Company Using X-Rays to Identify Foil Cards in Sealed Pokemon TCG Products: An Interview with Industrial Inspection

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Water Pokémon Master

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Over the past month, three separate videos have surfaced demonstrating that X-rays can identify foil cards inside sealed TCG products. This has caused quite a panic in the collecting sphere. This method was not known to collectors or even industry experts, although some fans have joked about the possibility for decades.
On June 26th, a Michigan company named Industrial Inspection published a case study showing how their CT machine can identify foil cards inside Pokemon products. The company uses CT scans to ensure automotive, aerospace, and medical equipment meet a manufacturer’s standards.


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This straight up makes collecting vintage worse. Sellers can claim items are "unscanned" when they already are scanned. Same as they have been doing by marking light packs as "unwieghed" for years. If the whole business becomes mainstream then overtime there will be much less trust in the community as a whole.
 
I would love to see this technology used for good to authenticate booster boxes. I have a handful of WOTC boxes that I’m not selling mainly because “my word vs theirs” on eBay disaster scenarios. Put these in the right hands!
 
Seems like it will mainly be an issue for loose packs from very old sets, not sure how common place those are for collecting as opposed to sniping specific cards off the open market
 
Low key, really cool from like a tech perspective (atleast for peebrain me). But for vintage stuff it can be an issue
 
Food for thought though. CT scans are basically x-rays and whatnot etc. Doesn't using an xray leave behind radiation exposure etc? So if a seller, say, at Collectacon, says they have a $10k booster box that is unscanned, isn't there a machine that can pick up residual radiation from CT scans? Could that be used potentially against "unscanned" scammers? Or is there a way to get rid of traces of radiation? Asking for a friend of course
 
Yeah... no, as far as the vintage market goes this'll either make even more of a walled garden for the rich and famous or tank it completely.

As far as using this on modern packs is concerned this is just abhorrent, it'll make sets with extremely desirable cards like a secret rare card that much harder to find. If TPCi is smart about this (and really doubt they will be) they'll ditch the aluminum-lined film they're currently using in their packs and switch to a film that's opaque to x-ray devices like these. Although I'd much rather see them put something into the pack sleeves that could actually damage these machines if they're scanned, that would really send a message.
Stunky said:
…What does AI art have to do with using CT scans for cards??? These are two wholly separate things. And it doesn’t even sound like people like the scanning stuff happening.
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Don't mind them, they're just a contrarian who's only looking to start arguments.
PMJ said:
I am not surprised to see you are just as much of a contrarian shitter now as you were years ago, c_p, but I am disappointed.

Guys, remember, when it comes to bait posts, the only winning move is not to play.
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As long as my local game store doesn't start scanning their packs before they sell them, I don't really see the issue. $75 per pack just doesn't seem worth it for modern cards.
 
Honestly, this was always a danger with keeping boosters as "investment". This kind of technology isn't new, neither is weighing packs.
If this causes the price of unopened packs to drop, that's pretty great. Buying unopened packs is already extremely risky and now you cannot trust any pack. Finally people who want to buy a pack to display it for aesthetic reasons will have means to do so.
 
I love this! More damage to scalpers. Buy directly from TPCi if you want unweighted/unscanned packs
 
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