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Originally posted by kingtal0n:
So would you recommend buying only played cards then? I heard that the fakes would not handle playing stresses well. Is that true?

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Originally posted by kingtal0n:
I am very very surprised there is no formal, official, how to tell fakes from reals website or link on this site. Somebody needs to put together a very detailed page about what the differences are IMO.

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Originally posted by kingtal0n:
I am very very surprised there is no formal, official, how to tell fakes from reals website or link on this site. Somebody needs to put together a very detailed page about what the differences are IMO.

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the problem with this, is once you make it, all the forgers have access to it. now they know exactly what you're looking for, and can make better. notice how they dont post this stuff for currency?

__________________
"He fights you not because you have wronged him, but because you are there."

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Originally posted by thror:
the problem with this, is once you make it, all the forgers have access to it. now they know exactly what you're looking for, and can make better. notice how they dont post this stuff for currency?

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I do not think the "forgers" need other people to judge their "forgeries" for them to know how "off" they are.

In other words, they are studying the original magic cards to make copies, so they already know how the real cards look. Its not like a very experience forger is going to create a fake, then distribute it around to the world and check for what other's think about their fakes before deciding what needs to be "improved"- as if we regular citizens are somehow better at detecting flaws than the person who originally created those flaws.

I'll bet there is a unique way to tell, something along the lines of carbon dating for instance that can detect the half-life of an atom present in all the old magic cards that is impossible to replicate, unless one used old magic cards. In which case, imagine them stripping revised commons to re-print dual lands on. same paper, perfect ink; indistinguishable right?

So maybe there is something in the ink we can check. A specific colour or atom there HAS to be.

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Originally posted by kingtal0n:
I am very very surprised there is no formal, official, how to tell fakes from reals website or link on this site. Somebody needs to put together a very detailed page about what the differences are IMO.

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http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+identify+fake+magic+cards

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Originally posted by Tha Gunslinga:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+identify+fake+magic+cards

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whoa, cool.

So After reading over 100 pages of material I have come to the conclusion that there are indeed fakes (some being sold to stores in fact) that are so good nobody can seem to tell.

this guy claims to have some to stores
http://zoklet.net/bbs/showthread.php?t=257172

Yet posted no pictures or proof?

You should be dilligent in watching for fakes...but not because of that link.

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Originally posted by JesusChristMD:
So your proof of fakes is a white supremacist forum where a random user, in a couple posts, kept claiming he sold them?

Yet posted no pictures or proof?

You should be dilligent in watching for fakes...but not because of that link.

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Weeeel. Actually that post just summed up my long list of searching. From what I've seen so far, many fakes feel and look just like the real thing. I have confirmed this again and again. Even some of the lettering and ink used, down to the spacing, is almost perfect. Almost. You would literally have to hold a real next to the fake at a very high power microscopic resolution and go pixel to pixel, and even then, there is no guarantee since many of the real cards are not identical anyways. It comes down to subtle ways the ink is used, such as the black colour of the font, or the direction crosshatch in the colours of the back.

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Originally posted by JesusChristMD:
So your proof of fakes is a white supremacist forum where a random user, in a couple posts, kept claiming he sold them?

Yet posted no pictures or proof?

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Originally posted by kingtal0n:
Weeeel. Actually that post just summed up my long list of searching. From what I've seen so far, many fakes feel and look just like the real thing. I have confirmed this again and again. Even some of the lettering and ink used, down to the spacing, is almost perfect. Almost. You would literally have to hold a real next to the fake at a very high power microscopic resolution and go pixel to pixel, and even then, there is no guarantee since many of the real cards are not identical anyways. It comes down to subtle ways the ink is used, such as the black colour of the font, or the direction crosshatch in the colours of the back.

At least I know 101 ways to tell, so I will risk buying a few, and put them to the test.

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So again, your confirmation is random person posting on the internetz?

I remember cracking revised packs in 1994. Truly disappointing if you opened them vs. Unlimited as the washed out look may of prompted you to think, could these be fake?

Good luck...Greg

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Originally posted by JesusChristMD:

So again, your confirmation is random person posting on the internetz?

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everybody on the internet is a random person.

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Originally posted by majicman:
My advice...Acquire some real ones from people who are legit and use those samples to distinguish between fakes and forged copies.

I remember cracking revised packs in 1994. Truly disappointing if you opened them vs. Unlimited as the washed out look may of prompted you to think, could these be fake?

Good luck...Greg

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Originally posted by kingtal0n:
everybody on the internet is a random person.

And no, I've encountered several well informed postings where the author had purchased a fake from ebay, scanned it, and thoroughly examined it to prove it was fake. Most often the light test and ink tests are what gives the card away.

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this was the best one:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-general/332174-card-authentication

here are some other randoms I pulled from history

http://classic.magictraders.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/024794.html

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?27363-Chinese-fakes/page54

There isn't a login button, per se. When you come to the forum main page, you can log in to your private message inbox. If you have cookies enabled in your preferences, which you can also find a link to on the front page if you're logged in, then they can be set up to store your password for a year. Then you shouldn't have to log in, but sometimes you do anyway, depending on how you have your browser set up.

Just an update, I've done quite a bit of 60x and 100x inspection of some older (1993~) mtg cards, the ones I am interested in. I am quite relieved to see that the way ink is distributed is VERY proprietary. Combined with all other aspects of card authenticity, such as weight, size, wear, and a other distinguishable features I feel confident that I could spot a fake if I had it in my hands (and under microscope). A microscope seems like the tool of choice for this.

Here are some pictures at 60x on a dual land using a cheap microscrope (have much better quality at school)

a link to the album (cannot post pictures here??)

http://s23.photobucket.com/user/draglarry/library/d2

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Originally posted by kingtal0n:
a link to the album (cannot post pictures here??)
http://s23.photobucket.com/user/draglarry/library/d2?sort=3&page=1

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Originally posted by Pail42:
"This album is Password-Protected"

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