Pokemon Announces Legal Action Against Counterfeit Cards on Auction Platforms

[Water Pokémon Master]

Creatures has announced it will be taking action against those who sell counterfeit Pokemon cards on auction platforms in Japan. For example, they name “replica” Pokemon cards and “metal” Pokemon cards.

“Replica” Illustrator Pikachu for $30

“Metal” Charizard VMAX for $8



Creatures states they will be working with auction websites to suspend the sales of these items and take legal action against the offenders. Presumably they will be pursuing companies who produce and sell these items.

Replica FA Supporters

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[Nirvanna21]

Great, can this be extended to everywhere else?

 

[MarlinRimes]

I understand going after fake cards posing as real ones but I hope this doesn’t include custom cards and those gold ones

 

[bunnelbyfeetsniffer]

I understand going after fake cards posing as real ones but I hope this doesn’t include custom cards and those gold ones

if you’re going to make custom cards or those awful gold ones then you have to realize that you are using pokémon IP and they have full rights. not defending the corporation but fake is fake and they have every right to take action

 

[b_b_pkmn]

I understand going after fake cards posing as real ones but I hope this

the majority of custom cards have stolen artwork on them, so those need to be removed as well imo

 

[Nirvanna21]

I understand going after fake cards posing as real ones but I hope this doesn’t include custom cards and those gold ones

While echo'ing what the others have said above, the reality is that custom cards and gold cards etc also are a real problem. The number of times people have gone into the hobby with little knowledge, buy cards for themselves or their kids and finding out they are fakes is just such a common issue. Going after all fakes is best for everyone. I have no issues with people printing proxies or even cards for themselves (I did a custom set of Ragnarok Online cards for example); however, when they turn up on auction sites, it's not good.

 

[MasterGallade]

The fact that people still can't tell the difference between fake & real cards in 2023 baffles me lollll

 

[PokeJAM]

Finally!

 

[wenshenxi]

I understand going after fake cards posing as real ones but I hope this doesn’t include custom cards and those gold ones

I sure hope it does

 

[Hongo]

Good!

I get tired of seeing these by the hour on Reddit with the OP asking, “Is this real??? How much is it worth???”

 

[KingCobra]

How am I going to play Pikachu VMAX with 10000 HP at a locals now?

 

[Yombo]

Until this happens for the other markets, not worth thinking about it. I'm glad they are doing something, but they could have done that like 10 years ago or something when it would be easier for them to do it. Now it will be a costly expense for them to have a team to do nothing but monitor bots/scripts searching for the cards on online marketplaces. Then the sellers will just find some other way of describing them. It's too lucrative for them to do it that most of them will just circumvent whatever they have to to keep doing it. Then they'd have to switch to have people to do nothing but search marketplaces all day for the ones that don't outright call them fakes.

 

[Porygatto]

Let's hope it won't affect artists, like people on Etsy trying to sell their art. They're not trying to deceive people, just sharing fanarts.

 

[Yaginku]

"In Japan"
Whoop-de-doo.
I've seen these fakes not just on bazaars, but inside actual stores. There is a massive distribution network of fake cards in Europe, even coming in multiple languages.

 

[pokeraider123456]

"In Japan"
Whoop-de-doo.
I've seen these fakes not just on bazaars, but inside actual stores. There is a massive distribution network of fake cards in Europe, even coming in multiple languages.

This has been ongoing thing since pokemon cards was released, early 2000s, even some stores were selling bootleg pokemon gen games a while back. It was pervasive in stores in chinatown, where pokemon cards are more likely to be sold in packs. Havnt gone in decade+, but im assuming its still there. They sell them in almost legit looking packs, when it really a cheap printed sticker, with the Japanese card that was scanned. The ones that are actually manufacturing the cards do have sophisticated printers to do itz although they cant exactly copy on to a cheap platic looking metallic paper. I suspect most of them are being manufactured in china, since they show up in chinese stores the most.

 

[pokeraider123456]

Until this happens for the other markets, not worth thinking about it. I'm glad they are doing something, but they could have done that like 10 years ago or something when it would be easier for them to do it. Now it will be a costly expense for them to have a team to do nothing but monitor bots/scripts searching for the cards on online marketplaces. Then the sellers will just find some other way of describing them. It's too lucrative for them to do it that most of them will just circumvent whatever they have to to keep doing it. Then they'd have to switch to have people to do nothing but search marketplaces all day for the ones that don't outright call them fakes.

They will just manufacturing these cards where japan has no jurisdiction, like china, since most of the fake cards do come from the country. Japan will have to target the websites that are selling them, to stymie the distribution but it wont stop them, it will just be like pirating streams, they just switch to different websites,. And if these websites arnt in countries that are not western they cant stop them.

 

[pokeraider123456]

Great, can this be extended to everywhere else?

I doubt it europe and other western countries are likely to comply. But asia, mostly china, south america probably are less likely to be affected.

 

[MagnaDrake]

The fact that people still can't tell the difference between fake & real cards in 2023 baffles me lollll

if youre an unsuspecting new collector, or someone hoping to flip a quick buck, this happens more than you likely think.

 

[MarlinRimes]

While echo'ing what the others have said above, the reality is that custom cards and gold cards etc also are a real problem. The number of times people have gone into the hobby with little knowledge, buy cards for themselves or their kids and finding out they are fakes is just such a common issue. Going after all fakes is best for everyone. I have no issues with people printing proxies or even cards for themselves (I did a custom set of Ragnarok Online cards for example); however, when they turn up on auction sites, it's not good.

Ye, I understand that fakes can easily be seen as real to any new player

 

[Frost]

Maybe they should examine why specific cards have fan-made replicas. I've purchased a few of those myself (advertised as custom cards openly) because the cost to buy a real one is absurd: cards that are very old that will not receive reprints probably ever, cards we simply never got outside of Japan at all, cards that feature female trainers because that's an even bigger problem in Japan than here, etc. Throwing a lawsuit in Japan over the ugly gold plated cards everyone should know are fake and are made due to Pokemon's poor pull rates isn't solving anything.