Looks like Christmas came early this year. On Halloween! I definitely thought the next time I’d be writing a post on my collection thread it would be the follow up to the E series completion… which is still to come, but this happened to fall in my lap unexpectedly. Granted, it was always expected to be unexpected, but here we are.
A little background to this story. I have wanted this card — the only true error/correction I’ve ever really been fascinated by and interested in — just about since discovering it years ago here on E4. As my friends here might remember, Kinebuchi is my favorite artist in Pokemon. And when I learned about this card, it took some time for it to really dawn on me how rare it is, and quite some time later it was also impressed upon me just how expensive it might be, were I to ever find one. I had largely looked at the idea of obtaining one as a pipe dream.
The topic had come up in conversation many a time over the years, with the most recent being when 'ole stagecoach got his. And, like he can be, I got quite jealous. But then something incredible happened. Some short time after, it was brought up starting here when I observed something on ebay that I was extremely taken aback by. You see, the search for ordinary copies of this card goes back something like 5 years on ebay. That’s right my fine people, this saved email notification search, a daily link on google every single day, goes back 5 years. Even when spans of no purchases of anything pokemon related had gone on months or more at times, this email came every day and every day I looked. Once I discovered the correction, I took that email even more seriously with scrutiny ever day.
But what was it that I was taken aback by? Graded copies were selling for amounts that shocked me. I had obtained many copies of the ordinary card (og coro coros are the only cards I even get dupes of in the binder) in great condition over the years, so I was surprised. The link for that psa 8 was something like $800 or something. I was beside myself because this meant I could actually afford a trade for the one. If I found it one day of course. This imbued a sense of hope. All I had to do was find it, which I hadn’t in 4 years, something like 1 year after I started the search notif for the ordinary copies.
Cut to this year, this month. And a seller casually lists it on ebay in a lot. At first it was evident that he didn’t know what it was. But then about 2 days into a 9 day auction, a few new pics were added to the listing. So I knew I wasn’t alone in my knowledge of the card… someone had asked to confirm it was glossy! Ah, noob, I thought! Blast it, it was exposed, the truth was out! But I was very determined. Nervous as all hell, but determined. I had the “liquid funds” in the form of the ordinary copies (one in particular), but even then there was no concrete value I had in my card for the trade so I still couldn’t put a crazy number down on the bid when the time came. Hell, I first thought I’d match the highest I’d ever paid for a single card, my other grail, the Imakuni’s dream porygon… but I knew there was at least one other person who’d caught onto this very niche but rare item. So then I decided the day of, I need to add another 1k to it. I’m out of my mind, truly. But in the back of my mind I was confident it was just a straight trade, a trade for a card I paid next to nothing for, that only a year prior I found out was worth likely the same, maybe a little less.
But then a few days before the auction ended, some new person on the forum titled a thread “is this the _____?” My heart sank. I thought I’d get through the auction discretely with only a competitor or two. I knew if it was broadcast on E4 I might as well give up now. I was ready to be so frustrated after the years of searching… I clicked… and it was not the auction! It was just some random guy asking about card that wasn’t the card! A different listing! HA! HAHA! Bullet dodged!
And finally the day came, I bid, and the bid won by one increment. I kid you not, one single $50 bid and I would have lost it. The number I came to was not a round number. A specific ‘I feel good’ number, and the next highest person thought of just that minus $50. Crazy. And here he is.
It’s a symbolic card. I had always been so disappointed that the Don’s card, our first card we ever were given in this world of pokemon… and they flubbed his name. The legend, the great, and they slapped Ken on there. It’s always something I just had to live with. I just had to accept that it was Keiji’s wonderful, magnificent, magical, nostalgic art, and that’s what mattered. You can imagine how hard I bit my lip when I found out they made a select amount a couple years later to correct it.
As for the card I traded for it? Turns out, I was expecting significantly less, which was already way more than I imagined it would ever be when I graded it some time prior. I wound up selling it for enough to also tuck a great deal of change away so I just couldn’t be happier. Let’s put it this way (even though I know it’s obviously easily researchable 
), I sold it for nearly as much as I did a 1st ed base charizard in 2020, which is insane as hell, and I can’t even believe that even now.
I had to snap a pic of them together before I send his misnamed brother off forever. It was hard to get rid of, but it was always meant as a placeholder for the real card.
I want to thank el professor chaos, without whom I probably might never have learned about this card in the first place. Absolute homie that guy. The professor made his great guide on this card within a month of my joining the forum. Chaos, Quuador, and stagecoach, this club looks like a nice one, I think I’ll sit down and have a drink and never leave!
And finally, just for fun, I excitedly made this gif because my Kinebuchi is so clean, that I can’t help but eagerly show that as well. Because the Sugi was definitely something I valued very dearly for being mint. I always imagined if I did find a Keiji, it would be played, which is something I was willing to accept considering its rarity. Boy did I luck out big time. It’s nearly peel fresh, I’d call it pretty darn mint.
Keiji pika, do a little spin for us
)
and absolutely loving the spread, not all picks were the ones usually in the spotlight but that’s just something to naturally expect from you since you find the beauty in places a lot of others can’t see it, like said earlier you have a gift of being able to make that ugly duckling feel like the king of the world while truly meaning it. And while not all cards were the fan favourites they definitely were carefully picked from the best times, original era, ex era and hgss era with few very fitting modern picks. It also fits perfectly that the person seeing beauty in most exceptional places dislikes the commonly praised psa 10 status, all glory to the 9 army!
But when I saw the new pictures a few days later, as you also mentioned, I knew more people would bid on it eventually. Also, I partially have to apologize, since I might have raised the price on you quite a bit unknowingly by sharing it in the Pikachu Discord I’m active in, after I was outbid myself and noticed it was at 500 USD at that point. 
It ended higher than I thought it would have tbh. Regardless of the ending price though (since you didn’t mentioned it yourself, I also won’t share it here), big congrats on winning that auction. And it also seems to be in amazing condition! Much better than my copy, that’s for sure. 
