'97 Corocoro Illustration Contest Cards (Not Differentiable)

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*BEFORE READING THIS THREAD, PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THE COROCORO MR. MIME IS THE EXACT SAME AS THE VENDING SERIES COPY AND THE ‘SPECIAL’ MR. MIME BELOW IS MOST LIKELY AN ERROR VENDING COPY WITHOUT THE GLOSS. THERE IS NO WAY TO DIFFERENTIATE THE WINNERS COPY AND THE NORMAL VENDING SERIES COPY.

Today, one of the 1997 Corocoro Pokemon illustration contest winner cards appeared and sold. It is the Mr. Mime card. Here is the auction link.

page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/g442447388

The 1997 Illustration contest is the first of its kind which later evolved into the Snap Photo Contest, the WB Kids Creator Contest, the 2009/10 Pokemon Card Design Contests, the Art Academies and the current Illustration Grand Prix.

Note that the top 3 winners of the 1997 Contest each received the Pikachu Illustrator card.

Initially, it was believed that the 20 winner copies of the Poliwrath, Snorlax and Mr. Mime were not distinguishable from one another with the Vending Series and the Red/Green Gift Set but this recent appearance made clear there is a clear distinction on the card which Old Back Pokemon loved using, non-glossy prints.

This Mr. Mime (and most likely Snorlax and Poliwrath) is printed in 3 different sets

  1. The Illustration Prize copy
  2. The Vending Series 1 copy
  3. The Red/Green Gift Set copy

**AND HERE IS HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE THEM

The Illustration Prize copy**

  • Card is non-glossy
  • Has the rarity symbol

The Vending Series 1 copy

  • Card is glossy
  • Has the rarity symbol

The Red/Green Gift Set copy

  • Card is non-glossy
  • Does NOT have the rarity symbol
  • Features the Corocoro illustration contest text next to the illustrator of the card at the bottom left

Here is a photo of the actual winner’s copy of the Pikachu Illustrator and the winning Mr. Mime artwork. Notice that the Mr. Mime has the rarity symbol but the surface of the card was never really determined.

Here is the photo of the recent Mr. Mime which appeared on auction. We can see that the surface is non-glossy.

2020 proves to be the most eye-opening year for trophy/rare card collectors as we are seeing some cards for the first time after 20+ years. Dpt-p Cresselia/Darkrai, Girl Trainers, No Name New Back Battle Raods, 1997 Bible Pikas, and this card.

Hope this helps current/future collectors as there are some already graded copies which is wrongly designated by PSA. All the best!

*Note that this is just a theory that this Mr. Mime is the contest prize card as the only sure way is for the winners to show that their winning cards are non-glossy. Take this information with a grain of salt.

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This is so cool. Just like the Bilingual Exeggutor. Crazy how after all this time we still learn and see new things like this.

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Thanks for this. I am always learning new things on this forum.

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chok, you’re just bringing the crazy informative threads today, thanks!

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Thank you!

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This is amazing, i guess this definitely proves the Poliwrath on ebay is mislabeled, its nice to know that there is some way to differentiate the illustration contest prize copies, thanks for sharing!

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This is awesome. I wonder if the same can be said for the Mewtwo’s Counterattack Commemoration Illust Artist Contest Mewtwo card as I notice that has similar text next to the illustrator’s name.

Edit: Actually are we sure about this? The name of the linked listing is “【即決】 希少 艶なしエラー バリヤード 拡張シート Mr.Mime Un Grassy Error Version 【管理番号001】” which translated with Google is “[Prompt decision] Rare and matte error Barriard expansion sheet Mr. Mime Un Grassy Error Version [Management number 001]”. With all the recent glossy versions of modern product which have surfaced, is it feasible to assume that this could simply be a vending sheet copy that isn’t glossy?

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Somewhere out there a Mr. Mime / Snorlax / Poliwrath collector is reading this and having a panic attack

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I did breathe a sigh of relief after reading this thread and checking the artworks of all 3 cards to find no Pichus were in the background. :grin:

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Lol same I triple checked… Especially since Machoke from Vending is one of the few cards to have Chansey in the background.

