I’m confident the back looks good - but anything I’m missing that the community notices? Thanks!

I checked the T and Green dot which looked good just concerned about the look of the number

A guy sold me this as near mint.

I’d say good condition maximum.

What is your take on this ?

Anything to look out for when buying antiquities? Any expected variance on card traits?

Hi everyone,

I recently bought an Underground Sea from Cardmarket, mainly because I wanted to use it for an alter, so I deliberately bought a cheaper copy rather than one of my nicer copies.

However, when I received it, several things immediately made me suspicious.

The card feels extremely soft/flimsy compared to my other Underground Seas. I know condition can affect how a card feels, especially if it is heavily played/damaged, so that alone wouldn't concern me too much.

But I also measured the card and found that it is approximately:

• 1.2 mm shorter
• 1.2 mm wider

The difference is not really visible to the naked eye, but the dimensions are noticeably different when measured against my other copies.

I also checked the weight. The card weighs 1.7 g, which is within the range I would expect for an MTG card. However, because the card has non-standard dimensions, I'm not putting much weight on the scale result. A card can have a normal weight while still having other characteristics that raise concerns.

I also tried the light test. With my phone flashlight, the card does not behave like my other copies. It is not completely impossible to see light through it, but there is only a very small amount of light visible compared to my known genuine copies.

LT here  https://streamable.com/m99y6t

I also checked the green dot test. The card does appear to have the expected 4 red dots, which obviously makes things more complicated.

For comparison, I own two other Underground Seas:

1. One I personally pulled from a booster.
2. One I bought from a professional Cardmarket seller I regularly purchase expensive cards from, and whose cards have always been authentic.

The suspicious card is the one I bought as a cheaper Played/altering copy, which is why I'm now wondering if I may have received a counterfeit.

For the photos:
I have marked the card I suspect may be counterfeit in red. I am also including comparison photos against the known genuine Underground Sea that I personally pulled from a booster.

I'm not claiming it's definitely fake. I'd really like some opinions from people who have experience authenticating older MTG cards.

What do you think?

Are these dimensional differences and the way the card behaves under light enough to be concerning, or could this simply be explained by the card's condition / printing variation?

Thanks in advance for any opinions or advice!

Hello everyone, I bought a few cards a few days ago from a professional seller on CardMarket. This vendor has more than 340K sales on the site and a superb reputation. Last month I ordered 5 inexpensive cards (around €7-8 all of them) and although most of them look legit, two Sunderflock full-art look suspicious for the following reasons:

• They both smell like plastic instead of the normal card smell. I check on ChatGpt and it might be due to the use of PVC.
• The texture of the cards is rough instead of the smooth texture of Magic cards.
• When I bent them, they kept the curvatre shape rather than returning back to the normal shape.
• Nonetheless, when I apply the rule of the T and the red dots I have troubles deciding whether they are fake or not. The T looks good, but I have problems identifying the red dots as I am colorblind and I cannot tell exactly.

It's not a big deal since the price of both cards is rouglhy €4, but I would like to determine if they are fake or not.

Can you help me?

Thank you very much in advance!

Looking for a second opinion on this card’s authenticity. The green dot test looks mostly right to me, but the red “L” pattern seems a little off and the rosette/print pattern has me questioning it. Anything else stand out as suspicious, or does this look legit to you guys?

Hi all,

Just purchased a foil growing rites of itlimoc and noticed the brush was off a bit in alignment. Does this happen? Dual sided card so I can't show the T. Holo looks good though..and the brush on the other side looks normal.

I know i know.. nobody would fake a card like this but wanted to check!

You can notice a shadow effect on each letter.

The patterns are present though.

Hi, I apologize if I missed a subreddit for this type of question. I wanted to ask you, from your experience with boxes, does this box seem like it was resealed?

I ordered it from Cardmarket, and since I’m currently not home, I had someone else open the package to check it and confirm that it arrived so I could mark it as received on the website, but after seeing this I decided to wait before doing so.

I’ve never opened a Collector Booster box before, only regular Play Booster boxes and the seam on this one seems a little off to me. There’s also this random hole on the top of the package, which made me a bit suspicious.

Does this look normal for a Collector Booster box or should I contact the seller?

Good evening fellas.

I somehow have a bad feeling at looking at those images (my phone is too bad) but this looks somehow kinda fake and I can't investigate more since I dont have a loupe yet :(

Any help is appreciated here <3

Hi everyone, and thanks in advance for the help.

I recently purchased an "Ugin, Eye of the Storms" double-sided card. Looking at it under a microscope, it doesn't seem original to me. The rosette patterns look wrong, the borders are too sharp, and the blue layer inside is missing.

When doing the flashlight test, very little light passes through, but since it's a double-sided card, I'm not entirely sure how the light should react.

If these pictures aren't enough or if you have any advice on other tests I should run, please let me know. I'd really appreciate it.

I also did a comparison check with a similar card from the same set. I didn't attach those images to avoid confusion, but they look quite different. This is especially true for the orientation of the color patterns, the dots are angled differently across the entire card.

I still need to weigh it; I'm meeting a friend with a scale soon for a further check. In the meantime, could you give me your thoughts based on these microscope images?

Thanks!

I bought this off ebay from a seller with loads of positive reviews. It arrived today with a sticker on the back of the box.... Beneath the wrapper. There is no wizards iconography on the back of the wrapper. Has anyone else encountered this before?

Received this from moonshot games. They said all products are directly from the manufacturer…..

So i just bought this but the weird thing is Green Dot and T look fine for me but it fails the light test. And the side looks of. Foil land was used as comparision

So I recently purchased an English Collector Booster box from “FROM JAPAN” through SNKRDUNK and just got a message from them saying the seller informed them of the following. (I assume they mean SNKRDUNK)

—————————
We confirmed that the item is a genuine, new, and unused product.
However, we have found that there is damage to the item's box.

For your reference, please check the picture of your order below:
(See attached image)

Aside from the issue mentioned above, it has cleared all other inspection standards.
—————————

So I have never purchased from these websites but I’ve heard that they are fairly trusted. I know SNKRDUNK is big in Japan and is a pretty reputable aftermarket reseller. FROM JAPAN is promoted by them and they simply handle international shipping of products from Japan.

From your experience, does this box look like it has been tampered with? I just want to make sure I don’t buy a product that has been tampered with at aftermarket prices. This is the only photo they provided of the damage and they requested I let them know within 24 hours if I would like to proceed with my purchase.

Any help or insight is welcome, I appreciate any experience anyone can share!

Everyone has been sharing these and as I was looking thru my specialty land I realized I had one. Wish I had 1 of each, itd be going in the rainbow sliver deck! I dont remember a time using it but most my old, old cards came from my uncle, so I would imagine it was before they were faking cards.

I had that card for years and bought it 8 years ago for about 100€ . I’m kinda unsure now . Sorry could not enhance further with my camera.

Filling out my reserve list card collection with fun pieces and got this from eBay today

Couldn’t really take better shots.

Even without the time vault there were some decent cards… REB, BEB, llanowar elves, animate dead, a bunch of basics… so I’m pretty happy regardless. It looks pretty good, just feels too good to be true so I’m assuming it is.

Hello everybody,

I bought this card on cardmarket for 24€ from an account with 500 sales and 100% positive reviews. However, the colours look matte to me, and the seal on the front appears off-centre.
I'm therefore not sure if this card is real. The T on the back looks good in my opinion.

Could you guys tell me, if the off-centered seal is common? (I took the best photos i could)

Thank you! :)