Police Seize Over 7.6 Tons Of Fake Pokémon Cards En Route To Europe
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Featured Image Credit: The Pokemon Company / Oriental Light & Magic Inc.
Everyone wants to get their hands on some Pokémon cards these days. Though you may have expected the collectable card game’s popularity to have peaked in the 90s when fans were kids, that’s not what’s happened. In fact, all the people who were kids have now grown up and are in charge of their own funds, so can buy even more cards as adults - take that mum and dad. But with the huge boom in card collecting has come interest from the black market, as tons of fake cards have been seized in China.
Nintendo Life spotted a tweet from Yicai Global showing off the 7.6 ton haul of fake Pokémon cards that have been discovered. This load of cards was on its way to Europe when customs spotted there was something off about the product.
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The tweet says: “Twenty boxes of counterfeit Pokémon game cards weighing over 7.6 tons were intercepted at Shanghai's Pudong Airport by customs officials yesterday. Bound for the Netherlands from a company in Qingdao province, it is one of the biggest fake IP hauls in recent years.”
Thank goodness these were caught before being placed in circulation. I can’t imagine how awful it would feel as a collector to buy some of these cards, perhaps get some you think are rare, before finding out down the line the cards were faked. Obviously with the huge popularity of the cards, there are now nefarious forces trying to take advantage of stock shortages.
Twenty boxes of counterfeit #Pokemon #Pikachu game cards weighing over 7.6 tons were intercepted at Shanghai's Pudong Airport by customs officials yesterday. Bound for the Netherlands from a company in Qingdao province, it is one of the biggest fake #IP hauls in recent years. pic.twitter.com/zM2y6BiTIt
— Yicai Global 第一财经 (@yicaichina) November 23, 2021
The video from Yicai Global shows just how convincing these products are, too. The box looks sealed and in a good condition - it’s incredibly professional and if someone handed it to me and said it was real I’d believe them. Make sure that when you’re buying cards that you’re going to credible sources.
Topics: Pokemon
