Pokémon (Not-So) Griefing Thread - Scarlet and Violet Released with 10 Million Copies in First 3 Days in Buggy States

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Lurker said:
it's like the worst possible everything - male, lonely nature, shit stats, no titles
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Oh lord, the Pokémon TCG collecting community just took a massive hit just now. It appears that a large group of prototype Pokémon cards sent to CGC might be forgeries.
The authenticity of the Pokemon TCG’s famous “prototype cards” are now being called into question.

Last year, hundreds of prototype Pokemon cards began to sell in collecting circles from the personal collection of Takumi Akabane, one of the original creators of the Pokemon TCG. He worked at Creatures until 2008. He recently attended events to sign some of the cards. Grading company CGC worked closely with Akabane to verify the cards’ authenticity.

The prototype cards represent the earliest days of the TCG, produced in 1995 before Base Set released in Japan. They show the progression of Pokemon cards from their “proof of concept” stage where they used their Red & Green sprites to their beta designs that used their final artwork from Mitsuhiro Arita and Ken Sugimori.

Last night, however, the collecting community was hit by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake.

One of the buyers of the cards, PFM, used an obscure forensic technique to reveal many of the cards were actually printed in the summer of 2024. This includes cards that CGC authenticated as coming directly from Akabane’s collection.

Most printers imbue hidden watermarks on their pages that contain information like the printer’s serial number and the date its pages were printed. This is so governments and law enforcement can track the origins of documents.

For example, the prototype Nidoqueen has an imperceptible dot code matrix that shows it was printed on June 29th, 2024. Many other collectors have also posted scans of their cards, discovering that theirs too were printed in 2024.

In a statement to PokeBeach, PFM said, “It was really disheartening to find this out. More than the financial aspect, I thought it was cool to own a piece of history and it’s unfortunate it turned out this way.”

It’s currently unclear if some or all of the cards are fake. Since last year, fans have already distinguished different print runs of the cards. It’s unknown if there is a real, original print run.

It’s also unclear if Takumi Akabane knew any of the cards were printed in 2024. It seems unlikely a former Pokemon employee would be involved in any purposeful wrongdoing, especially when Pokemon takes their IP very seriously.

Several millions dollars of the cards have sold since last year. For example, a prototype Pikachu recently sold for $20,000 at Goldin Auction House. It is one of hundreds of cards.

Collectors are currently contacting auction houses to remove active listings of the cards until the full story is uncovered.

CGC Cards, who authenticated the cards, has not made a public statement yet.

However, Alt auction house published the following: “We’re aware of recent claims regarding CGC graded Pokemon Prototype and Playtest cards that have been sold across various platforms. CGC has assured us they are taking these allegations seriously and are conducting a thorough review. We’re staying in close communication with CGC and will share updates as they become available.”
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This probably won't alleviate the problems that the modern market is experiencing right now (that's on TPCi, some scummy distributors, and some extremely scummy LGSs) but hopefully this'll scare off those pesky influencers.

EDIT: The story has been updated to confirm that three prototype cards featuring the Kanto starters are genuine, it’s been confirmed that they have print dates of 1996 and higher-quality backs. The counterfeit cards have lower-quality backs, 2024 print dates, and CGC Grade 10s.
 
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I found card collecting, even more the ones who values monetary value over actual collecting for x reason (artwork, colors, whatever you say) to be quite disgusting.
 
Registration said:
I found card collecting, even more the ones who values monetary value over actual collecting for x reason (artwork, colors, whatever you say) to be quite disgusting.
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As a kid, part of my allowance was a pack of Pokemon cards a week because I was really into all things Pokemon. This was during the DP era so I was never able to make a competitive deck, and the result was after a couple of years I just wound up with a couple of tins full of cardboard and nothing to show for it. I still have them stowed away as a reminder of how much of a waste of money trading cards are.
 
Computer God Autism said:
As a kid, part of my allowance was a pack of Pokemon cards a week because I was really into all things Pokemon. This was during the DP era so I was never able to make a competitive deck, and the result was after a couple of years I just wound up with a couple of tins full of cardboard and nothing to show for it. I still have them stowed away as a reminder of how much of a waste of money trading cards are.
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I have some 20 cards that I don't even know how I got, and those are 20 years old already.
 
Two new Pokédex completion-based distributions have been launched on Pokémon Home. You can get a Shiny Enamorus if you complete the Hisui Pokédex and a Shiny Manaphy if you complete the Sinnoh Regional Pokédex (via BDSP). Like the Shiny Meloetta needing Pokémon originated from SV to complete its Pokédexes you'll need Pokémon from Pokémon Legends Arceus to complete Home's Hisui Pokédex and Pokemon from BDSP to complete the Sinnoh Regional Pokédex.

Also, I've also edited my post regarding the news regarding the counterfeit prototype cards with an update.
 
Any faith in the cards value or rarity were totally destroyed when that scandal came out about the guy at the card factory stealing all the ultra rares and selling them online. If you were really pulling packs for good cards that added a bit of doubt and that bell can never really be un-rung
 
Punished Brent said:
Any faith in the cards value or rarity were totally destroyed when that scandal came out about the guy at the card factory stealing all the ultra rares and selling them online. If you were really pulling packs for good cards that added a bit of doubt and that bell can never really be un-rung
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It didn’t help that you had faggots like pokerev, who also grift their audience, hyping up moonbreon and other chase cards to be a huge contributing factor in this. Even that nigger Jason Paige is trying to get in on this by making a faggot ass song about the new umbreon. The hype from the “community” has left such a sour taste in my mouth that makes me really despise these people because they’re no different than faggots like Rudy trying to hype up magic sets.
Registration said:
I found card collecting, even more the ones who values monetary value over actual collecting for x reason (artwork, colors, whatever you say) to be quite disgusting.
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Grading is a scam and the people who do collecting for money are people too stupid or economically illiterate to invest in something that’s not related to children’s media.
 
