I have been trading and selling a lot of my modern singles. With the money, or by trade, I acquire WOTC sealed packs.
I am up to the first 6 sets now (minus shadowless). I am doing unlimited packs for now - some first edition is in the plan too!
Anyone else here do sealed packs?
I love pokemon illustrations. My favourite is Dark charizard. Really do not know why. Just so cool. What are your best illustrations? Pls post pics. Ty
Well, it pretty much is just that. Swore up and down that these cards were sold/lost and they eventually surfaced. Got a vault x and filled in some cards that were missing but most are from back in the day. I have separate binders for all the non holos from these sets. Feels good completing base through gym challenge. Scared to even look at the proceeding sets for my wallets sake...
What are folks doing for the blank spaces after the sets finished? Throw in some Japanese versions? Also thinking of trying to find three more banned cards to fill a full page.
Aquapolis Umby has unfortunately outpriced me, but I found an ebay listing for an altered/laminated card that was near decent!
It was authenticated by Ebay (via PSA) as legit. And in my binder you’d never know!
My final japanese tyranitar e reader, karens, just came in. Set complete ✅
This card is so unique and I feel is very relevant today due to the crazy lengths the Pokemon company is going to for increasing printing numbers. It’s vintage. Great artist. Cool history.
Hi everyone!
EDIT: All side-by-side photos depict the special version on the right side.
I wanted to share a new collection I've recently completed over the past 6 months or so. These are all of the Japanese black star promo variants released in English from back in the Wizards of the Coast era. I'll go into detail on each one and how to differentiate them below.
All of these cards are made from Japanese cardstock, which means they are slightly thinner and have a different card core pattern to them. The Japanese cards have a smaller and more even core pattern while English has bigger blotches and/or linear streaks through them. They are also just a touch different in color, with a whiter area around the art and inside the yellow border. I will provide images of the Japanese vs English cores as well as the color comparisons for people who are interested in taking a closer look. I have also heard that that a blacklight can help distinguish between the Japanese and English cardstock, but I don't have any experience or a blacklight to verify, currently.
Several of these cards are incredibly hard to tell from their English-printed counterparts; even in-person. This includes the CD Promo Pikachu, the Stamp Rally Mewtwo, the Kanzenban WB Stamp Mewtwo, and the Gotta Comic Glossy Mew. The Meowth and Eevee are easy to tell as they are non-holographic while their English-printed counterparts are holographic. The Grey Stamp Pikachu and Jigglypuff are also pretty easy to tell, but I will include a side-by-side photo for comparison.
Here they are laid out as followed; left to right and top to bottom:
1. JR Stamp Meowth - This card along with the Eevee and the Mewtwo in the middle of the image are from the JR Stamp Rally in Japan. You had to complete a booklet in Japan with multiple stamps to get them. I managed to find a complete stamp booklet with my Meowth listing, and will attach a picture of it as well. I thought it was a really cool piece of history to have. Again, this is a non-holo variant compared to the holo English-printed run.
2. JR Stamp Eevee - This card along with the Meowth and the Mewtwo in the middle of the image are from the JR Stamp Rally in Japan. You had to complete a stamp booklet with multiple stamps to get them. This is card is also non-holo and easy to differentiate from the holo English-printed version.
3. Grey Stamp Jigglypuff - This card is very glossy like the Grey Stamp Pikachu and the Gotta Comic Mew. It came out with the Grey Stamp Pikachu in the March 1999 edition of Hyper Corocoro Magazine in Japan. If one didn't know better, the Japanese glossy promos feel very fake compared to other cards, so be careful!
4. Kanzenban WB Stamp Mewtwo - This was by far the hardest card to find. It is incredibly rare and I gambled on 3 different regular WB Stamp listings on Ebay before finding the actual Kanzenban version. It was released in the Mewtwo Strikes Back VHS advertised as the "American Version" in Japan. It is almost impossible to find them on Ebay as most people don't know about them. I was lucky enough that someone knew what they had and included it in the listing. Another tip for people would be to check out Mercari Japan or Yahoo Auctions Japan to look for this card.
5. JR Stamp Mewtwo - This is the only JR Stamp without a holo counterpart. It is incredibly hard to differentiate it from the English-printed version. The only real ways I have found to verify this card are the lighter hue to the purple around the art and the Japanese core pattern. This was also available from the JR Stamp Rally in Japan with the Eevee and Meowth.
6. Gotta Comic Glossy Mew - This card was released in the May 2000 edition of the Japanese Gotta Comic. It is very glossy just like the Grey Stamp Pikachu and Jigglypuff. If one didn't know better, the Japanese glossy promos feel very fake compared to other cards, so be careful!
7. CD Promo Pikachu - This card was released in the The Pokémon Song Best Collection music album in January 1999. The only ways I have found to verify it are the lighter coloring and the Japanese core. I have found several of these at card shows and card shops and the vendors had no idea. Keep an eye out!
8. Grey Stamp Pikachu - This card is very glossy like the Grey Stamp Jigglypuff and the Gotta Comic Mew. It was released alongside the Grey Stamp Jigglypuff in the March 1999 edition of Hyper Corocoro Magazine in Japan. If one didn't know better, the Japanese glossy promos feel very fake compared to other cards, so be careful!
Please let me know your thoughts! I am happy to help people with any questions they may have, and may be able to help track down some as well.
Happy Hunting!
Now this isn’t even near half of how many cards I have right now. My dad recently passed away and of the few things that he had this is one of the things that he left me, his Pokémon collection. I know nothing about Pokémon. Is this stuff worth anything? Let me know what you guys think. I can definitely show some more pages if you guys are interested.
Picked up this lot of cards yesterday for $450 and I feel pretty good about it but just wanted to get some input. Most are LP with a few NM mixed in. Been having a ton of fun getting back into the hobby again!
Hello everyone, I came across a beautiful Charizard which could be the start of my Poke card collection. The offer seems good, but I wanted to ask you all if someone could verify the authenticity based off of this one pic. Is this Charizard Holo Base Set 2 from the 2000. legit?
Thanks in advance!
This Weezing from expedition series is MEAN. Love the art 😤
Picked up the jungle Snorlax this weekend at a card show, and when putting it in my binder I noticed it had a similar swirl to my hungry Snorlax promo. Upon further inspection, I noticed that they have the EXAXCT same holo pattern! I’m not one to grade, but I’m highly considering getting these sequentially graded.
Hey everyone! I just started collecting Pokemon cards again after years of not collecting. I'm not starting for value purposes I'm genuinely just buying cards | like ! I started buying packs a few months back and it was great fun ripping packs but I didn't get the fulfillment I was looking for even if I pulled something half decent. I realized vintage cards are what I would rather collect since they bring me so much nostalgia. I've been buying cheap common cards from base set, fossil, jungle, team rocket, gym heroes, etc. pretty much the packs I would have been opening as a kid! I only have about two pages in my binder of older cards but I realized quick this is what I wanna collect ! I don't have the budget for the big hitters but even the cheap common cards bring me so much joy owning them and remembering owning them when I was a kid. I feel like this is what the hobby is about, not about the value (dont get me wrong it feels great to have expensive cards!)but about the enjoyment. Thanks for reading :)
The card looks good, but the first edition stamp is really throwing me.
Everything else looks good, photos suck unfortunately. I can see if they’ll send me better ones before heading to meet.
Wanted quick gut check from the group. Good or nah?