Secondly, rebacks will feel quite tough relative to real Magic cards and so may struggle to pass the bend test.

I also suggest you check your card using black light (also known as UV-A light or Wood’s lamp). If you know the list they have is always a good idea, to check cards you get against it and cards present on it twice.

From the small white triangles near the black border of Alpha and Beta to the way the mana cost is printed (it is in solid black on a dotted background), several features of the card are checked. More recently traders have been moving towards the light test over the bend test.

Here are scans of two cards. Well, I would say “very good” or “very, very good”, depending on your knowledge of the game. However do not use this if you have doubts, or do not own the card… the other party might be somewhat unimpressed! That left me one option: a disreputable printing company.

If you found yourself in a prison cell with a hardened criminal asking what you're in for, what's the most embarrassing possible answer?

Basically, it’s impossible not to see the difference: the fake has a dotted pattern while the real is solid black. The issue of faked Magic cards is finally getting some attention and is the cause of some panic in the gamer community. The process of rebacking a card entails taking the legitimate back of an unmarked card and attaching to the front of this card the front of a marked card, most commonly Collector’s Edition cards. You can easily see that the difference is huge. Fake number 1: here the external border is less defined, but the external border is still clearly wrong. Once I'd learned all I could, I returned to the copy place and gave it another shot. It is worth noting that older cards that have endured hardship, especially water damage, can have their ‘natural’ characteristics altered in such a way that they will fail such tests, despite being real cards. Knowing what a real card feels like, what to look for and how to spot a fake is a good set of skills to develop if investing in Magic and helps us look out for each other as members of the, For example there are a large variety of variations in print quality and colouring in different magic sets which might ‘, How to Spot Fake & Counterfeit Magic: The Gathering Cards, by Sam Martin. I hope this will make people more vigilant and confidant in tackling the issue of authenticity and thus contribute to a thriving Magic community; knowledge is power after all. You could say it's the buyers, but keep in mind, they're getting value for their sale as long as the card can be used as intended in the game. Foils are hard to test, but near impossible to counterfeit. Email us here.

Note how the counterfeit Ancestral is much more dark respect to the original (no black dots inside a white letter).

Corners? But with the next sale comes trouble. C'mon. Thanks for connecting! Return to Ravnica Cards you need to own - Shared Discovery by Rob Wagner.

Hopefully this guide actively encourages people to build up confidence in judging the authenticity of cards for themselves; a skill set especially relevant if trading at bigger events like Magic: The Gathering GP’s.

"This is bullshit. It’s a great tool and you should have it if you are serious about collecting vintage cards. Alternatively if no light is passing through the card then you can almost certainly be assured there is something wrong with the card. The truth is, I didn't steal the card out of anyone's car.

One day, a potential customer falsely accused one of my Shivan Dragons of being a fake. All Magic: The Gathering cards after enough bend tests will fail.

It’s here where the real fun begins.