By Crossave · Updated: August 2026
2026 is an unusual year for Pokémon collectors: 27 February marked 30 years since the first Pokémon video games launched in Japan (the trading card game followed in October 1996), an anniversary that has revived interest — and prices — worldwide. On top of that, the Chaos Rising expansion released on 22 May brought Mega Evolution ex and Special Illustration Rare cards with extremely low pull rates — in some cases low: Special Illustration Rares run around 1 in 144 packs, and one SPECIFIC card far less often than that — the Mega Greninja ex SIR has been measured at roughly 1 in 620 packs. When a card is that rare and that wanted, faking it becomes financially worthwhile for counterfeiters: which is why knowing the right signals matters more now than it used to.
In 2026 the main signs of a fake card are still the classic ones, with one new detail tied specifically to Mega Evolution ex. On a genuine card these elements are always precise and consistent from copy to copy — on a fake, almost never.
The 2026 Mega Evolution ex cards use a new holographic texture, the so-called "Chaos Holo", designed to be harder to reproduce: on authentic cards the effect looks almost hand-painted and moves with the light, very different from the static, repetitive holo patterns you often see on cheaper imitations.
If the price of a pack, a box or a single rare card looks too good to be true, it usually is. This applies above all outside official channels — online marketplaces, brand-new sellers with no history, listings offering hundreds of "available copies" of an ultra rare card. It is the first filter, before you even look at the card stock and the edges.
When the seller is in another country, the physical checks — stock, edges, holo — can only happen after the card has arrived, not before you pay, as they would buying in person at a show or from a local shop. Two habits reduce the risk before the parcel even ships: prefer sellers with a verifiable review history, and be suspicious of a price far below the market average for that specific card — the same rule as above, applied before the purchase instead of after it.
On Crossave, when you compare the price of a card across sellers and countries, a listing priced implausibly low against the others is flagged automatically rather than shown as if it were simply a good deal. That is an early signal, not a guarantee: the physical check is still necessary as soon as the card arrives.
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