"These packs come directly from an ex-Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) employee and were forgotten about for 26 years before being brought to us.
The red stripe indicates the end of the roll for the pack art. These were not intended for distribution, booster box inclusion, or to be taken home. They were meant to be destroyed at the factory.
The white “stop tape” is something we’ve never seen before. It was applied on the production line, as evidenced by the pack’s spine being sealed over the tape. This tape merges two different artworks: a Blastoise + Venusaur and a Venusaur + Charizard.
These packs originate from the same ex-WOTC employee."
That is really cool “if true”. I’m incredibly hesitant these days as I’m sure many are unless proper providence is provided. Otherwise it’s just a cool story someone may have made up.
Love to learn more about these and I hope they are real because it sounds super cool and unique.
I believe the seller to be trustworthy. However, I appreciate further providence would be desirable. Particularly when it comes to unique items from Ex-Employees…we’ve been here before! I understand they are open to questions or additional information.
I shared them with @packyman earlier. As I’d like to hear their thoughts.
Regardless, I wouldn’t be a buyer of these. From my perspective they are cool, but it’s just an error - not a “piece of history” like the prototypes were meant to be.
These are pretty cool if they are in fact real. I’ve seen the red stripe ones before, but I’ve never seen anything like the merge of the two different pack arts…
Just like @joer, I’m very suspect of these. I’d love to see actual provenance provided - and not that BS that I’ve seen people get away with where they “know a WoTC employee” and then can grade whatever they want.
The fact that I’ve never seen anything like it before also makes me very suspicious. Thanks to the fake playtest fiasco, there is all the more reason to be hesitant about this kind of thing. Maybe the print dates of these can be deciphered using the magic that pfm used for determining the authenticity of the playtest cards (Many of the Pokemon playtest cards were likely printed in 2024). We would need higher quality scans though - and that’s assuming that packs have the same printer dots that the cards do.
$25,000 is a steal considering they’re offering $10 off first purchase over $100
jokes aside, the listing says “authenticity guaranteed” so maybe he has something to prove its provenance. If not, then it’s not guaranteed authenticity and it’s extremely disappointing to see people try a large seller basically scamming, whether intentionally or unintentionally. We will see!
Well if that method can’t be used to determine the dates then that sucks - back to only have the provenance to back it up I guess.
Yeesh, those prices. They’re high enough that they would definitely be worth faking. The price doesn’t prove anything as far as authenticity, it’s just something to keep in mind. If these are legitimate then I could see them fetching those prices. If they were listed for $50 each then it would be pretty obvious they were fakes but that’s not the case here.
I haven’t seen the red stripes specifically on Base Set packs before, but here’s an example of an older pack with the same red stripe:
That website sells “Mystery Boxes” which are a scam as old as time so I wouldn’t get my hopes too high The mystery boxes can still have legitimate cards, but it’s a red flag in my mind.
Yeah and it’s not hard to fake even more difficult items nowadays. Sign of the times. Don’t know how it’s going to be proven as an authentic item and since we’re in 2025, it’s probably fake. “Ex WOTC employee” doesn’t matter. You had one of the most prominent artists pulling scams, I’m sure a random WOTC employee can have some incentive as well
While trying to find out more about these I came across the original reddit post that these are from.
This is what the original poster claims:
Bought a large vintage collection with hundreds of packs from an employee that packaged WOTC products for 30+ years. I’ve seen the red tape packs once or twice, never the Frankenstein packs.
Well I believe I just stumbled across proof that these are fake. Looking at the HD photos from the original reddit post, I saw this. Notice anything odd?
The red text from the tape is printed on the pack instead of the tape itself? That doesn’t make a lick of sense. Seems to me that this text was printed on the pack + tape after the tape was added, which is NOT something that would happen if these were legitimately from the factory.
Not that i doubt they are fake but the ink of the wording on the tape may be on the topside of the cellophane while the white coloring may be scratched or damaged on the bottom side so wording would still be on the tape, not pack.
Source: experience with opening packages with printed tape. Its not for sure and they are still likely fake.
Does anyone have any ideas how the two style pck was made if it was just printed that way? Seems really odd for the art to be immediately switched over midprint unless its pack wrapping taped together.
The red tape was used to either bind lengths of foil together during the creation process of the actual artwork .Also to help stop breakage when the foil is being fed through the machine and pulled/cut/sealed into packs .
broken foil could end up causing a jammed sealing machine/mechanism. Tape adds strength.
Ask me how I know
Mostly From again an “Ex wotc employee “ which were actually just factory employees contracted and licensed under wotc/pokemon
Also explains the split pack artwork, from where one length of foil was bound to another length. Before being rolled into larger rolls used for packaging .
And maybe if the red tape wasn’t available or close by… a worker could’ve used the tape designated for sealing boxes to serve the same purpose as mentioned above.
Took a better look at the back photo @JoshsOddCollection posted and yes, its 2 pack foils taped together which doesnt seem like it would be suitable to making a sealed pack with.
Unless more evidence is put forth, there seems to be a lot of Fiji Mermaid vibes coming from it.
The mystery boxes can still have legitimate cards, but it’s a red flag in my mind.
