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How to Tell if a Pokemon Card is Fake or Real

How To Spot Fake Pokemon Cards

Fake Pokemon cards are actually quite rare because you’d have to be stupid to try to sell them. You shouldn’t be worried about fake products or fake Pokemon cards as long as you’re buying them from a reputable source. But if you’re buying it from somewhere you’re not familiar with, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Here’s how to spot a fake Pokemon card.

What Are Fake Pokemon Cards?

Some might see packs that look suspicious and mistake them for fake cards. Fake Pokemon cards are different from re-sealed packs. A pack that is re-sealed means that the seller already opened and looked through the pack, and they may have even replaced cards. You don’t want to buy resealed packs either because you’re not likely to get any good pulls from them. If a card is fake, it means it wasn’t manufactured by the official company that makes Pokémon cards. There are several ways you can tell the real from the fake, but some are surprisingly convincing.

What To Look Out For

Here’s how to tell if a Pokemon card is fake. The first thing to look out for is the packaging that it’s in. Obviously, you can’t inspect the cards before buying them so be sure to take a close look at the pack that it’s in. If you have the time, you can even look up the pack that it’s in and compare pictures online to the product that you see. If you don’t see anything wrong with the packaging and you’re still suspicious of the cards that you pulled, there are more signs to look for.

Another thing you want to look for are spelling and grammar errors. Its more common for fake cards to have these types of errors but some real cards have errors as well, so if your card has an error, make sure to look up if that error is real. Many fake cards also aren’t as crisp and high quality as real ones. Watch out for any faded colors or smudging. Comparing the size and shape of a real card to your card is another good way to tell the authenticity. All cards are the same size. Some may be cut poorly, and the centering will be off, but the size is always the same.

Are Fake Pokemon Cards Illegal?

Though the seller might think they’re making a lot of money, it is illegal to knowingly sell a counterfeit product. You can fall into a lot of legal trouble if you do this. Whether you’re buying Pokémon cards online or at a local card shop, it’s best to be safe to look out for any suspicious signs that they might be fake cards.

The Rip Test

The final and most reliable test is called the rip test. This is when you rip the card in half to verify your suspicions and should only be done when either when you’re completely sure it’s a fake or you don’t care about the card. When real Pokémon cards are being made, there is a small layer of black ink that goes in the middle layer of the card. Ripping the card will expose this ink more clearly, if you see a black line, it’s a real card. Luckily, before you accidentally rip a real card in half, you can do the rip test without actually tearing your card. Look at the sides of your card, you should be able to see white with a tiny black line in the middle. This black line is the ink mentioned before and also confirms your card is real.

All Alternate Art Cards from Pokemon GO TCG Set

What are Alt Art Cards?

Alternate Full Art cards, Alt Art for short, are like other rare or ultra-rare cards with art the deviates from the normal theme. Usually, a set will be consistent with the art style it uses and cards such as V and VMAX don’t add much background art to the illustrations. Alt art cards add a lot of detail to Pokemon and the background environment. On top of having amazing art, they’re also usually very rare, making them some of the most expensive cards you can get from modern sets of Pokemon cards.

Pokemon GO Alt Art Cards

There are only 2 Pokemon GO Alt Arts. Recently, sets have been containing 4 or more Alt Art cards so this set is on the low end if you’re just looking for alternate art but it still has some great cards to offer. Here are all Pokemon GO Alt Arts.

Mewtwo V Alt Art

As of writing this, the Alternate Art Mewtwo V is the most expensive card in the Pokemon GO set. What makes it the most valuable card is a combination of popularity and rarity. It’s not the rarest card according to the pull rates but it is a huge chase card for many fans because Mewtwo is a popular Pokemon and the art looks amazing!

Conkeldurr V Alt Art

The second and final alt art card in the Pokemon Go set list is this Conkeldurr V Alternate Full Art. The art gives Sword and Shield vibes featuring the Pokemon in the middle of a giant stadium but sticks to the Pokemon GO art style that we see throughout the set. This card isn’t super valuable in terms of money but is still very rare and definitely a great pull if you’re lucky enough to get it.

Which chase card is your favorite from the Pokemon GO TCG set? Let us know in the comments below!

Buy Pokemon GO Cards

If you’re looking to get some Pokemon GO packs yourself, a great place for cards is GameStop! Not only will you be getting packs from a reliable source for a good price, but PokePatch earns a commission on qualifying purchases, so you’ll be helping our website stay up. Thank you!

