>Hello, >I have just noticed a distinction that I beleive might help others identify counterfiets. I purchased 12 cards over the last 3 >months from a certain seemingly respectable individual on eBay. Last night I was going through my latest batch from her and noticed >that the picture on a Defender I received from her was very different than one I already had. Her's was actually smaller such that >the blue defender item in the pic didn't touch the rim of the border like it did in mine. Also the gray area of the Trainer was >much lighter and more silver toned. This prompted me to dig deeper and I eventually noticed another major distinction: > >The copyright on her card looks like © 1995, 96, 98, 99 Nintendo, Creatures, GAME FREAK. followed by © 1999 Wizards. My Defender >copyright looks like © 1995, 96, 98 Nintendo, Creatures, GAME FREAK. followed by © 1999 Wizards. Notice that the difference is the >inclusion of 99 before Nintendo in the fake. > >I started going through all my cards. Every card I received from this individual over the last 3 months had the 99 before Nintendo. >Upon closer inspection they all had the same color variations and are just slightly less clear than the real cards. I also noticed >dirt like flecks on the cards that was not dirt and variations in text layout in the descriptions. Also the HP text is a slightly >smaller, lighter weight font. These are all things you have pointed out in your new Pojo mag. except for the extra year in the >copyright. > >I looked up Nintendo copyright info and they state clearly that the copyright should be © 1995, 1996, 1998 Nintendo, Creatures, GAME >FREAK. followed by © 1999 Wizards (or the company doing the licensing, in this case Wizards). See >http://www.pokemon.com/news/counterfeit.html. I have notified Wizards legal dept and offered to send them the cards to verify that >they are indeed fakes. > >It seems that these cards may be pretty common. I was browsing ebay tonight and captured the attached pics of Zapdos 16/102 in two >seperate auctions from different sellers. I wanted you to look at them and give your two cents. You can just make out the extra >year in the smaller pic (the alleged fake). From: Brian Brokaw To: Nejevad Subject: Re: Counterfeit cards info and clarification Date: Saturday, November 06, 1999 12:44 PM Actually, all those cards with "99" in the copyright are NOT fake. These are just OLDER cards. I started buying cards in January of 1999, and EVERY card produced by WOTC at that time have that copyright and the changes to the colors and fonts your are describing. There is nothing to worry about. Everything that you wrote about in your email is a perfectly normal change to the card layout that occured in about March of this year. I used to manage another website: The PokeGym. Here is a letter at that website from the customer service manager at Wizards to me: http://pokegym.thedojo.com/news/061101.txt Your Zapdos is definitely NOT a fake. Brian Brokaw