disturbing discovery of new Magic fake cards

Ralph Herold · Post by **Ralph Herold** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 11:49 pm

I have been notified about the existence of a massive unauthorized reproduction of Magic cards in Australia (image coverage below). Here is what I have been told:

These are images of fake Mirrodin & 8th Edition cards that
I bought at a shop called "Sweet-2-U", in Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
In Australia, normal boosters cost $5.95(AUD), these were $3 (AUD), thatâ€™s why I bought a shitload.

The quality of the fakes is excellent and fooled my friends and I for a while. Right up until we
put the fake cards with real cards, the difference in size when you do that is immediately noticeable.
Also when all of the fake cards we bought are together, there is a perforated mark on the top and
bottom. When the cards are altogether this bump is unmistakable. The booster packaging though was
spot-on.

Once I realised they were fake I searched for faults and it soon became obvious. The colour on some
can be really weird. They are much glossier than normal. The good olâ€™ carta mundi smell isnâ€™t there.
And the card ordering was completely f*cked up. Sometimes there were 3 rares or none to a booster,
and a lot of repeated patterns.

closeup images
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/closeup-edge-fake.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/closeup-edge-real.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/closeu ... e-fake.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/closeu ... e-real.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/closeu ... l-fake.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/closeu ... l-real.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/closeup-edge-edge.jpg

comparison images
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/compared-land.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/compared-black.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/compared-green.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/compared-artifact.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/compared-white.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/compared-back.jpg

different size images
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/size-1.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/size-2.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/size-3.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/size-4.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/size-5.jpg

fake booster images
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/booster-front.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/booster-back.jpg

random fake card images
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/fake-8th-blue.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/fake-8th-green.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/fake-8th-land.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/fake-mirrodin-blue.jpg
http://www.magiclibrary.net/temp/fake-mirrodin-red.jpg

silver.paladin · Post by **silver.paladin** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 11:56 pm

Looks like a bunch of "new booster"s for Erl00 and Dragsamou and other collectors like them need to get their hands on   :D

Post by **dragsamou** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 12:41 am

Looks like a bunch of "new booster"s for Erl00 and Dragsamou and other collectors like them need to get their hands on Â :D

Hi Silver.
Do not worry,these Boosters and cards are all over Paris already,same production  ::)
But,the people who bought them have only the eyes to cry now  :-X
As they are not Demo Boosters no interest for me  ;)
And the last Booster in my Normal Collection is an Exodus  :D

squt · Post by **squt** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 1:18 am

I've been buying lots of cheap chinese product lately, and I've been worried that they're fakes ($40 a box?), but I can't tell - they pass the bend test, there are foils that look normal, and there isn't any real difference...anyone else seen Chinese fakes of sets like Legions?

Were there foils in these fake australian packs?

Squt

Tenacious_Dyl · Post by **Tenacious_Dyl** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 1:20 am

dragsamou, you mean these exact same fakes are in France... questions:

if you cannot tell by the booster, is this not a VERY bad problem?!

how long have you known they to be in paris?

Ralph Herold · Post by **Ralph Herold** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 1:26 am

I consider this a serious case of copyright infringement, and I think WotC needs to be contacted. I want to get more feedback before doing something, however.

dry cereal · Post by **dry cereal** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 1:32 am

the boosters have the top and bottom pack-crimps the wrong way, duh.  Any crimp collector would notice that  :P 8)

hammr7 · Post by **hammr7** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 1:36 am

I can't believe it!  Crimps actually coming in handy for something ???   ;D

jamesbond · Post by **jamesbond** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 1:46 am

wizards of the coast already know for these fakes, they did an article on this  ;) : http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/209

Tenacious_Dyl · Post by **Tenacious_Dyl** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 2:09 am

Since the Hasbro sell-out, WotC has pretty much been declining on the "intelligent choices" sector... but they are still observant enough to know there are fakes out there. I would say however they are a little too confident.

They have been all "well no one has reproduced our wizards shrink wrap seal, wheeeeee". I'm pretty sure the buyers of the counterfeits aren't pausing and asking where the wrapper to the box is. If they do, then others won't anyway. Not to mention, that is an *incredibly* easy to fake thing.

Perhaps if they had a hologram logo on the top or side of the box itself, in the cardboard, they wouldn't have problems, or at least less problems.

Milky white "wizards" logos are by no means hard to copy if one really desired to do so. Its one color of ink for god sake! Oh well.

This is more of a problem to consumers than anyone else. WotC still gets paid for real cards, and you can hardly trade for these fakes.. their quality is sub-par. The problem I see is little children buying single boosters, that seems to be the only loss, however it is very scary, seeing how close these fakes are.

Ralph Herold · Post by **Ralph Herold** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 3:04 am

jamesbond: Nice discovery! I read Magic Arcana every day, but somehow I completely forgot this article. I have become old ;D

silver.paladin · Post by **silver.paladin** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 3:23 am

wizards of the coast already know for these fakes, they did an article on this Â ;) : http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/209

I remember reading this article before. Â Somebody post this article a while back, but now I cannot remember if I read it here or on MTGNews (these are the only 2 sites I go to Magic-wise), as I do not go to WoTC anymore, except by a thread/link that sends me there for some reason, or for books. Â I do not go to the Wizards website at all anymore, except for 2 reasons - new and upcoming novels, and if for some odd reason I need to access a cardlist.

Squt,
Did you do the rip and tear test on some common card, such as WotC suggests??

Gakster · Post by **Gakster** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 4:48 am

From all the aussie packs that I bought, there wasn't one foil in the lot.

Thinking about how WotC might try to get around this. I noticed that on the backs of my Fifth Dawn boosters there was a white box with some printed serial number in it. I guess that is so they can track distribution.
But I guess it wouldn't be hard to fake that even if you don't know what the serial numbers mean.

I never ever thought about the vertical vs. horizontal heat seal striations!

TerraFrost · Post by **TerraFrost** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 5:13 am

I remember reading this article before. Â Somebody post this article a while back, but now I cannot remember if I read it here or on MTGNews (these are the only 2 sites I go to Magic-wise), as I do not go to WoTC anymore, except by a thread/link that sends me there for some reason, or for books.

it was posted here (on magicrarities):

http://www.magiclibrary.net/cgi-bin/yab ... ;start=0#0

also, while WotC is clearly aware that fakes are being made, i wouldn't say that they know about these fakes ;)

additionally, you took some nice pics of those cards, ralph :)

Ralph Herold · Post by **Ralph Herold** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 5:21 am

TerraFrost: Thanks, but the honor belongs to Gakster. He sent me the coverage and asked me to publish it.

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