Punished Brent said:
Any faith in the cards value or rarity were totally destroyed when that scandal came out about the guy at the card factory stealing all the ultra rares and selling them online.
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Ah, the old Fusion Strike printer theft scandal. I remember that one, that one may have had a hand in TPCi buying Millennium Print Group in 2022 alongside the shameful release of Celebrations.

That said the fucker didn't sell 'em online AFAIK, he tried to sell them at an LGS and said LGS actually called the cops on him for suspected theft. Nowadays you'd be lucky to see an LGS do something like that.
Punished Brent said:
If you were really pulling packs for good cards that added a bit of doubt and that bell can never really be un-rung
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It did up until Crown Zenith where the pull rates were somewhat good and it lasted until Paradox Rift (the jury's out on it affecting Paldean Fates), after that TPCi actually had the scruples listen to investors complaining about how easy it was to pull Secret Illustration Rares and bump their pull rate down from one-per-booster-box to 2-per-booster-case.

And then Shrouded Fable came out and showed us how awful said pull rates would be for special set and TPCi did nothing to correct course.
Abella said:
It didn’t help that you had faggots like pokerev, who also grift their audience, hyping up moonbreon and other chase cards to be a huge contributing factor in this. Even that nigger Jason Paige is trying to get in on this by making a faggot ass song about the new umbreon. The hype from the “community” has left such a sour taste in my mouth that makes me really despise these people because they’re no different than faggots like Rudy trying to hype up magic sets.
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You also can't forget Logan Paul the Forever-Retarded leaning into the game with his bullshit. At least he seems to have finally backed the fuck off after he bought that "legit" 1st Edition Base Set booster box that everybody told him was really fucking fishy, ignored the advice because he's retarded, and opened it only to discover its contents were replaced with GI Joe trading card packs and resealed.
Abella said:
Grading is a scam and the people who do collecting for money are people too stupid or economically illiterate to invest in something that’s not related to children’s media.
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Seconding this, a fair amount of the scalpers that came in during the Logan Paul fiasco came from the sneaker sniper community.
 
My wife wanted to frame the illustration rare gardevoir ex line from SV and every halfwit she knew kept telling her to get it graded because that’s something done for literally every card now. There’s people submitting fucking bulk rares and commons now. She wound up getting a frame for the set and one for her moonbreon she pulled and just called it a day.
 
I just completed the Hisui Pokédex challenge, unlike SV's challenge it does require you to add in the game's Mythical Pokémon since they're technically available without an event (Arceus is obtained once you complete the Pokédex, Phione and Manaphy can be obtained by either reading the stories in BDSP's Canalave Library, and Drakrai and Shaymin have missions that are unlocked with save data from past games).

I also did some more research on the counterfeit prototype cards and it appears that folks who got the cards graded at CGC tried to get them graded at PSA but they refused to do so. Something tells me that they could smell the bullshit coming off of the counterfeits but IIRC PSA has also allowed fakes to get through their submission process.
 
anliteralidiot said:
Oh shit, this is the first time it's been available too, right? I don't think it's been in Go yet.
And I've already got this one done, hell yeah.
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Yep, it’s the first time it’s been available anywhere. If past Shiny Legendary Pokémon drops are to be believed then Enamorus’s should be this year if Niantic doesn’t pull a fast one on players and drops Therian Forme Enamorus instead.
 
Oh my God, this counterfeiting fiasco just gets crazier and crazier.

It’s now believed that uncut sheets of a Pikachu Trophy card and a Pikachu Illustrator card may be forgeries.
The prototype card scandal continues.

In December, uncut sheets of the famous Pikachu trophy cards and a Pikachu Illustrator card were offered for sale by reputable Pokemon sellers. At least one set was purchased by a known Chinese collector, Xiao, for an undisclosed amount that likely exceeded several million dollars. He posted his sheets recently.

Another set of the uncut sheets appears to sport Takumi Akabane’s signature next to each card.

These uncut sheets were believed to have originated from Takumi Akabane’s collection, the retired Creatures employee who sold off his prototype Pokemon cards last year. He attended multiple events to sign cards.

However, it’s now been discovered that at least one of the Pikachu sheets has 2024 watermarks. The serial number of the printer is also the same as the printer used for the embroiled prototype cards.

Since all of the Pikachu cards originally released in the ’90s, it means at least one of these sets was likely forged. It also calls into question all other uncut sheets from the same origin.

Again, it’s unclear if Takumi Akabane was knowingly involved in what may be an ongoing scam. More information should emerge over the coming weeks, especially since authentication company CGC is conducting an investigation.

The “Pikachu Trophy” cards were originally awarded between 1997 and 1998 to the top three finishers at Japan’s national tournaments. A set of all three cards sold last year for nearly $800,000.

The “Pikachu Illustrator” card is considered the holy grail of Pokemon cards and has sold for up to $5 million. In 1998 it was awarded through three illustrator contests in CoroCoro magazine. It’s estimated around 39 copies were awarded.
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There’s only one reaction that I have for this kind of fucker and it’s…
But seriously, what the actual fuck is going on here?
 
With brain dead niggers trying to scalp fucking McDonald’s promos nothing surprises me anymore and I want everyone involved to burn.
 
What is so great about Pokémon cards? No one actually plays the game and it seems like its just money launderers pushing a fake economy around it.
 
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