Cards that exist but never seen

[gemmintpokemon]

Cards that could exist, but also may not exist:

Jamboree - would have included many Japanese exclusive artworks like Neo - Decent chance it’s somewhere out there
Crosstrainer - nearly finalized as a Base set 3 type of set, but axed near the final stages - Maybe, but probably not
Legendary Collection 2 - rumored to be designed with Neo cards in mind - Probably doesn’t exist

[melchior]

Until very recently, this personalized No.2 Trainer from 2000 went pretty much under the radar. And if it takes 19 years for a card of this calibre to surface, who knows what else lurks in the hidden depths of the Japanese jungle?

[poketrade]

I only have seen VS cards in English & Spanish (& Japanese of course). There are Dutch ones for example too. Never seen a picture of them.

[raichuforyou]

@melchior

Until very recently, this personalized No.2 Trainer from 2000 went pretty much under the radar. And if it takes 19 years for a card of this calibre to surface, who knows what else lurks in the hidden depths of the Japanese jungle?

I was waiting for someone to post this. Apparently, there are a few trophies that have yet to hit the market. I believe there are some 2001/2 battle road promos we haven’t yet seen.

[pokemonunboxing]

@smpratte

@pokemonunboxing, There are more copies of those cards sold by nintendo employees than properly released. They are yet another example of the inherent shade city nonsense that is the ambiguous english stamped card.

To add context, the first set was sold in 2011 privately for $7500. They will most likely never sell for more than that price as the value was created on artificial demand and false information. Staff members knowingly lied about the quantity, stating there were only 6 copies of the cards. I was one of the initial people offered the cards; never in my life has something made my gut scream louder to completely avoid.

Ultimately they are absolute garbage. From their terrible aesthetic quality all the way to the blatant lies that staff members fed naive collectors about their release. Stay away from any obscure stamped English card. Its always an internal money grab.

Thanks for the info! Must have been a good lie since 7500$ in 2011 for pokemon was a lot of money. Is this kinda the same speculation around the prerelease raichu before the first info about it was posted here?

[smpratte]

@pokemonunboxing, Absolutely! The stories told about them are fictitious, and incongruent at best. Every attempt to verify their existence further blurs their origin story. They were money grabs from staff members that took advantage of collectors. The only people pushing them have a vested interest.

[muk]

There is also this absolute oddball of a pokemon card:

m.bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Elite_Four_Trainer_(Battle_Road_Summer_2002_finals_promo)

There is this low resolution picture on bulbapedia, but other than that I have never seen it on IG or E4.

EDIT: fixed the link and added the picture. Does anyone here know of any recorded sales or additional info?

[quuador]

@poketrade

I only have seen VS cards in English & Spanish (& Japanese of course). There are Dutch ones for example too. Never seen a picture of them.

Ah yeah, completely forgot about those. There should also be ones in Danish and Swedish for this Tyranitar Half Deck, which I would love to see! I’ve never seen the Spanish ones personally (and didn’t even knew it was released in Spanish), but I have seen the English and Italian ones before.

Two other cards which comes to mind after seeing the three sets mentioned by @gemmintpokemon above, which were originally rumored/planned but got cancelled, are the BW77 Pikachu and BW78 Raichu in English. To quote Bulbapedia for these unreleased cards:

Pikachu and Raichu were planned to be released in the Plasma Freeze Three Pack Blisters, but due to the cancellation of an English Landorus Box, BW Promos Landorus and Druddigon were issued in the Blister Packs instead of Pikachu and Raichu. Because of this abrupt change in products, there was not enough time for this promotional card to be repurposed into a different promotional product and remains unissued.

On July 21, 2014, Pokémon.com updated their card database with images of all 101 BW Black Star Promos, releasing images of the two previously unknown promotional cards falling at BW77 and BW78. By the end of the night, however, the official site had removed any trace of the Pikachu and Raichu cards. They are still visible and available in the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online.

---

Update: Pokémon.com has since removed these two promotional cards across all languages from their database.

