PLEASE can somebody tell me what these cards are, and whether or not they are real

Hi,

I just came across a load of Pokémon cards I collected in 1999/2000. I have complete sets of base set 1 (none of which are shadowless), fossil and jungle, as well as about 2/3 of the rocket set and approximately 30 cards from base set 2. I don't know the exact time I stopped collecting, but going by the cards I have, I assume I stopped in mid-2000. As well as these cards, I also have approximately 130 other Pokémon cards (with only a couple of duplicates) and 60-ish trainer/energy cards that I cannot seem to find ANYWHERE. I'm pretty sure they're stickers, and they look exactly the same as normal cards except they are slightly smaller (both width and length) and all of them are entirely holographic.

I've read various comments on other forums saying they're fake, but then there's also quite a few people that said they remember them being released so I have absolutely no idea what to think. I just can't imagine there's anywhere I would have been able to get fake cards from when I was only about 9 at the time haha.

I've attached a couple of pictures, and any info would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
James.

Those are all stickers, but I don't think they were legally licensed merchandise. Especially if there's not much information on them despite most of them appearing to be in English. Many of the ones in your picture don't have the right borders at all, and despite miscuts being fairly common in the Pokemon TCG, usually at least one of the borders is smaller than its normal proportions, while the ones that have odd looking borders have 3 normally proportioned borders and then a super huge one.

TL;DR: I'm pretty sure they're bootlegged stickers and not officially licensed merchandise. Not had any luck myself in the past finding info on these and am basing this off of things that, to me, completely scream "THIS IS A BOOTLEGGED PRODUCT".

I probably should have mentioned this before because I thought someone might point it out, but I'll say it now anyway. Although some cards do look different to each other, it seems to be that cards from the same set all look the same. So I think there's base 1, 2, fossil, jungle and the one with 130 in, and all the cards of each set have identical borders. So I guess that, like when the added shadows to improve the design on the normal cards, they could have done the same thing with the stickers, maybe?

The quality and attention to detail just seem incredibly good if they are fakes. I've thoroughly looked through them and all the stats match up with my normal cards, and I haven't come across a single mistake on any of them, including things like Machamp being 1st edition.

I agree with you that the lack of information makes me inclined to think they're not real, but I just wish there was someone that could 100% confirm either way!

Cheers for the reply!

JC90 said:

I probably should have mentioned this before because I thought someone might point it out, but I'll say it now anyway. Although some cards do look different to each other, it seems to be that cards from the same set all look the same. So I think there's base 1, 2, fossil, jungle and the one with 130 in, and all the cards of each set have identical borders. So I guess that, like when the added shadows to improve the design on the normal cards, they could have done the same thing with the stickers, maybe?

The quality and attention to detail just seem incredibly good if they are fakes. I've thoroughly looked through them and all the stats match up with my normal cards, and I haven't come across a single mistake on any of them, including things like Machamp being 1st edition.

I agree with you that the lack of information makes me inclined to think they're not real, but I just wish there was someone that could 100% confirm either way!

Cheers for the reply!

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Thinking on it and thinking back to my childhood, I know I've seen these before in those small vending machines that tend to have knock-off toys.

I don't think we'll luck into anyone who can confirm either way.