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What are Pokemon GO TCG Codes & How to Redeem Them

The new, long awaited Pokemon GO TCG set is out and fans all around are buying up products and finding codes that are usable in the Pokemon GO mobile game. When redeemed, these codes give you free items in the Pokemon GO game. What exactly do you get for using these codes and where do you redeem them?

What Do You Get?

Upon redeeming your Pokemon GO codes, you’ll get a set of common items or a rare item. The common items are new stickers that you can gift to friends, along with berries, potions, and TMs. If you’re lucky, you can also get rare items which are incubators for hatching eggs or a set of avatar items. This image below shows the possible combinations of items that you’ll receive when redeeming these codes.

Redeeming these codes can be a little confusing at first because it’s not a feature that’s often used in-game. It’s also different depending on what device you’re using. Here’s how to redeem Pokemon GO codes from Pokemon GO TCG boxes.

How to Claim Pokemon GO codes

Claim Codes on Android

Tap the Pokeball Main Menu button
Tap the Shop button
Scroll to the bottom of the Shop
Enter your code under “Promos“

Claim Codes on iOS / iPhone

Go to the Niantic “Redeem offers” website
Sign in to your Pokemon GO account
Enter your promo code

Are Pokemon GO TCG Pull Rates That Bad?

Are Pokemon GO TCG Pull Rates That Bad?

The long awaited new Pokemon GO TCG set is out! There are many fans chasing cards such as the Radiant Charizard and Alternate Art Mewtwo but many people are reporting that their chase cards are difficult to pull. YouTubers by the name of Derium’s Pokemon uploaded a great video of them opening 500 Pokemon GO booster packs! This video shows pretty well what to expect when opening Pokemon GO packs. Are Pokemon GO pull rates bad? We crunched the numbers from Derium’s video and our own packs, here you can see Pokemon GO TCG odds.

Pokemon GO Pull Rates Chart

Holo Slot Rares

Card Type	Ratio	Percent Chance
V	1:6 (1 out of 6 packs)	16% chance per pack
VSTAR	1:21	4.6%
Full Art V	1:31	3.2%
Secret Rare	1:35	2.8%
VMAX	1:62	1.6%
Alt Art	1:166	0.6%
Trainer	1:250	0.4%

Reverse Slot Rares

Card Type	Ratio	Percent Chance
Peelable Ditto	1:33	3%
Radiant Venusaur	1:45	2.2%
Radiant Blastoise	1:71	1.4%
Radiant Charizard	1:100	1%

Odds Compared to Previous Set

These pull rates show that cards such as the new peelable ditto card and all Radiant Pokemon cards in the set are more difficult to pull than previously expected. Especially the peelable Ditto pull rate as it’s almost as rare as the Secret Rare pull rate in this set. It’s a very unique card and a huge chase card for many fans opening these packs, so it’s not surprising that it’s rarer than your usual reverse holo. You have a 4.6% chance of pulling one of the Radiant Pokemon cards from this set, which is almost half the odds from Astral Radiance. The odds of pulling most other types of cards haven’t changed drastically and is actually really similar to the previous Astral Radiance TCG set.

Is the Pokemon GO Set Worth It?

This set is great for fans of the Pokemon GO mobile game and TCG collectors alike. Although, the pull rates may not be great, there is great art displayed all throughout the set list. This is a very special set that Pokemon GO players have been waiting years for and we may not see a similar set of Pokemon cards ever again. For this reason, it’s also a really good set to hold on to long term if you’re someone who collects sealed products. It’s one that people will remember for a long time.

Where to Buy Pokemon GO Packs

If you’re looking to buy Pokemon GO booster packs, one of the best places to get Pokemon cards from is GameStop! Not only will you be getting them from a reliable source for a good price, but PokePatch earns a commision on qualifying purchases, so you’ll be helping our website stay up. Thank you!

Get on GameStop >

Why You See Pokemon Cards Stocked Everywhere Now

Demand for Pokemon Cards

If you’ve bought any Pokemon cards in the past couple years, you may have noticed they’re hard to come by. Store shelves were quickly wiped clean as soon as they’re stocked by people all over the world trying to get into the hype of Pokemon cards. This high demand has attracted scalpers, which are people who aren’t fans of the hobby, but people trying to make a quick buck by buying out stock and reselling the product at extreme mark ups for profit. The Pokemon Company has been hard at work to combat these scalpers and to satisfy the high demand for its products this year. Here’s how they fixed Pokemon cards being out of stock.

