Fake Pokémon cards are flooding the market. See which cards top the list
Fake Pokémon cards are flooding the market. See which cards top the list
Anthony Thompson, USA TODAYThu, May 7, 2026 at 12:02 PM UTC
0
For many longtime Pokémon card collectors, Charizard and Pikachu lived in binders, were traded between friends and even carried in backpacks to school. Once a childhood pastime, card collecting has evolved into a high-stakes global market that's become lucrative for enthusiasts and appealing to counterfeiters.
A new fraud report from Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) estimates that more than $200 million worth of counterfeit and altered trading cards across all categories were identified in 2025, with Pokémon leading the surge. The figure reflects detected and intercepted material, not the total amount of fraud circulating in the market.
“It’s eye-popping,” said PSA & Collectors President Ryan Hoge.
Hoge said the trend reflects a collision of nostalgia, cultural relevance and rising financial interest in collectibles. That nostalgia is colliding with a milestone year for the franchise. Pokémon, which first launched in the late 1990s, is marking its 30th anniversary in 2026 with a wave of planned merchandise releases spanning apparel, collectibles and other branded gear, helping reignite interest across generations of fans.
Close up of Pokemon plush toys displayed in a box on the shelves of the toy aisle in an Intermarche hypermarket in Poitiers in Vienne in France on March 13, 2026.
That overlap has pushed Pokémon to the center of the modern trading card economy.
“Some months, it’s well north of 60% of what we see,” Hoge said of PSA submissions. “It dwarfs everything else.”
It also dominates fraud patterns. According to PSA’s report, six of the top 10 most counterfeited trading cards are Pokémon cards, underscoring how deeply the franchise sits at the center of both demand and deception in the hobby. Characters like Charizard, Pikachu and Gengar remain the most frequently forged, reflecting the same cards collectors most aggressively chase.
“Charizard is kind of like Michael Jordan,” Hoge said. “Everybody knows that character, and they want one.”
These are the 10 most counterfeited subjects according to PSAA broader fraud problem across the market
Overall, counterfeit and altered cards increased 45.3% in 2025, while counterfeit submissions rose 250% as a share of total submissions.
PSA estimates it intercepted more than $200 million in potentially fraudulent trading cards last year based on modeled market value. The company said the figure reflects prevented fraud, not total circulation.
Counterfeiters are also shifting tactics. Instead of focusing only on rare, high-value cards, many are targeting lower-priced items that are easier to replicate and more likely to slip through casual inspection. As tactics evolve, PSA says it is adapting its review process across both technology and human grading expertise.
A Pokémon card collection is seen in Nivaa, Denmark, on November 25, 2022.
“We’re trying to stay ahead of the bad guys,” Hoge said.
PSA now processes roughly 20 million cards annually, reflecting the rapid expansion of collecting and the strain placed on authentication systems.
Advertisement
How PSA is responding
To combat the rise in fraud, PSA relies on a combination of artificial intelligence and human expertise.
The company has built a large-scale reference library of authentic, altered and counterfeit cards to train machine learning systems that flag irregularities during grading. These tools provide real-time alerts that guide human graders during evaluation.
Logan Paul holds up a Pokémon Charizard card he wears around his neck while speaking to the media after his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. (not pictured) at Hard Rock Stadium on Jun 6, 2021, Miami, Florida, USA.
But Hoge said technology alone is not enough.
“There are things you can only detect physically − the feel of the cards or the smell,” he added.
That expertise is reinforced through structured training inside PSA’s internal grading program, known as Grader University. According to the report, all graders complete months of formal training before evaluating cards independently, followed by more than 13,000 supervised evaluations. The program also includes ongoing instruction on emerging counterfeit trends, ensuring graders are continuously on new fraud techniques as they appear in the market.
Each submission passes through multiple layers of review, combining AI-assisted screening with experienced graders trained to identify increasingly sophisticated fakes and alterations.
Why PSA released the report
This is the first year PSA has published a fraud report, a move Hoge said reflects growing transparency as the market expands.
“We want people to go in eyes wide open on their collecting journeys when they’re buying and selling,” he said.
The company previously avoided releasing detailed fraud data due to concerns that counterfeiters could use it, but this year, it ultimately decided that informing collectors outweighed that risk.
The report is expected to be released annually from here on out.
For Hoge, the stakes are personal as much as financial. “If you get scammed, it removes the joy,” he said. “And that’s what collecting is supposed to be about.”
Reporter Anthony Thompson can be reached at ajthompson@usatodayco.com or on Twitter @athompsonABJ
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: PSA sees 'eye-popping' surge in fake Pokémon cards. These top the list
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
