How to avoid resealed Pokémon packs and fake graded cards on eBay

Sealed packs and boxes

A resealed pack has been opened, searched for valuable cards and closed again. Boxes can be opened, picked through and rewrapped too. Photos can't prove something is factory sealed, but these checks rule out many bad listings.

• Ask for photos of the item itself. Stock photos tell you nothing about what will arrive. Ask for clear shots of the seams, crimps and corners.
• Compare with a factory-sealed example. Find the same product from a source you trust, and compare the wrap, seams and box. Loose or wrinkled wrap, uneven seams, glue marks and tears are warning signs.
• Check the crimps on packs. The sealed ends of a booster pack should be even. Uneven, doubled or re-pressed crimps are a warning sign.
• Be careful with loose packs. They're harder to check than a sealed box, and loose packs have long been weighed or otherwise searched to pick out the ones with rarer cards.
• Know what a repack is. Repacks and mystery packs are put together by the seller, not the manufacturer. That's fine if it's what you want, but they aren't factory sealed.
• Question a price well below recent sales. The Sold items option in eBay's Advanced Search shows what the same product has sold for.
• Film yourself opening anything expensive. It isn't proof, but a continuous video from the unopened package onwards gives you something to show if there's a dispute.

Graded cards

A graded card comes in a sealed plastic case, often called a slab, with a label giving the card, its grade and a certification number. Fakes include counterfeit slabs, copied labels, and real slabs that have been opened so the card could be swapped.

• Look up the certification number. Enter it on the grading company's own website, typing the address yourself instead of following a link from the seller.
• Compare everything the lookup shows. The card, year, set, number and grade should all match the listing. Where the grader shows images of the card, compare those with the seller's photos. Numbers can be copied, so a number that looks up fine doesn't settle it by itself.
• Inspect the case in photos. Ask for the front and back of the actual slab. Look for cracks, pry marks or glue along the edges, and a label that looks different from other slabs by the same grader.
• Read the title closely. "PSA 10 candidate" and "PSA ready" describe a card that hasn't been graded, however the title is worded.
• Know the grader. eBay's Authenticity Guarantee rules accept graded cards from PSA, Beckett, Certified Collectibles Group and SGC, and name others, such as GMA, HGA and KSA, as not eligible. A card from another grader isn't necessarily fake, but it won't get that inspection.

What eBay's guarantees cover

These terms change, so check eBay's own pages before relying on them. This is what they said for eBay US on the date at the top of this guide.

• Authenticity Guarantee. Eligible single cards at $200 or more are inspected by PSA before they reach you. It's for buyers in the US, and eligible listings carry a blue check badge. You can also filter for it in Advanced Search. There's no regrading. If the inspector can't confirm the card is authentic, or it doesn't match the listing, you get a refund and the card isn't sent on.
• It doesn't cover sealed product. Sets, lots, decks, boxes and packs aren't eligible. For a sealed box, the checks above and the seller's returns policy are what you have.
• Money Back Guarantee. This policy covers items that don't match the listing, with a shorter window for trading cards. If the seller doesn't offer returns, you must request a return no later than 3 calendar days after the estimated or actual delivery date. If they do, their stated return window applies. Check a card the day it arrives.
• Pay on eBay. The policy doesn't cover payments made partly outside eBay, such as by cash or bank transfer. Be wary of any seller who asks.
• Report fakes. eBay's counterfeit policy says fake items and unauthorized reprints of trading cards aren't allowed, and points anyone who spots one to its steps for reporting content.

Using alerts without rushing

The Pokémon card deal feed and its ready-made alert leave out titles containing words like proxy, custom, orica, fake, code card, empty, repack, mystery and candidate, anything under $20, and sellers with under 10 feedback. Raise that minimum to whatever you're comfortable with.

Filters only catch what a seller admits in the title, and nobody lists a pack as resealed. Snipe Finder doesn't check whether a listing is genuine: it shows you what matches, and the checks above are still yours to do.

An alert gets you to a new listing early, but being early isn't a reason to skip these checks. An unusually cheap listing that has just gone up is exactly when to slow down and ask the seller for more photos. It's better to lose a listing than to buy a fake.

Snipe Finder isn't affiliated with The Pokémon Company, PSA, Beckett, CGC or SGC.