I recently purchased a set of 12 shadowless 18 inch pokemon cards from a person on Ebay claiming to be the husband of an ex Wizards of the Coast employee. Apparently the cards are the only set in existence created specifically for the first ever Pokemon Launch in January 1999 at the London Toy Fair in Olympia.
From speaking to my contact, I believe the cards surfaces are made using the same material of the original cards from 1999, and were produced by the same machines.
Can someone let me know what they think of this in general? I am intending on sending to get them autheticated but wanted to reach out on this forum to see what people think?
These ones exist (Italian). There’s some English jumbos mentioned in that thread. Can’t speak to the authenticity of these, but there are jumbo base cards
Theyre similar but these arent technically cards as such. Theyre display cards and only 12 were ever produced specifically for the London Toy Fair for the launch in 1999. Theyre thicker than normal cards as they are mounted on thicker cardboard but the surfaces were created by the same machines and same material at the same time by WOTC in 1999, prior to the Toy Fair.
Ahh no problem yeah, it seems super exciting if there are only 12 of these in existence, created for such an event! Bit unsure of ehat to make of it at the moment haha
I can’t believe it’s 2022 and i’m still learning about WOTC pokemon product…
It’s going to be very hard for any grading company to hand on hard authenticate these, given their unique and one off nature. Perhaps you can get some documentation for it in order to strengthen your case?
Yesh absolutely! I am going to reach out to a couple of contacts i have gathered so they can assess the material etc but if they are real, im super excited about what ive just purchased. Only difficulty is the seller didnt provide much more info in terms of authenticy other than his wife helped launch pokemon at thr toy fair in Olympia in London 1999. He explained there wasnt a great deal of digital traceability given the year but he had sold another uncut fossil foil which had been given to employees as a thank you for the efforts in 1999. I have an image of this too which also seems very legit.
As mentioned by @pfm (thanks for the tag), these oversized cards have surfaces in both English and Italian. The Italian all came from a single eBay seller and were all 1st edition. The English ones came from multiple sources, and were a mixture of 1st edition; unlimited; and Base Set 2.
And Japanese ones have also been made in the past, as can be seen in the background of this picture (source: Japanese Base Set Jumbo Cards - Another Pokemon Mystery):
These oversized cards were usually used as either store displays (as in the picture above), or at events (like your London Toy Fair cards). I’ve also seen even larger examples (up to 2 meters high), which were used as a background for photographs. Here some examples of those which I’ve saved pictures of:
Out of curiosity: how thick are those cards you have? Rusty never answered my question back in 2019 when I look at the thread Scott linked. Based on your second picture, those English cards do seem to be thicker than the Italian ones I have.
Also, if you say they are 18 inch (which is ~45.7 cm), they’re apparently slightly smaller than my Italian ones, which have a height of 56.1 cm (~22 inch). I’ve always just assumed the English ones in Rusty’s videos were of similar dimensions as the Italian ones I own.
Also, as a Pikachu collector: if you ever decide to sell the Pikachu, lmk. And if you or anyone else ever gain more information about these, I’d love to know as well. (And I assume there was only one Pikachu among the 12 cards? Or were there more than one like the Charmander?)
Either way, would you mind taking a picture of the Pikachu next to a regular sized card?
Thanks for the info! I will need to let you know when they arrive as they are in the post! I only purchssed tonight but i will let you know the thickness too. There was another Pikachu too but this was damaged, see attached.
The seller mentioned his wife had these specifically made for the toy fair/launch of Pokemon in January 1999 and from what he had conveyed these were the only 18 inch cards in existence. From what i can gather, they are different from even the ones you have mentioned so seem to bw very unique!! Im not even sure what they would be worth so hoping a company like CGC or PSA can assist me in authenticating and grading! Ill let you know regardless. Does anyone have an idea what they could be worth per card or is that just too hard to say given the unique nature of the set?
These are insanely cool. I would need to see them in person to begin any authentication tests but I know CGC/PSA could do the same of course, plus they have the equipment to actually slab them. Definitely keep us updated, these are super interesting.
I don’t think any grading company can authenticate these unfortunately because of how large they are. The closest slab I’ve seen would be a comic slab from CGC but even those are significantly smaller than 18 inches
Thanks buddy! I certainly will keep the thread updated. im trying to establish whether the costs of authenticating and grading them would be cost effective, as i am still completely unsure of their potential value to be perfectly honest! In your opinion, do you think this would be worth while and something i should do?
Awesome, I’ll keep an eye out. Since we’re not equipped to slab them I’d just be helping out of curiosity, not for money haha. If you happen to be local in Arizona feel free to message me and I’d be happy to meet up to examine them. I have friends that own card shops in Phoenix that I’m sure would be happy to let us use the space. In terms of value, I mean these are very unique and early Pokemon display pieces, I’d personally pay a decent amount for them just to have, so I imagine others would as well.
Ive sent you a dm. Ive contacted the London Metropolitan Archives too to see if i could find any info or images on the event. I did contact the London Toy Fair but they no longer had any info or files from 1999. Assuming they will get back to me in the next week or so so will be interesting to see whether they have anything😊
Hi mate I’m actually good friends with the gentleman who actioned the UK ‘4th print’. He was quite high up in WOTC UK.
I asked him about your items and he has said;
We did launch at Toy Fair Olympia
I could verify the name of you have it .
Only 6 to 8 of us involved with the Fair .
So feel free to drop me a DM with your sellers name. I’ll be happy to pass that on and let you know if it’s a name he’s familiar with. If it is - I think you could then have some very solid credibility for your item.
To qualify the contact - I’ve had specific WOTC merchandise from him such as cuff links and tie clips as well as individually monogrammed awards and his name ties directly to WOTC - so this gentleman is the absolute real deal.
And if you or anyone else ever gain more information about these, I’d love to know as well. (And I assume there was only one Pikachu among the 12 cards? Or were there more than one like the Charmander?)
im trying to establish whether the costs of authenticating and grading them would be cost effective, as i am still completely unsure of their potential value to be perfectly honest! 
In your opinion, do you think this would be worth while and something i should do?