wizards of the Coast (WotC) will have issues selling sealed products to the LGS or to various events. The collapse of the secondary market by the counterfeits will indirectly affect WotC and eventually lead to the destruction of  Magic the Gathering, arguably the most amazing TCG that was ever made.

WotC has issued warnings and harsh penalties for counterfeiting Magic cards. However we all know that no matter how harsh the law is criminals will always exist. WotC finally decided to update the card frame by giving the rares and mythics a foil stamp for authentic identification. Although the new card frame will protect newly released Magic Cards it does nothing for the popular staples that have already been printed long ago.

It is extremely important to educate ourselves so that we do not get tricked by these fake cards in the market. While these fake Magic cards are uncannily similar to the legit cards there are some minor differences that allow us to tell the fakes apart from the real cards. There is no doubt that the counterfeiters will find ways to further improve the quality of the fake cards; however if we pay close attention to the texture, font and coloration of the print we should still be able to make correct identifications. Don't feel awkward bringing a magnifying lens or even a jeweler's loupe with you when making some expensive purchases, after all only you can protect yourself from the potential counterfeiters out there. Most importantly trust your instinct, if a card doesn't feel right to you the chances are it may be a fake.

For online purchases, Ebay may be the most dangerous place for buying Magic cards based on the current situation. The sellers may show you a real card image and send you the quality counterfeits instead; without careful examination your hard-earned money may be scammed by these unethical sellers. If you have to purchase online only buy from reputable vendors, that way you will have a greater assurance that the cards that you are getting are real.

As the Modern format gets increasingly more popular you should be expecting to see more counterfeit cards that are made based on the Modern staple list. The Modern staples circulate fast in the secondary market and a majority of them are much cheaper compared to the Legacy staples. It should not be a surprise to see that in the future we will find more fake Modern staples compared to Legacy// Vintage Staples. Just like printing counterfeit money, the currency that is circulated in the market the most gets printed.

The need to get quality "proxies" is not an excuse to purchase these fake cards. If the quality of the fakes are so high, you can guarantee that some of these "proxies" will leak to the secondary market. If you would like to obtain quality proxies there are plenty of local artists that can give you a hand. It may be more expensive but at least you will be getting some great looking proxies while at the same time discouraging the counterfeiters from printing fake cards. By choosing not to purchase counterfeit cards, you protect yourself, the Magic community and Magic the Gathering.

Until next time, stay alert and be vigilant!