Authenticity & grading
The grading scale
Four grades, used the same way on every listing. The grade sits beside the price; the flaws behind it are named in prose and photographed.
mint
Unplayed, no wear.
near-mint
Display wear only.
gently played
Light decal or paint wear; stands normally.
flawed
Named defect, priced accordingly.
About the photographs: every pet is photographed on the shop’s own set, and nothing on the pet is retouched. The owner frames each photograph herself when she uploads it, and that framing is the only thing done to it. The pet you see — every scuff and rub — is the pet in the box.
Some listings still carry the shop’s earlier photographs. Those were taken on black velvet and set on the shop’s own backdrop digitally, with the shadow where the pet’s feet meet it reconstructed from the pet’s own outline rather than painted in. Nothing on the pet was retouched in those either. Each pet that still has one says so on its own page, and they are being replaced, one pet at a time, with photographs taken on the set.
The generations, as we catalogue them
Collectors use more than one numbering convention. Ours is Kenner-first, and every label and filter on this site follows it.
| gen | era | in the cabinet |
|---|---|---|
| G1 | Kenner, 1992–96 | 1 available |
| G2 | 2005–2012 | 2 available |
| G3 | 2012–14 | none now |
| G4 | 2014–17 | none now |
| G5 | c. 2017–19 | none now |
| G6 | c. 2019–23 | none now |
| G7 | Basic Fun, 2024– | 10 available |
How to spot a fake
Fakes cluster around the famous numbers — the pets worth faking are the ones worth wanting. Six checks, in the order a longtime collector runs them:
1 — the stamp
Authentic pets carry a molded Hasbro stamp and date code on the underside — crisp, correctly spelled, in the era’s typography. Fakes show a shallow, blurred, or missing stamp, and sometimes the wrong year for the mold. Every pet sold here as authentic has its stamp photographed in the listing.
2 — the eyes
Eye printing is where factories cut corners: authentic decals are sharply registered with centered pupils and clean decal edges. Off-center pupils, fuzzy prints, or a wrong eye color for the number are the loudest tell in the hobby.
3 — seams & screws
Genuine molds meet in tight, even seams with clean screw posts. Gappy or sanded seams and glue where screws should be are counterfeit signatures.
4 — magnet feet
Early bobblehead-era pets (roughly 2005–2008) shipped with magnets in their feet. A supposed early pet with smooth, magnetless feet needs its stamp checked twice; fakes rarely bother with the magnet.
5 — the vinyl
Authentic pets have a particular weight and a matte, slightly warm-feeling vinyl. Counterfeits run light, glossy, or chemical-smelling — harder to show in photos, obvious in the hand, and covered by the return policy if a pet arrives feeling wrong.
6 — the price
A grail number at a pocket-money price is a fake until the stamp proves otherwise. Rarity holds its price; counterfeits compete on wishful thinking.
What we do with all this: the stamp is verified and photographed on every authentic listing, and anything unverifiable is sold as unbranded — labeled plainly, without an accession label, and priced like the knockoff it is. Never as a maybe.