Platinum: How to Identify Cards From This Set

• Platinum introduced Pokémon SP: Basic Pokémon with a yellow-and-gray card border, an SP symbol at bottom left, and a small headshot of their in-game owner at bottom right of the artwork.
• The set also introduced the Lost Zone game mechanic, a discard area Pokémon could not be brought back from.

• Secret Rare / Shiny subset cards: Three secret rares (Electabuzz, Hitmonchan, Scyther) are numbered 128/127 through 130/127, and three additional Shiny cards are numbered SH4-SH6, continuing the Shiny numbering from earlier Diamond & Pearl Series sets.

Japanese release October 10, 2008 as "Galactic's Conquest"; English release February 11, 2009.

• Bottom-left or bottom-right corner: the set symbol and the collector number (e.g. 4/102) tell you the set; older cards have no symbol at all, which itself narrows them to Base Set.
• Left of the number: a 1st Edition stamp, if present, sits below the art on WOTC-era cards.
• Regulation mark (a letter in a box near the bottom, D through H so far) dates modern cards to a two-year window.
• Back of the card: the blue Poké Ball back has changed little since 1999; a washed-out, blurry or wrongly colored back is the first sign of a fake.

Lay the card flat on a dark surface in daylight, straight on, with the whole card in frame, then a close-up of the bottom edge where the set symbol, number and any edition stamp sit. Tilt holo cards under the light for a second shot to show the foil pattern. Photograph the back too. The app reads the card and set; the edition and rarity checks above tell you which version you have.