The official Pokémon website has posted into their card database all of the BW Black Star Promos. Revealed in this update were two promotional cards that haven’t ever been revealed because they were originally cancelled: Pikachu BW Promo 77 and Raichu BW78. These promotional cards were originally going to be release in the Plasma Freeze Blisters, but were ultimately cancelled and never made available otherwise.

Around the time Plasma Freeze was being released, there were plans to release a Landorus Box to the English audiences, containing BW Promo 79, Landorus. This box, which was actually released in other international languages, was extremely similar to the unpopular Emerging Challenges Box. Because of this, distributors did not show any interest in the product, and it was eventually cancelled. However, knowing that the Landorus Promo was going to be a sought after card by the TCG audience, The Pokémon Company International instead repurposed the Landorus promo and released an alternate version of the Deoxys Box’s Druddigon promo into the Plasma Freeze Blisters, kicking out the Pikachu and Raichu promotional cards shown below. This redistribution happened much too quickly for the company to repurpose the Pikachu and Raichu promos, thus leaving them unreleased. This is also the reason why Druddigon comes in both a Cosmos Holofoil and a Tinsel Holofoil.

I do wonder if any got ever printed, and later on destroyed; or if it was never printed in the first place, though.

And then there are also all those Japanese Sample prints of course, as well as this unknown Wailmer promo:

Greetz,
Quuador

[majomaal]

@poketrade

I only have seen VS cards in English & Spanish (& Japanese of course). There are Dutch ones for example too. Never seen a picture of them.

If you are talking about this : www.elitefourum.com/t/tropical-mega-battle-1999-2001/12706/37 , then you can add german, dutch, french, portuguese , danish and swedish to it. I had contact with the 2001 Dutch participant. He could remember those native VS decks per country participant. But unfortunate he couldn’t remember what has happend with his set and he also didn’t own any Pokemon cards anymore. Let’s assume the trashbin else they would have surfaced in NL( hope I’m wrong). For sure I know the German(see article) and Portuguese( confirmed by the owner/particpant) survived the trashbin.

[smpratte]

@cosrob

@quuador

The instagram user “chord_no_cord” posted a picture of a snap pikachu recently. Check it out, he doesn’t own it but a friend of his does.

Edit: saw you commented on it lol

That is a fake card.

The collector who owns that card also has a fake illustrator, trophy kanga, and snap cards, all ungraded. They are the most common fakes in the hobby. Not to mention every other lower tier prize card they own is graded. They never show a high quality photo of the ungraded cards, because they know they are fake. A member here has met them in person and confirmed it as well.

[skinst]

I don’t know if this counts (and apologies if it doesn’t) but this folder is something I’ve only personally seen for sale twice - once on Ebay back in '06, and an auction recently where I won it.

There’s also a red version that’s even more obscure.

[guangjoe]

Collector Charizard. Still wondering if one will surface. Only time will tell.

[jameskray]

Korean unlimited base set I have seen all but 13 of the set so them 13 will be impossible to find at one stage i will get them off of gary ahah

[azulryu]

@quuador

Here are a bunch that come to mind when I look at my own collection goals:

• All unlimited edition L1 cards except for Chikorita and Cyndaquil non-holos.

Ugh. I’ve been hoping and praying that an entire set didn’t exist and I can PRETEND that an Unlimited Print of Gyarados doesn’t exist. Have we confirmed where people got theirs from? I tried re-reading that thread and didn’t see any mention of whether these came directly from packs or not.

And if anyone finds an Unlimited L1 Gyara, please please PLEASE let me know. I’ll be satisfied enough to never get the SNAP Gyarados if I can at least get my hand on a regular and reverse holo version of this elusive beast.

[quuador]

@azulryu

Ugh. I’ve been hoping and praying that an entire set didn’t exist and I can PRETEND that an Unlimited Print of Gyarados doesn’t exist. Have we confirmed where people got theirs from? I tried re-reading that thread and didn’t see any mention of whether these came directly from packs or not.

