Authentication and grading giant, PSA, has released its Fraud Report for 2025, documenting a concerning rise in fraudulent activity within the sports and trading card markets.
Last year, PSA’s volume of grading submissions increased substantially, but with that growth came an unprecedented 250% spike in counterfeit submissions, indicating that fraud is, unfortunately,
“…gaining share within the market, not just growing alongside it.”
While the number of counterfeit submissions rose across all major sports and trading card games (TCGs), the Pokémon Trading Card Game was by far the most targeted game system for fraud, reporting a staggering 125% increase. To put the absurdity of this statistic in perspective, baseball, basketball, and football cards were PSA’s second, third, and fourth most targeted categories, yet even when combined with hockey and soccer (ninth and tenth, respectively), their combined percentage increase was just 5.1%.
According to Matt Hendler, Head of Grading Brand Protection at PSA, the rise in fraudulent submissions has also been accompanied by a change in tactics from counterfeiters. Historically, counterfeiters targeted the rarest and most expensive cards, which made it easier for experts to catch them. Recent trends however, suggest that scammers are now targeting cheaper hits with the hope that graders won’t scrutinize them as closely as the high-dollar chase cards. “Counterfeiters often take the same approach as someone printing fake currency…” Hendler says. “…they target the $10 or $20 bill instead of the $100, believing it’s more likely to slip through unnoticed.”
Despite the drastic increase in counterfeit submissions, PSA is confident that their advanced methods of authentication and professional quality control specialists are staying ahead of the scam artists, and point to the $200+ million projected market value of fraudulent collectibles intercepted in 2025 as proof.
Read the full 2025 Fraud Report from PSA.
