A friend of mine was given an Unlimited Black Lotus and was wondering if it was real. He did the bend test, it passed. I got out my loop and compared it to a half dozen other Unlimited artifacts, and it looked convincing. However when I used my phone's flashlight it was about 10x dimmer that my control sample cards. My question is, is that conclusive enough evidence that it's a forgery? My gut says yes, the fact that he was given the card doesn't help the case any either.
There was another discrepancy, under the loop the casting cost looked different than all the control group. Under magnification the title letters and the colorless casting costs looked the same.
A light grayish color with black pixels. The casting cost of the Lotus looked more contiguous with the rest of the background instead. But my FBB Sol Ring had the same thing going on, so I'm not too sure what to think about that, I figure it could be a print run thing.
My stupid camera is being weird and I cannot get the pics off it, when I work out the bugs I'll post 'em.
If anyone has experience with high quality counterfeits any feedback is welcome.
Thanks.
Failing a light test, having the mana cost look "weird", and being given a Black Lotus are all red flags.
If a counterfeit card is produced by gluing a fake front to a real back, the resulting fake will transmit less light. Using a different cardstock altogether will also affect how much light it lets through.
Title letters are printed with the "dot pattern" (edit: on old cards), the mana cost is printed with a separate solid black layer. They don't look the same.
Finally, if something seems to good to be true, it usually is. Was this gift from someone your friend could reasonably expect to recieve a gift for a few thousand dollars from? If no, then it's a huge red flag.
There was another discrepancy, under the loop the casting cost looked different than all the control group. Under magnification the title letters and the colorless casting costs looked the same.
A light grayish color with black pixels. The casting cost of the Lotus looked more contiguous with the rest of the background instead. But my FBB Sol Ring had the same thing going on, so I'm not too sure what to think about that, I figure it could be a print run thing.
My stupid camera is being weird and I cannot get the pics off it, when I work out the bugs I'll post 'em.
If anyone has experience with high quality counterfeits any feedback is welcome.
Thanks.
If a counterfeit card is produced by gluing a fake front to a real back, the resulting fake will transmit less light. Using a different cardstock altogether will also affect how much light it lets through.
Title letters are printed with the "dot pattern" (edit: on old cards), the mana cost is printed with a separate solid black layer. They don't look the same.
Finally, if something seems to good to be true, it usually is. Was this gift from someone your friend could reasonably expect to recieve a gift for a few thousand dollars from? If no, then it's a huge red flag.
This post has some informative pics of stuff to look for when checking for counterfeits.