And if anyone finds an Unlimited L1 Gyara, please please PLEASE let me know. I’ll be satisfied enough to never get the SNAP Gyarados if I can at least get my hand on a regular and reverse holo version of this elusive beast.

I have absolutely no idea, and am just as surprised as you. I and many others have searched for unlimited edition L1 cards for many years, without ever seeing even a single card. And then this Chikorita and Cyndaquil pop up out of no where… I feel the same as you, and if anyone ever sees an unlimited edition L1 (or E1) Pikachu or RH Pikachu, I’d love to know right away. Unlike you I have the feeling I would own the SNAP Photo Contest Pikachu sooner than the Reverse Holo variant of this card tbh…
I once bought a bulk of ~7,000 Japanese cards. It included about 200 L2/L3 cards, and 650 L1 cards. From those 200 L2/L3 cards I now have about 15 unlimited editions. From the 650 L1 cards, none - every single one of them was 1st edition…

I think that if they indeed exist, @shizzlemetimbers is most likely correct. They came with a 1 in 15 change of being an L1 pack in one of those cases he mentioned.

But if that is indeed true, the chances of getting an unlimited edition Reverse Holo of a specific Pokémon like Pikachu or Gyarados are astronomical small… Let’s say 1/5th of those cases are unlimited editions (could be much lower considering how short-printed Japanese unlimited print runs are, but whatever…). That case has a 1/15th change of containing an unlimited edition L1 pack. Since there is both a HeartGold and SoulSilver Collection, we’d have a 1/2th chance of being the correct subset for the card we’re looking for. Then that pack has a roughly 2/5th change of containing a Reverse Holo (just calling something reasonable here, no idea what the actual pull rate of RHs are). And considering the sets contains 70 cards each (excluding Secret Rares and Energies), we’d have a 1/70th chance of getting the Reverse Holo for the specific Pokémon we’re looking for (1/78 if the Energies are also available in Reverse Holo)… I was never really good at calculating chance probabilities during math classes, but a 1/70th of 2/5th of 1/2th of 1/15th of 1/5th chance is definitely astronomical small… And then I don’t even calculate in the chances of such a card surviving, and a Japanese collector willing to sell it, 10 years after it was pulled from a pack… Nor how many were actually printed…

Greetz,
Quuador

[theeucollector]

miniature 7/11 turtwig promo, I bought one 10 years ago and have never seen one since

[azulryu]

@quuador

@azulryu

Ugh. I’ve been hoping and praying that an entire set didn’t exist and I can PRETEND that an Unlimited Print of Gyarados doesn’t exist. Have we confirmed where people got theirs from? I tried re-reading that thread and didn’t see any mention of whether these came directly from packs or not.

And if anyone finds an Unlimited L1 Gyara, please please PLEASE let me know. I’ll be satisfied enough to never get the SNAP Gyarados if I can at least get my hand on a regular and reverse holo version of this elusive beast.

I think that if they indeed exist, @shizzlemetimbers is most likely correct. They came with a 1 in 15 change of being an L1 pack in one of those cases he mentioned.

But if that is indeed true, the chances of getting an unlimited edition Reverse Holo of a specific Pokémon like Pikachu or Gyarados are astronomical small… Let’s say 1/5th of those cases are unlimited editions (could be much lower considering how short-printed Japanese unlimited print runs are, but whatever…). That case has a 1/15th change of containing an unlimited edition L1 pack. Since there is both a HeartGold and SoulSilver Collection, we’d have a 1/2th chance of being the correct subset for the card we’re looking for. Then that pack has a roughly 2/5th change of containing a Reverse Holo (just calling something reasonable here, no idea what the actual pull rate of RHs are). And considering the sets contains 70 cards each (excluding Secret Rares and Energies), we’d have a 1/70th chance of getting the Reverse Holo for the specific Pokémon we’re looking for (1/78 if the Energies are also available in Reverse Holo)… I was never really good at calculating chance probabilities during math classes, but a 1/70th of 2/5th of 1/2th of 1/15th of 1/5th chance is definitely astronomical small… And then I don’t even calculate in the chances of such a card surviving, and a Japanese collector willing to sell it, 10 years after it was pulled from a pack… Nor how many were actually printed…

Greetz,
Quuador

Do we know what this Gift Box set looks like? I know what the Packs look like but have no idea about the gift box itself or how it varies from the Booster Box. Tried looking it up and couldn’t locate anything different.

