Just saw this Charizard test print on IG. Does anyone have any info on the test prints? How many of them exists, e.g.
What an insane find, truly the grail of all Charizard cards. This hobby never fails to surprise me.
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In June, CGC Cards certified three other Pokémon playtest cards that were eventually included in Wizards of the Coast’s Pokémon TCG Base Set, including a Charmander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle. Now, CGC Cards has had the opportunity to grade the playtest version of Base Set’s holy grail: Charizard.
Charizard is one of the most popular Pokémon in the world and is especially coveted within the Pokémon TCG community. This playtest card is no exception. A predecessor to the ultimate Shadowless Base Set Charizard, the Charizard March Playtest card features Ken Sugimori’s artwork of the dragon instead of Mitsuhiro Arita’s iconic design. Like the Kanto starter playtest cards, the playtest version of Charizard has several mechanical differences from its official release, including the addition of “habitat” information and a lack of rarity symbol.
It is unknown how many of these Charizard playtest cards exist, but there are likely precious few of them, and they are likely in the collections of those who were heavily involved in the Pokémon TCG’s production process. Altogether, CGC Cards has graded five March Playtest Pokémon cards, according to the CGC Cards Population Report.
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Only information given in the cgc article was that all cards were made from the same source which doesn’t prove their authenticity and an interview with, “a person close to the creation of the Pokémon TCG”. Would love to actually see that interview or who that person was.
Could be real, could be fake, but cgc’s article on them is not helping me at all to truly believe they are authentic.
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I would love to see more information on these too. Unfortunately CGC doesn’t fill me with much confidence with regards to their “research” since they usually (although granted not in all cases) reference the person or persons who would stand to benefit the most by the card being real as the evidence.
Does anyone have any more sources showing this?
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This doesn’t provide any additional information but there’s also a Pikachu: Verify Card Certification | Look Up a CGC Certification Number | CGC (cgccards.com)
I’ve seen some of those before on Instagram from a specific user (Takumi Akabane as azulryu noted below), so perhaps there’s some background to be had:
Pikachu:
ポケモン26年にちなんで発掘^_^ おそらく、唯一無二のセット！ | Instagram
Some others:
ご覧いただき感謝いたします。すべてはムリですが、一部リクエストにお応えしますね。 | Instagram
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99% sure it’s Takumi Akabane who has been the only Pokemon employee that’s shared these on his insta:
Edit: @justinator beat me to it by a millisecond. XD
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What makes me nervous (besides it coming from untrustworthy CGC), is isn’t the Japanese side of the hobby extremely difficult to locate the history and employees from those early pocket monster days? I mean look at the “were the Topsun cards the first cards” debate. People have investigated that to hell for years and we still don’t have an answer.
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Also just in time another thread for this topic!
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The cards are Akabane’s. I’ve talked to him directly and seen some of them.
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I would love a Voltorb and Electrode but I’m not rich lol
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I would like to buy any of them. Looks crazy 
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I’ve had the 3 starters in my IG Bio Pic. Only a few people reached out about it. Not my cards, just lucky to hold them.
A good friend once said, it’s the prototype, one of one, test card, best thing that exists, etc. until there’s another… and another… I truly don’t know how many test cards or prototypes exist. There could be an infinite amount or just these. Who knows? After this conversation, I ended up passing on a deal for the protostoise.
These have more provenance and hobby importance given the source. Only time will tell how many test items continue to surface.
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How did he get the card?? I mean you either find it cheap from a seller that doesnt know what it is or you sell your house to buy that. If rare trophy cards get sold for 6 figures, what does this cost, 7 figures???
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Almost certainly something like this is coming from someone involved in the early development of the game or someone selling it on their behalf
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Yeah thats the most likely thing. So Marco here is a millionaire 
. No hate though, love the card and I admire the dedication
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