Stocked Pokemon Cards

The Pokemon Company have helped this issue by printing more Pokemon cards for allocation than ever before at 9 billion cards in a year in 2021. That’s more than double the amount of Pokemon cards they made the previous year. This influx of new Pokemon cards has helped shelves stay stocked for longer. This doesn’t stop older vintage Pokemon cards from skyrocketing in price because those are no longer being printed and never will be again. The only cards being printed are modern sets from the current generation of Pokemon. This overprinting of cards really helps anyone trying to buy these modern sets of cards. This has helped heal the hobby as a whole by making new Pokemon sets more available than they have been since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. While rare cards will still be expensive, booster packs won’t be as hard to come by and everyone can enjoy opening packs again!

Pokemon Cards from GameStop

If you’re looking to buy Pokemon cards, a great place to get them from is GameStop. Not only will you be getting them from a trusted source for a good price, but PokePatch also earns commission on qualifying purchases, so you’ll be helping our website stay up. Thank you!

Get on GameStop >

How to Get Special Delivery Charizard Promo Pokemon Card

Pokepatch Pokemon Special Delivery Charizard

Similar to the Special Delivery Pikachu promo card, the new Special Delivery Charizard is a special card to celebrate a Pokemon Center milestone. The Special Delivery Pikachu was available to some Pokemon Center customers who spent more than $20 on the website. The card now has a resale value of about $150. Since this became a very rare and popular card, talk about the Special Delivery Charizard promo card has been floating around for almost 2 years now. It’s finally been announced that this long-awaited black star promo card will be available through the Pokemon Center soon but not just anyone can get one. Here’s how you can get one yourself!

Where to Get Special Delivery Charizard

To get your hands on a Special Delivery Charizard you’ll need to act fast, as they’re only available while supplies last. On the official Pokemon Center website, a sign-up page has been released for this Special Delivery Charizard promotion. Enter your information there for the chance to receive a one-time code. Once you’ve entered your info, you’ll get a confirmation email. If you were among the first people to sign up, you’ll get another email within 12 weeks with a code. This one-time code can be used on the Pokemon Center for orders above $20 to receive a Special Delivery Charizard card bonus with your order!

This card is only available to fans in the US, UK, and Canada. Codes will expire December 31st, 2022.

What is a Bad Egg in Pokemon

What is A Pokemon Bad Egg Glitch?

Bad Eggs are an item in Pokemon that appear when a Pokemon’s data becomes corrupt. This usually happens when a player tries to hack or cheat in the game by editing any data in a Pokemon. The really bad thing about Bad Eggs is sometimes these glitched items can spread and corrupt other parts of your game. For example, if you have a bad egg, other Pokemon near it in your bag or party can also become bad eggs. Worst of all, if too much data becomes corrupt, it can cause your game to crash and become completely unplayable in some cases. Eggs in Pokemon are known to hatch but if a Bad Egg hatches, it’ll just become another Bad Egg.

Pokemon Bad Egg Fix

Fixing a bad egg in Pokemon isn’t impossible but extremely difficult. A video by YouTuber Nick Robinson shows the incredibly long process they went through to recover a single Pokemon from this bug. There’s no step by step guide to fixing or recovering a Pokemon from a bad egg because corrupt data is never consistent. Essentially, you’ll have to find that Pokemon’s personality data and make sure all of its values match that unique personality. Because this glitch is so complicated, it’s usually better to cut your losses and try to get rid of the bad egg or delete your save file.

Pokemon Bad Egg Removal

Usually, bad eggs can’t be released in Pokemon so people have to get creative and think of different ways to get rid of these glitched Pokemon. The most common way of removing a bad egg is to trade it to another account and deleting that save file. There are also ways of removing a bad egg through cheating, but obviously that’s not recommended as it might create more problems than it fixes.

New Nabisco Pokemon Snacks and Sweepstakes for Back to School Promotion

All New Pokemon Snacks

If you remember about a year ago, Nabisco and Pokemon teamed up to make Pokemon themed Oreos, which featured different Pokemon designs on each Oreo. That product gained a lot of hype because fans were buying up Pokemon Oreos to find the rare Mew Oreo. Nabisco and Pokemon have teamed up again to make more Pokemon themed snacks but it’s a little different this time around. There are Pokemon Oreo minis, Pokemon mini Chips Ahoy, Pokemon mini Nilla wafers, and Pokemon Ritz bits. This year there are more snacks in the lineup other than just Oreos, but it seems like it’s just the packaging that is Pokemon themed and not the cookies and snacks themselves. For this reason, there probably won’t be as much hype around these products as the previous Pokemon Oreos but other than cool looking packaging, they’re also running a Pokemon sweepstakes!

