How to spot fake Lorcana cards: a seven-point check before you buy

Fake Lorcana cards exist because a handful of cards are worth hundreds of dollars and the rest are worth cents. Counterfeiters do not bother with commons: they print the Enchanted and Iconic cards, sell them one at a time on marketplaces, or bundle a "complete Enchanted set" for a price that would be a bargain if any of it were real. The checks below take a minute per card and catch almost every fake we have seen described by buyers.

Which cards get faked

Expensive ones. This is the live top ten by TCGplayer market price, rebuilt every morning; if someone is selling one of these for a fraction of the figure in the Market column, start from the assumption that it is fake and let the card prove otherwise.

#	Card	Set	Rarity	Market	7d
1	Elsa - Ice Maker (Foil) 2	Disney Lorcana Promo Cards	Promo	$3,979	0.0%
2	Mickey Mouse - Brave Little Prince (Iconic) 242/204	Fabled	Iconic	$3,875	0.0%
3	Buzz Lightyear - Jungle Ranger (Iconic) 241/204	Wilds Unknown	Iconic	$3,613	0.0%
4	Minnie Mouse - Sweetheart Princess (Iconic) 241/204	Fabled	Iconic	$3,083	0.0%
5	Mickey Mouse - Best in Town (Iconic) 241/204	Hyperia City	Iconic	$1,862	0.0%
6	Belle & Beast - Certain as the Sun (Iconic) 245/207	Attack of the Vine!	Iconic	$1,817	-0.8%
7	Merida - Formidable Archer (Iconic) 242/204	Wilds Unknown	Iconic	$1,627	-2.9%
8	Lilo & Stitch - Fun-Loving Friends (Iconic) 244/207	Attack of the Vine!	Iconic	$1,526	-1.9%
9	Mickey Mouse - True Friend (Disney Cruise Promo) 10	Disney Lorcana Promo Cards	Promo	$1,500	0.0%
10	Ariel - Ethereal Voice (Iconic) 241/204	Whispers in the Well	Iconic	$1,483	0.0%

The full list is on the most expensive Lorcana cards. Anything above about US$30 is worth a careful look; anything above US$100 deserves every check on this page.

1. The number and the set must exist

Every Lorcana card carries a line at the bottom in the form 204/204 · EN · 1: the card's number out of the set's base size, the language, and the set number. Enchanted cards are numbered past the base set (205 onwards in a 204-card set), so an "Enchanted" with a number inside the base range is wrong on its face. Search the name on this site and open the printing: if the number, the rarity and the set do not line up with a real printing, the card does not exist. Counterfeit sets often include "Enchanted" versions of cards that were never printed as Enchanted.

2. The rarity symbol must match

Beside the number is a small rarity symbol; each rarity has its own shape and colour, and Enchanted cards have the distinctive full-art frame with the inkwell and the name set against the artwork rather than in a frame. Our rarities guide shows what each looks like. A card with a Legendary frame and an Enchanted symbol, or an Enchanted card with a framed, normal layout, is a fake. Check the Iconic frame separately: Iconics only exist from Fabled (Set 9) onward, two per set.

3. The foil pattern

Ravensburger's foils are the hardest thing to copy. A real foil has a fine, even pattern that shifts as you tilt the card, and the text and the black borders stay crisp and unfoiled on top of it. Fakes tend to be a flat rainbow sheen laid over everything, text included, so the whole card shimmers like a sticker. Hold a known-real foil next to the card you are checking and tilt both: the difference is usually obvious at once. A "foil" that is simply glossy, with no shift at all, is also a fake.

4. The back

Turn it over. The back of every Lorcana card is identical: the Lorcana logo on the purple-to-gold ink gradient, with crisp edges to the artwork. Fakes are often paler or more saturated than a real back, slightly blurred, or cut off-centre so the border is thicker on one side. Compare it against a common from a pack you opened yourself; commons are free and they are the perfect reference.

5. The card stock

A real card is stiff, with a slight matte finish on the front, and it bends back flat. Fakes are usually thinner and either glossier or oddly rough, and many are a little smaller or larger than a real card (Lorcana cards are standard 63 × 88 mm). Put the card in a sleeve with a real one: a size difference shows. Weight is not a reliable test on its own, but a card that feels like a playing card from a board game is not from Ravensburger.

6. The price

This is the check that needs no card in hand. Counterfeiters price to sell, so a fake is almost always well under the real market. Every card page on this site shows TCGplayer's market price, every store listing we track and the eBay listings for that printing, so you can see within a few seconds whether a price is plausible. A single Enchanted at 30% of market from a new seller is a warning; a "complete Enchanted set" for a few hundred dollars is not a bargain, it is a box of fakes.

7. The seller

Buy from the stores we list (every one is a real card shop in its own country; see the stores we track) or from marketplace sellers with a long history of card sales and clear photos of the actual card, front and back. Be wary of stock images, of listings that ship from a country the game is not sold in, and of sellers who list every chase card in the game at once in mint condition. Bulk "lots" of Enchanteds are the most common way fakes are sold.

What to do if you have a fake

Marketplaces refund counterfeit goods; open a case with photos of the card next to a real one and quote the number check above. Do not resell it, even described as a proxy. Proxies for casual play are fine among friends, but the moment a fake enters a trade or a sale, it is fraud, and it is the next person who pays.