And now that I’m thinking more out loud, I’m wondering if we can add picture references to the list we have (or have you already started doing that on your own, Quuador? XD). I think picture references in and of themselves would help us spot things more readily.

I wish you luck on your Pikachu L1 journey!

[quuador]

@azulryu

Do we know what this Gift Box set looks like? I know what the Packs look like but have no idea about the gift box itself or how it varies from the Booster Box. Tried looking it up and couldn’t locate anything different.

@shizzlemetimbers had already add a picture of the box in his reply.

And now that I’m thinking more out loud, I’m wondering if we can add picture references to the list we have (or have you already started doing that on your own, Quuador? XD). I think picture references in and of themselves would help us spot things more readily.

What list are we talking about here?

Greetz,
Quuador

[azulryu]

@quuador

@azulryu

Do we know what this Gift Box set looks like? I know what the Packs look like but have no idea about the gift box itself or how it varies from the Booster Box. Tried looking it up and couldn’t locate anything different.

@shizzlemetimbers had already add a picture of the box in his reply.

And now that I’m thinking more out loud, I’m wondering if we can add picture references to the list we have (or have you already started doing that on your own, Quuador? XD). I think picture references in and of themselves would help us spot things more readily.

What list are we talking about here?

Greetz,
Quuador

Hmm. I’m not seeing a picture of the box. Only the cards that were mentioned within the quote. I’ll have to see if it’s because of my work computer.

And the list I’m referring to is the ones you typically make when it comes to individual cards (like a list of what the cards look like and the packs/boxes look like from each set). Haha. But in general I think we should make an updated master list at the beginning of this thread but that would require @funmonkey54 to edit his original post when I know he’s already pretty swamped as it is.

Edit: In retrospect, ideally I think this would be best accomplished by the community overall. Creating a comprehensive list of different sets where multiple E4 members are involved would be a great way to branch out into the rest of the community or tie people in who have general questions about collecting and where sets come from. Not sure if this is an approach we’re capable of at this time but it’s a thought.

[quuador]

@azulryu

Hmm. I’m not seeing a picture of the box. Only the cards that were mentioned within the quote. I’ll have to see if it’s because of my work computer.

Hmm, that’s weird. Just in case, here are the same pictures re-uploaded:

And the list I’m referring to is the ones you typically make when it comes to individual cards (like a list of what the cards look like and the packs/boxes look like from each set). Haha.

Ah ok. Thus far I’ve primarily made lists for single Pokémons. Not sure if my expertise about TCG boxes/packs is good enough to make a list for those, haha. It would be cool to have an overview of it, though.

But in general I think we should make an updated master list at the beginning of this thread but that would require @funmonkey54 to edit his original post when I know he’s already pretty swamped as it is.

I think you’re referring to a different thread?

Edit: In retrospect, ideally I think this would be best accomplished by the community overall. Creating a comprehensive list of different sets where multiple E4 members are involved would be a great way to branch out into the rest of the community or tie people in who have general questions about collecting and where sets come from. Not sure if this is an approach we’re capable of at this time but it’s a thought.

Lists of English and Japanese sets can already be found on Bulbapedia. But I agree, it would be nice if we could add 1st/unlimited editions for Japanese sets, as well as foreign reprints, to have a list of all existing sets. I’ve actually once made a start with this, but I currently don’t have enough time to continue (although I plan to do so once I have). But adding pictures and additional information for releases like E1/L1 unlimited would also be nice.

Greetz,
Quuador