How to Enter Sweepstakes and Win Prizes

In total, they’re giving away about $13,705 in prizes to more than 500 winners. With their “Instant Win Game”, you can enter to win a Pokemon TCG Battle Academy box game and be entered to win the grand prize, which comes with a bunch of different Pokemon related goodies. To enter the sweepstakes, go to www.nabiscobacktoschool.com, enter your email and other required information, then click register. You’ll then see if you won a Battle Academy box and be able to explore and play other activities on the website.

What is the Grand Prize?

The grand prize in this giveaway can be found in the official rules which states that it contains all of the following.

2 Playmats
10 Battle Decks
2 Figure Boxes
4 VSTAR Premium Collections
20 Sword & Shield Booster Boxes
2 Spring 2022 Collector Bundles
2 Sword and Shield Elite Trainer Boxes
7 Posters
3 Wall Graphics

With a value of about $3,705, that’s a lot of Pokemon merchandise for one person. Make sure you’re entered for a chance to win by visiting the official website here.

What to do with Your Pokemon Pins

Most Collection Boxes are priced very fairly and include extra collectables along with booster packs. For that reason, these pin collection boxes are a popular option for a lot of collectors, but this results in card collectors having a lot of extra Pokemon pins lying around. These collections can build up pretty quickly and you might already have more than you know what to do with. Here’s some ideas you can use for your unused Pokemon pins.

Pokemon Pin Display Ideas

Bags, switch case, display case, if you want something to hang on your wall there are display frames and flags that you can buy online or craft stores. These are great for showcasing your Pokemon pins in your home alongside your Pokemon card collection. Bags such as purses or backpacks are another common way of displaying pins. It’s a more public way of showing how much you’re into Pokemon. Speaking of Pokemon cards, if you have rare cards that you like displaying on your shelf you can pins around it of the same Pokemon. Just be sure not to poke a hole in your cards!

Selling Pokemon Pins

If you still have too many pins that you don’t need or don’t want, selling them is a good option. Some pins have a lot of value individually, while others are quite cheap. If you have a lot, consider selling them as a bulk lot so you can get them all off your hands at once. Make sure to price them fairly, as no one wants to overpay for small collectables and most of these are already easily accessible through pin collection boxes anyway. Do this by researching how much the pin collection box is selling for and how much the pin is selling for separately.

What do you usually do with your extra pins? Let us know in the comments below!

Pokemon GO Error and Misprint Cards from New Pokemon GO TCG Set

The newest Pokemon TCG set is themed after the popular mobile game, Pokemon GO! Fans have been waiting for almost 6 years for a set like this to be released. Naturally, there’s a lot of hype around this set and there’s a lot of fans posting their chase cards and best pulls on social media. Some people have found error cards. Here are some interesting errors and misprints from the Pokemon GO TCG set.

Endless Ditto Cards Error

Peelable Ditto cards are a new rare type of reverse holo card in the Pokemon Go TCG set. These cards look like a normal reverse holo until you peel off the front, revealing a Ditto Pokemon card. There are multiple fans reporting that they pulled 10 peelable Ditto cards from a single ETB. The pull rates on these are certainly not 1:1, so to pull a Ditto every pack is either extremely rare or the Elite Trainer Box had some sort of error in packaging.

Front Creased Radiant Charizard Error Card

Error Radiant Charizard via rutsonedwards on Reddit

The back of this Radiant Charizard card is in great shape, while the front of the card has a bad crease on it. If both sides were creased, it would just be normal damage but since it’s just on one side it was most likely creased during the manufacturing process and considered an error. This is not an error you’d normally want to see as it just looks like damage but there are plenty of collectors who would pay more for these types of error cards.

Pokemon GO Miscut Cards

Miscut cards via ItsBlazeAlpha on Reddit

It seems like every time a new set releases, there are several people posting there miscut cards online. This has become a common theme but there are many people out there that collect these and would pay a lot more depending on how off center the card is. These cards have a good amount of the art cut off and what makes these unique is that the shape of the card is completely different as well.

Have you run into any error cards from the new Pokemon GO set? Let us know in the comments below!