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Love all your posts

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Or magikarp, already having trouble sleeping with the art academy Mew…

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Extremely cool! Everyday we learn new things! Thanks for the read, awesome stuff.

as for this pichufan. this was also what I first thought was the case. But then I figured that this is the same with the bilingual exeggutor from the tmb. So it is actually quite logical if they did this with other prize cards as well even though one was made for corocoro and the other was made for the tmb.

But if there are confirmed unglossy vending series cards that would but an explosive under this theory (I hope not), this is very cool!

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Actually, it is only a theory that this is the illustration contest prize card as the only way to be 100% certain is one of the winners actually showing his/her card and that is is the non-glossy version. So here’s my points as to what lead me to believe this is the Illustration prize copy, lets look at a few things :

  1. Vending series cards are all peel-offs from sheets. All cards that came from these sheets are glossy, even those single card promos like GOTTA Mew and those coro-coro promos. I could be wrong but I’ve never seen a card that is from a peel-off sheet which is non-glossy.

  2. This seller has been selling very high end cards since before pkonno. Snap Articuno, Snap Gyarados, Wonder Platinum, Ultra Rare Scramble Set, Master Key, Dpt-p Cresselia/Darkrai, the recent Snap Charmander but never an error card. It is just too coincidental that his first error card for sale is one of the Illustration prize card.

  3. Other than the non-glossy bilingual eggxecutor, there is also a non-glossy Imakuni card which was speculated to be given out by Imakuni during the Hawaii TMB in 2000. Kei @nine can give us some more info as he is an owner of the Imakuni card. Also the Computer Error card however that has a different shade of ‘R’ but the glossy/non-glossy part holds true. So this kinda shows that Old Back Pokemon likes to make their more valuable version of a certain card non-glossy while the mass produced one glossy.

  4. This card is most likely an extra copy and not part of the 20 copies given to the winner as it is believe that the winner hasn’t sold any of his/her copy (also a speculation as the winner is still holding on to his/her Illustrator) so if this seller lists a Snorlax or Poliwrath in the future, or the Mewtwo, then it will make the argument that this is the Illustration prize copy even more solid.

These are my points as to why this card is the illustration prize copy. It is not 100% but it is amazingly coincidental if it is just an error card.

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@chok great work!

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Awesome if this proves to be true. Would’ve been a real shame if those trophies really never could’ve been distunguished.

However, can we be 100% sure that the auctioned card is non-glossy? The seller could (should) have provided more pictures of the front surface on various angles IMO. I think with the right lighting and the right angles it could be possible to photograph a Vending card to look like that.

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Great job documenting this before it gets forgotten.

So true, we’ve been spoilt this year with new knowledge and new cards. This is the best quote I will read all year!

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I don’t know how vending series cards got printed, but is there a possibility that this mr mime is a vending series card that came straight from the factory which was not ‘pasted?’ on the glossy stock so it was not glossy.

Just ruling out all the possibilities before this theory is confirmed.

Also are there not anymore pictures from this card taken? It looks like there is a small bit of glossyness on the lower left corner so is it totally ruled out that this card is glossy?
This was a picture I took from the same angle (I did not have the mr mime but I tried another psychic type hypno)

It was actually the first picture I took, It did not need several tries to get the angle just right

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This theory can never be confirmed until the actual winner posts his/her winning cards and shows that those cards are the non-glossy version.

I guess there exists a chance that this is just the regular vending version but without the gloss. Not sure how that works and there’s actual non-glossy vending series cards. I’ve seen a non-glossy golduck and a weezing before so that could be the case. Ive checked my vending bulk of like 300+ cards and all of them are glossy. So if this factory error exists, then that means glossy cards like the Corocoro bilingual eggxecutor will have non-glossy versions too.

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@thymeee , @chok ,

For comparisons, here are lots of image of the 2 variants, Glossy Vending and Non Glossy Quick Starter

imgur.com/a/qcETnEC
imgur.com/a/JEY6uOT

And 2 photos of them at an angle that depicts the listings photo trying to show the card stock at the bottom with a small amount of light.

GLOSSY

NON GLOSSY

AUCTION PHOTO

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